However one looks upon the results of the recent election in Israel, one cannot help remark how wondrous it is that a country in the Middle East held a free and uncontested election.  Moreover, while the countries overturned by the revolutions of the Arab Spring struggle – many of them, violently – to find their footings, Israel held but another election in March, the last in a series of its soon-to-be sixty-seven year long history.  There is no question that Israel is a country with many strong and often opposing voices, voices that even challenge the very nature of Israel’s democracy; but with it all, the majority of Israel’s citizens, including Arabs and haredim, acknowledge the power of the vote within the political realm.  That’s something to celebrate as we look toward the anniversary of the birth of the modern State of Israel, a miracle in our time.