1938 REDUX AND ISRAEL IS THE DIFFERENCE
By Judith A. Klinghoffer
Sept. 29, 2008
Writing from Israel the state of world affairs could not be clearer. Israel in 2008 stand alone just as the czechoslovakia did 70 years ago. No one is going to lift a finger to stop Iran from acquiring the weapons needed to achieve it’s goal - the destruction of the state of Israel and the eviction of the Jewish people who may survive that destruction from their ancient homeland. Whatever hopes were invested in international sanctions are gone. There can be no longer any pretense to the contrary. The founders of Israel are gone and its fate is in the hands of their children and grand children. In a few months they will have to decide whether they will follow in the footsteps of their European predecessors or choose a different path.
The world hopes Israel will save it from itself. As the recent public American decision to offer Israel bunker busters deonstrates, the US government certainly hopes so. Now, Israeli leaders must decide if the price of so doing is affordable. Their efforts to internationalize the danger named Iran may be understandable but futile.
History is not supposed to repeat itself or at least do so only as a farce. Alas, it refueses to adhere to the rules laid out for it. A president of a country stands again in front of the international community and blames Jews for all the ills of the world. His speech is well received and the media cannot get enough of him. And why not they are only following the lead of five of America’s elder statesmen (including two whose own lives were marred by Hitler’s Germany) who cleared his way by recommending that Washington go to Munich, excuse me Tehran?! Small wonder that Putin decided he should follow Stalin and cut a deal with the most impeccable enemy of the West? Who knows maybe this time the decision will not turn to Russia as it did in the 1930s?
How many of us have looked at our parents or grandparents and asked how could you have been so stupid?! Now we know. The economy is again in trouble and Capitalism as well as democracy are looking their worse and command economies and regimes their best. The free world is in no mood to go to war if another “peace in our time” can be had even if the price is another six million Jews.
In other words, the ball is in the court of the Jewish state. After all, it has been created to shift the responsibility for Jewish existence from the world to it’s own shoulders. Let us not forget, God helps those who help themselves. So, on these High Holidays let us redouble our efforts to cleanse past slates by asking for forgiveness for our transgression from men and God but also pray that Israel’s leaders be granted the wisdom and strength to save Jewry from a second Holocaust. Personally, I feel Tsipi’s pain. I only wish Netanyahu would too. An emergency cabinet is the right way to go and it is what the all too realistic citizens of Israel want. These are not times for politics as usual. It is time to put Israel and Judaism first. If Israel’s leaders do not, no one else will.
Sorry, if reality bites. I, too, feel it’s teeth.
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