Avi Benlolo: Israel at 78 — winning is a mindset

Israeli flags waved outside the Damascus Gate of the walled Old City of Jerusalem on May 26, 2025, during a flag march for Jerusalem Day, (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

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This week marks 78 years since Israel achieved independence in 1948. The story of the Jewish people is the story that any leader with a winning mindset can understand and draw inspiration from. This is a story of a people who were exiled from their homeland, the land of Israel, more than 2,500 years ago. Despite untold hardship culminating with the Holocaust from 1939-1945, they rose to establish one of the most successful democratic nations in modern times.

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Israel has taken nationhood from the ordinary to extraordinary. It is defined by a people who refuse to be defined by others, who have turned passivity into action, victimhood into strength and oppression and subjugation to brilliance and determination. In its remarkable 78 years, Israel has made the desert bloom. It has turned saltwater into drinking water and looked not to the land for natural resources to create economic wealth, but to its people.

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Remarkably, even while Israel has been fighting a seven-front war since the tragic events of October 7, its economy has been booming and its hi-tech sector has managed to raise over $50 billion. The biggest exit in Israel’s history occurred just last month with Wiz being purchased by Google for a staggering $32 Billion. The cyber platform can be tailor made to secure any application and is run on the cloud.

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Israel is a power-engine for economic growth. Despite the wars with Hamas, Hezbollah and most recently, Iran, Israel’s economy is expected to grow by a minimum of 3.3 per cent to possibly 5.2 per cent this year. Israelis are innovators, builders, and dreamers. Despite wars, tragedies and uncertainty, remarkably, Israel is ranked eighth in the World Happiness Report.

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With all this in mind, it’s truly remarkable that Israel’s population stands at 10.2 million, which is about 12 times the number of citizens since independence. What I find most promising about Israel’s future is the sheer number of young people: 27 per cent of its population is aged 0-14 and only 13 per cent are 65 and older. It’s a country that values family and sees a future. About 177,000 babies were born last year, showcasing incredible promise and resilience for the future of the Jewish State.

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Things did not always look promising for the Jewish people in history. For centuries they drifted from land to land, persecuted for their religion. The Spanish Inquisition of 1492 saw Jews forced out of Spain and then Portugal. Those who remained, were forced by the church to convert. Jews were chased from village to village, accused of murdering Christian babies to make Matzah or for causing the Black Plague or poisoning town wells. Without a place of refuge to call home, the Jews were constant targets of haters who taxed them, marginalized, and penalized them, put them into ghettos and when all that wasn’t enough, murdered them in pogroms and finally, the Holocaust — the largest genocide in history.