Uncovering the Unstoppable Optimism of Israelis

“We overcame Pharaoh, we’ll get through this too," they like to say in Hebrew.

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During the first week of the Israel-Hamas war, I asked my 75-year-old Israeli cousin how he copes with the situation. His answer was simple, yet poignant: “It’ll probably get worse, and then it’ll get better.”

My cousin isn’t the exception; he’s the norm. Israelis are absurdly optimistic, even as they currently fight their ninth war since the country’s declaration of independence in 1948.

That’s exactly one war every decade of its existence, not to mention all the military operations, hostage rescue missions, and terror attacks that the Jewish state endures with ridiculous regularity.

“We overcame Pharaoh, we’ll get through this too,” Israelis like to say in Hebrew.

To better understand the recipe of Israeli optimism is to dissect its ingredients, which include:

• Creative thinking

• Courage to take responsibility

• Determination and persistence

• Selflessness

• Unity

Let’s take a deeper look at each one:

1. Creative Thinking

Since the State of Israel was established in an unorthodox way, virtually every situation and problem had to be tackled from a fresh perspective.

For example, when early pioneers were attempting to drain the swamp-laden lands in the late 1800s and early 1900s — which were breeding grounds for malaria-spreading mosquitoes — they imported Eucalyptus trees from Australia, because these trees naturally absorb extra-ordinary amounts of water in order to grow.

In another example, Dr. Gerry Waintraub accidentally spilled a cup of tea on a device during routine experimentation, and noticed that the sugar in the tea caused a dramatic reaction on the system’s monitors. He began formulating theories about applications the technology could have to help those with diabetes, and eventually founded GWave, the world’s first non-invasive glucometer.

Then there’s the infamous Hebrew word “balagan,” the state for which a preordained order of things does not exist. Balagan is a term commonly used in everyday Israeli life: from waiting in the supermarket line, to riding on a bus, to visiting a governmental office, to participating in a political protest, to Israeli children in a typical playground. There is always balagan.

Israelis even seem to encourage balagan when they use the popular Hebrew slang term “yalla balagan” — usually uttered in positive, upbeat situations, such as a night on the town. The direct translation is: “Let’s go make a mess!”

“While this may seem chaotic to an outsider, in Israel, it is simply the way social interactions operate,” wrote Inbal Arieli, an Israeli businesswomen and author. “Balagan encourages adapting and adopting new and unforeseen parameters. It encourages both us and our children to continuously reconsider our deepest biases and assumptions regarding the ‘organization of things,’ and allows us to consider alternative possibilities.”¹

2. Courage to Take Responsibility

Dr. Itay Shaloni, in his book “Israelism,” has criticized the tendency of Israel’s organizational culture to treat things carelessly, without consideration or much thought. He argues that Israeli culture promotes disregard and even negligence which can be found throughout Israeli businesses and government.

But Israelis know that it’s not enough to say things will be alright. They must make sure things will be alright through hard work. Suffice to say, work ethic is a key component of Israeli business culture, marked by long hours at the office and a “let’s figure it out” attitude.

Hence why, among several reasons, Israel boasts — per capita — the most startups, the highest expenditure on R&D as a percentage of GDP, the most hi-tech “unicorns,” and the second-most venture capital investments.

But where does courage to take responsibility come from? Some would say from the country’s compulsory military service, but having lived in Israel for nearly a decade now, I would argue that it begins even before then, in the Israeli scouts (HaTzofim in Hebrew).

Established in 1919, and now with some 80,000 members between 9 and 18 years old, the Israeli scouts is the largest youth movement in Israel. It is known as the world’s first egalitarian scouting movement, where boys and girls participate together on an equal basis.

What makes the Israeli Scouts so interesting, however, is that there is basically zero adult supervision. Scouts meet in peer groups and act autonomously, with guidance from young guides (slightly older scouts).

“The children and adolescents of the movement are completely self-sufficient, setting their own goals and ambitions,” according to Arieli. “This unique system, which charges youth with responsibility for their own education, is intrinsic to the perception of youth in Israeli society and to their current and future roles as citizens.”²

Courtesy: Friends of Israel Scouts

3. Determination and Persistence

One of Shimon Peres’ first and most significant tasks — as a 29-year-old Director General of Israel’s Ministry of Defense — was to help engineer and implement the Sinai-Suez campaign, among the most daring and unlikely military triumphs of the post-World War II era. It was 1956 and as the campaign unfolded, Peres had something of an epiphany.

At a villa in France, where Israeli, British, and French officials had gathered to finalize planning for the campaign, Peres — then 33 years old — approached the French foreign and defense ministers and made a proposal everyone knew would be rejected out of hand. To everyone’s surprise (including his) the French officials agreed: France would help Israel establish its own nuclear-energy program.

Obstacle after obstacle had to be overcome, including resistance from the majority of Israel’s leadership, Soviet spying on the construction site, and serious concerns on the part of the U.S. government culminating in a tense sit-down between Peres and President John F. Kennedy.

In September 1957, Israel was set to sign an agreement with France. The French Atomic Energy Commission, after four years of negotiations, had agreed to provide Israel with a plutonium reactor. All that was needed in order to cement the deal was the signature of the French foreign minister and his prime minister.

Peres’ first stop on Monday morning, September 30th, was at the office of Pierre Guillaumat, the head of France’s Atomic Energy Commission and an avid supporter of Israel. He told Peres what he already knew: The deal could only be finalized with the French government’s approval, and their government was teetering on the edge of collapse.

Peres hurried to the office of Foreign Minister Christian Pineau, the deal’s main opponent, and Pineau promptly told Peres that he wanted to help but couldn’t. The Americans would be livid if they found out and might impose sanctions on France, which would cripple its own dawning nuclear capacity. Moreover, the agreement could induce the Soviet Union to arm Egypt with nuclear weapons.

But Peres had come prepared. The reactor was for peaceful purposes, he said. If that ever was to change, Israel would consult with France first. Also, he said, who was to say the Soviet Union wouldn’t introduce nuclear weapons to Egypt on its own accord? Then what would the West do?

Pineau agreed, and Peres urged him to call the prime minister. Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury did not answer, so Peres convinced Pineau to dictate the terms of their agreement to his secretary. The two of them signed the paper, and then Peres convinced him that he — a foreign national — would ferry the paper to the prime minister of France.

All that was needed now was Bourgès-Maunoury’s signature. Peres went to his office and waited. The hours passed. Afternoon became evening. Several rounds of whiskey were sent to the office. And, as midnight approached, Peres had two realizations: He would not see the prime minister that evening, and the prime minister, who was stuck in parliament, was likely being defeated in a no-confidence vote.

The next morning, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion wrote in his diary that the French government had fallen over a vote about Algeria, and that Peres’ trip to Paris was likely “for naught.”

He did not know that Peres had secured the prime minister’s oral agreement late that night and that, at nine in the morning, Peres was seated in Bourgès-Maunoury’s office. The French prime minister had not slept, and his eyes were red, for he was no longer the prime minister of France. He had no authority to sign an agreement on behalf of the Fourth Republic. But with Peres’ encouragement, he signed his consent, authorizing the agreement on a piece of paper that held the previous day’s date.

And in that way the seed of Israel’s nuclear-energy program was planted.

“This date or that, what does it matter?” Peres later said, summing up the backroom drama. “Of what significance is that between friends?”

4. Selflessness

Tamar Pross, the founder of Citizen Café Tel Aviv (an adult Hebrew school), gives lectures about Israeli culture. She often talks about a hypothetical situation in which you and an Israeli are in front of a single bowl of soup.

Most cultures would prompt people to split the bowl of soup, but what would the average Israeli do in this case?

“I get a lot of answers when I ask this and it’s always funny,” Pross said. “A lot of people say, ‘They’ll attack it to the death.’ ‘They’ll sell their half to the other.’”

“But, if for some reason, they care about you,” she continued, “an Israeli might just give you his share of the soup.”

In the morning hours of October 7th, as Palestinian terrorists were carrying out unthinkable horrors, the circumstances called for nothing less than quintessential Israeli selflessness.

Retired general Noam Tibon, 61, drove south with just a pistol. His son Amir was trapped in a safe room with his wife and his two young daughters in their home at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, surrounded by terrorists they could hear just outside. Amir, who speaks Arabic, said later, “I understood the situation and prepared to die.”

On his way to save his son, Noam and his wife Gali saved two fleeing concertgoers. Noam then joined a group of IDF commandos who were fighting in another kibbutz, drove two wounded soldiers to safety, and turned back on foot.

Noam was picked up by another retired general, Israel Ziv, 66, who dropped him off at Amir’s kibbutz. For an hour, Noam engaged in door-to-door combat. Finally, after ten hours in the safe room, one of Amir’s daughters said, “Grandpa is here.”

Yair Golan, 61, a retired general who had been passed over for IDF chief of staff because of his left-wing views, also grabbed his uniform and a gun and headed into the heat of the action.

On the way, he received a text from his sister with the location of three young people hiding in the fields near the music festival, where hundreds were being slaughtered; he singlehandedly rescued them and many others.

The 25-year-old woman who is the security coordinator of Kibbutz Nir Am, Inbal Rabin-Lieberman, managed to mobilize 12 residents in time to fight off terrorists, who did not succeed in entering the kibbutz. All of Nir Am’s residents were saved.

“The fact that being part of defending one’s country is a life stage for everyone — not something that other people do for you — gives Israelis a sense of ownership, belonging, and a feeling of being a link in a generational chain,” wrote authors Saul Singer and Dan Senor. “Young Israelis are conscious that their parents and grandparents served, so they could have a state and know that now it’s their turn.”³

As the Israeli military was feverishly trying to understand what was transpiring on October 7th, they started calling up reservists, but assumed that not all of them would report for duty. After all, reservists have jobs and families, often with young children, and many are often living or traveling overseas. But in some units, 120 percent of the reservists showed up.

They came so fast, and in such numbers, that the military did not have enough food and or equipment for them. The soldiers started texting their families asking for supplies, including everything from phone chargers and socks, to high-quality helmets, tourniquets, and bulletproof ceramic vests. Civilian blood drives and relief efforts were so swamped with volunteers, they had to scramble to match them with the dire needs to be filled.

In some units, 120 percent of reservists showed up after the terror attacks on October 7th.

5. Unity

British historian Paul Johnson is a Catholic, yet he wrote “A History of the Jews” — a comprehensive account of the Jewish People — approaching the subject as an outsider. After he finished writing the book, someone asked Johnson: “What struck you most about Judaism as you were writing the book?”

“There have been, in the course of history, societies that emphasized the individual — like the secular West today,” he said. “And there have been others that placed weight on the collective. Judaism managed to give equal weight to individual rights and collective responsibility, a reason why the Jews were able to keep their cohesion in the face of intolerable pressures.”

There is a Hebrew term for this: ahavat Yisrael. Literally it means, “Love of Israel” but it is used colloquially to encourage Jews to love each other, regardless of our differences. What’s more, the Talmud says all Jews are responsible for one another, or quite literally: “All Jews are guarantors for one another.”

But since December 2022, after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his extreme right-wing government were sworn in, unity was the last word to describe the social conditions throughout Israel. The country was entrenched in a sort of cold civil war regarding the government’s ultra-conservative agenda, including plans to severely weaken the Supreme Court.

Following the unimaginable events of October 7th, however, Israelis reflexively unearthed a tremendous sense of unity. Israel’s military was even inundated with ultra-Orthodox Jews — a societal entity that generally does not serve in the army — suddenly wanting to enlist. The numbers are growing from a low base, but the surge is real and could herald the start of a more interwoven relationship between ultra-Orthodox Jews and “mainstream” Israeli society.

“In the wake of unimaginable trauma, the people of Israel revealed greater unity and resilience than anyone — not least themselves — could have anticipated,” wrote Singer and Senor. “In this hidden societal strength lie not only the seeds of Israel’s revival, but a blueprint for the revival of the West.”

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1. “Chaotic Order.” Medium.

2. “How Israeli culture promotes creativity and independence.” ISRAEL21c.

3. “Israel’s Blueprint for a Revival of the West.” The Free Press.