To the Editor:

Reading Hillel Halkin’s dark thoughts about Zionism and Israel, I kept wondering if I was truly living in the same country as he [“If Israel Ceased to Exist,” June]. Around me, I see a land with a booming economy; an energetic, enterprising people with (for the most part) a clear-eyed approach to national security; flourishing arts and sciences and universities; ever-strengthening Jewish institutions, as the government monopoly on religious affairs is increasingly marginalized; improving cuisine, architecture, and even weather. Perhaps I am missing the scythe hanging over our heads—I do not see Iran and the demographics of the Palestinians as insurmountable problems—but it seems to me that by any historical standard, the Jews in Israel are living in an arcadia.