What Israeli and Diaspora Jews Think

“That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles” (1 Samuel 8:20).

Israel is unique. Israel is different. Israel is the name chosen by God Himself. But why Israel? Here we must read Deuteronomy 7:6-8: “For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”

The word “love” stands out. That, incidentally, is applicable to every believer: “For God so loved the world.” And Jesus emphasizes, “Salvation is of the Jews.”

Some 13 centuries earlier, however, we read the above introductory Scripture. Israel does not want to be chosen; they do not want to be different, but “like all the nations.” That sentence was previously adopted by Israel when they told Samuel, “Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations” (1 Samuel 8:5b).

Much later, on 14 May 1948 (5 Iyar 5708), Israel declares its rebirth (erroneously called independence). In their document in the fifth paragraph, the last phrase reads, “lifting the Jewish people to equality in the family of nations.” Two further paragraphs end with the words, “the self-evident right of the Jewish people to be a nation as all other nations in their own sovereign state.” Finally, it appeals to the United Nations “to admit Israel into the family of nations.”

What Israeli and Diaspora Jews Think

Whenever I tell Israelis I made aliyah, they usually smile and say “mazel tov!” [meaning congratulations or good luck]. Then, almost in the same breath, they ask why. The question comes out half-joking, half-serious: “Why would you move here? Aren’t you afraid?” They look at me like I’ve done something irrational and maybe even heroic, as if choosing to live in Israel means willingly signing up for chaos.

It’s a strange paradox: Diaspora Jews are running toward Israel—the one place where Jewish life feels whole and visible—while many Israelis dream of getting out, away from the chaos of politics and the constant threat of war. For Israelis, danger is ordinary; for Diaspora Jews, hiding is. One side fears death, the other fears disappearance.

Israelis don’t experience Israel as a miracle; they experience it as reality. For them, the country isn’t a biblical dream or a symbol of redemption. It’s home, with all the ordinary frustrations that come with living anywhere.

That’s the paradox of Israeli life: The closer one lives to the miracle, the less miraculous it feels. Israelis live inside the dream the Diaspora still romanticizes, and maybe that’s why so many can no longer see it for what it is, or why it sometimes takes a new immigrant’s eyes to remind them.

Israelis can’t understand why anyone would choose their kind of fear—a life of insecurity, where you’re always a minority at someone else’s mercy. Diaspora Jews can’t understand how Israelis live without constant awe—how they can argue about politics over WhatsApp while sirens go off, how they can complain about parking in a country that exists against all odds. Between us lies the same story, told in two dialects: one of endurance, the other of longing.

The challenge of our time is to see these worlds not as opposites, but as two expressions of the same covenant.

-unpacked.media, 7 January 2026

What a statement by the author, Aliya Zigman: “The closer one lives to the miracle, the less miraculous it feels.” By virtually any criteria, the State of Israel is a modern miracle. Yes, there seems to be constant war and struggle for survival; yet paradoxically, Israel continues to finish in the top ten of happiest nations in the world. The Jews who have returned to Israel are at home; the Diaspora Jew dreams of such.

What the Bible says: “And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee, And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee” (Deuteronomy 30:1-3).