Sabine Sterk – The Other Side Is Real – Shana Tova 5781
We nearly enter the new year 5781, time to look back and reflect on 5781.
5780 in my opinion was one of the most remarkable years from the last decades. To start with the bad news: Little we could have known after the new years’ celebrations of 5780 that within 6 months the whole world would have changed into a world with social distancing, with working from home, with huge economical downfall, with an unemployment rate, like in the 30th of last century.
Israel was one of the first countries that established a full lockdown, after the Coronavirus, Covid-19 entered the world. Like always the world was condemning Israel for the strict measures taken, but within a few weeks the whole world was in lockdown and Israel performed very well in the first wave… the death toll was a lot smaller than the rest of the world in that first wave. Unfortunately, somewhere in 5780 as one of the first, a second wave hit Israel and suddenly the situation is so severe that a second lockdown will be evident.
But despite this, Israel was very successful in 5780, in the Forbes list, three Israeli innovations in the weapon field were listed and In the medical field, numerous life-saving inventions and innovations were born. Also with the COVID Research, a lot of progress was made by Israeli medical companies. The Sheba Hospital was named one of the best and one of the most prestigious Medical Centers in the world.
An Israeli cyclist, Guy Niv, for the First time joined the Tour De France, while 2 years prior in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, already, the Hatikva was played for the very first time, for the gold-winning Judoca, in presence of Miri Regev, minister of sports. This Hatikva, this song of hope was the first tentative step to normalization between Israel and the United Arab Emirates… but at that time, little we knew….
The best news in 5780 however, was the normalization and peace with the United Arab Emirates and with that the ending of the financial boycott of Israel. The joy about the peace deal was huge, the opportunities for both countries huge, and this positive news was so much needed for the people of Israel in this extremely difficult year.
But more historical events happened in 5780, for the first time an Israeli plain got permission to fly directly above Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and announced was that from that day the airspace of these two countries were permanent open to Israeli flights But also archaeological findings that proved that the Jews are the righteous inhabitants of the land of Israel, an Israeli team won an international mathematic competitions and many more positive news this last year.
In the last week, it became evident that there was a new virus spreading in the Middle East, the virus of PEACE… highly contagious and causing, happiness and prosperity. After the peace deal with UAE, Bahrain was the next to announce normalization with Israel, while the embassies of Kosovo and Serbia will be replaced to Jerusalem, the eternal and undivided Capital of the Jewish state of Israel. The Arab league, is not condemning this normalization, so it is to expect that in 5781 the good news, despite all what was wrong.. will continue to prosper.
Shana tova Israel
