An Israeli flag flutters outside the Bank of Israel building in Jerusalem August 7, 2013. Picture taken August 7, 2013. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/

When people speak about Israel’s strength, they usually reach for the obvious examples: the Israel Defense Forces, Iron Dome, the Air Force, Mossad, cybersecurity, intelligence, medical innovation, and technology. Yet after years of watching Israel closely, visiting the country repeatedly, speaking with Israelis, and advocating for Israel from abroad, I have come to believe that the Jewish state possesses another strategic asset that receives far too little attention: normal life.

That may sound almost ridiculous when discussing a country repeatedly confronted by terrorism, war, and an extraordinary degree of international scrutiny, but perhaps that is precisely the point, because terrorism has never been intended merely to kill people. Its broader purpose is to destroy the feeling of safety that allows ordinary society to function, making people afraid of buses, restaurants, concerts, schools, markets, and eventually their own future.

Israel’s answer has repeatedly been remarkably simple: to keep living.

The restaurant opens again, children return to school, another couple gets married, another company is created, another baby is born, and Israelis return to complaining about traffic on the Ayalon while enemies continue predicting that their country has no future.

Foreign observers sometimes misunderstand this, because they see Israelis sitting in cafés shortly after terrible events, crowded beaches or people celebrating weddings during periods of national trauma and conclude that life cannot really be so difficult.

They misunderstand what they are seeing.

Normality is not evidence of the absence of pain. It is evidence of resilience.

That determination is visible not only in restaurants, schools, and businesses, but in Israel’s democracy itself. Israelis vote, replace governments, and participate in a fiercely competitive multiparty political system. They demonstrate against their own government, sometimes week after week, carrying signs, blocking streets, and loudly demanding different policies. Freedom House continues to classify Israel as a free parliamentary democracy, while also documenting genuine controversies and concerns surrounding civil liberties, minority equality, and institutional checks on political power.

That complexity matters because democracy is not demonstrated by everyone agreeing with the government. It is demonstrated by citizens having the ability to disagree with it.

And Israeli society certainly knows how to disagree. The arguments are relentless, whether they concern security, judicial policy, religion, economics, military service, hostages, housing, or the government itself, yet those arguments are also evidence of something important. Israelis expect their country to have a future worth arguing about.

Women are an inseparable part of that society, as are Arab people and other minority groups. Israel still faces debates about representation, religious restrictions, and remaining inequalities, as other democracies do, but Israeli women and minorities are participants in the political, professional, and public life of the country rather than spectators to it.

These realities are often missing from the international picture of Israel because much of the world encounters the country primarily through breaking news.

But Israel is not a breaking news alert. It is a country where millions of people wake up every morning and do remarkably ordinary things under remarkably abnormal circumstances.

That ordinary Israel rarely becomes international news because normality does not generate dramatic headlines, yet it may be one of the most important stories about the country.

Israel was created so that Jews could live. Living means building universities instead of merely finding refuge, creating art instead of merely escaping hatred, inventing medicines, growing food, writing books, raising families, building companies, criticizing politicians, demonstrating in the streets, voting governments in and out of power, and debating what kind of country the next generation should inherit.

None of this means pretending Israel has no problems. Resilience must never become an excuse for political failures, military mistakes, social inequality, or inadequate preparation. In fact, the freedom of Israelis to demand accountability is itself part of the society worth defending.

For generations, Israel’s enemies have predicted that Jewish sovereignty is temporary and that eventually Israel will disappear.

Perhaps the most powerful answer Israel can give them is not another speech — it is that the next day will arrive, and the people there will continue.

Sabine Sterk is founder of the NGO Time To Stand Up For Israel.