For eight decades after the end of World War II, America’s proudest title was “Leader of the Free World.” Today, both on grounds of practical leadership and grasp of what it means to be free, we are yielding the title to Israel.

In order to remain free, we, and the world, must pass the Israel Test.

The issues in the Middle East could hardly be simpler. On one side is tyranny, dependency, and resentment; on the other is liberty and its redemptive fruits.

The essence of liberty is self-government, of which political democracy is only one component. Governing others, whether through elections or through bureaucracies, is not the point. First and foremost, liberty means governance of the self.

A self-governing people does not whine. They do not expect to be catered to like children. Unlike the so-called “Palestinians” who depend entirely on funds from Western “charities” – billions annually from the U.S. through the UN – the Israelis give back far more than they take. They assume responsibility for their own fate and flourishing. Israelis don’t complain; they fight. The very essence of Zionism is that no Jew should ever again be a pet, dependent on the forbearance of some alien elite for survival.

A second trait of self-governing naturally follows the first. Free people produce more than they consume. Creative in the image of their creator, they thrive. Even in a world of ever-increasing abundance, fueled by new technology, arbitrary misery can strike, along with plagues and lean years, tempests and earthquakes. Yet even these disasters always seem most to befall regions where liberty and thus prosperity are scarce.

Liberty invites every man to contribute to the general prosperity by work oriented to the needs of others. Tyranny wastes a people’s energy, not merely through bureaucracy and interference from without, but by envy, resentment, and violence. Blaming others for one’s plight is a signal of subservience. If Gaza is a hellhole, the refusal of self-government is what made it so.

Envy is the sin of Cain and leads naturally to murder. The question put repeatedly to a free people, ultimately their Israel Test, is between envy and admiration of excellence. Do you view the exceptional accomplishments of others as examples to admire and emulate, and new sources of opportunity? Or do you greet these achievements with envy and hatred and charges of conspiracy, and demands for some unearned “fair share”?

The Israel Test gauges how a person or a nation responds to the merit of others who excel them in intellect and accomplishment. My book by that title – “The Israel Test: How Israel’s Genius Enriches and Challenges the World” – will be republished later this month with a new foreword by Dennis Prager and a new introduction by me. A nation’s reaction to Israel has become the most crucial test of a free people.

Equivocation by the United States toward Israel and its enemies, even to the extent of tolerating antisemitic violence at home, may be the most alarming signal yet of American decline in leadership for liberty.

Israel’s leadership is not merely moral but supremely practical. Not only has Israel emerged from five deadly wars over 50 years with a per capita income – for Jews and Arabs alike – higher than the per capita incomes of Germany, the U.K., South Korea, or Japan. The entire U.S. technology economy, comprising some 70% of global corporate market cap, is largely dependent on innovations and laboratories from Israel. Fully 100,000 Israeli citizens work in Silicon Valley and are indispensable to its inventive powers. Israel also is the key source of life-saving military technology for America and the free world.

Forty-plus years after Ronald Reagan launched the Strategic Defense Initiative, America still does not have a serious missile defense. The U.S. Patriot air defense system is more expensive and less effective than Israel’s system, which includes not only the Iron Dome but also the longer-range David’s Sling and Arrow systems. Arrow can and does take out ballistic missiles above the atmosphere. In still limited forms, Israel even today commands “Iron Beam,” a laser missile defense system that will zap missiles from the sky at the speed of light.

The U.S. Aegis system, now also with laser capabilities, is an astounding achievement. Alas, it is deployed in the lost cause of defending a carrier force made obsolete by satellites that can find the lumbering ships anywhere, exposing them to relentless attack.

The United States could not repeat at scale anything like Israel’s near-perfect repulse of the mass Iranian missile and drone attack in April. If, as seems increasingly likely, Iran goes to all-out war against Israel, it will be Israel, not the United States, that defeats our greatest enemy in the region. If the Iranian nuke program is terminated, it will be by Israel and not the United States. Israel is now fighting our wars and winning.

So, who is the leader of the Free World now?