He stands before me in his dusty green uniform, rifle over the shoulder, one of his five children clinging to his neck. We are in the parking lot near his home, where he's just arrived on a short leave from his reserve duty. He's in his early forties. His medical history includes a spinal injury and asthma, and he's a bit overweight (not to mention balding). He's not as strong and fast as he used to be, like most middle-aged guys. Obviously, he's not your typical commando. So what was he doing last week, running around Arab cities to arrest terrorists, in an elite unit with recruits who weren't even born yet when he was first drafted?
It's a good question. For one thing, it's partly his fault for not having updated his fitness profile in a very long time. But as an expert in emergency trauma medicine, his usual reserve duty is teaching army medics, and you don't need to be in top shape to teach in a classroom. Usually, younger men go with the combat units; however, this time there was no "someone else" to send. The commando unit had to have a medical officer while engaged in an extremely difficult and dangerous mission, and there was no one else to fill this vital role. For unknown reasons, many doctors hadn't shown up for their reserve duty this time.
So, the "doc" did his duty, as he always does, doing his best to protect his family, his people and his state from the destruction so desired by the explosive vest makers, the human bomb senders, the missile throwers, the snipers. How could he refuse?
This is what always happens when someone fails to fulfill his responsibility: another person has to step up in his place. And sometimes, as in this case, the one who accepts the responsibility isn't the most fit person for the job. Very often, there is no suitable "someone else", and the committed make do with what is available. The cost cannot be calculated ? would a younger, faster doctor have been able to treat the wounded more effectively? ? but that doesn't mean there is no cost. And it doesn't mean we are exempt from the analysis of how well we are fulfilling our responsibilities, or not, and at what cost.
This accounting of the soul is a private matter that each individual must do for him- or herself. Nevertheless, to describe the relevant facts and name the questions to be asked is a communal responsibility. Members of the community have both the right and the imperative to open discussion of significant matters -- and nothing is more significant than survival.
One tiny Israel, surrounded by Arab states who wish to destroy it. Vilified by the press, loathed by Europe, censured and undermined by the UN, bullied by the US State Department and overwhelmingly outnumbered ? this is a dismal picture most Jews would agree is an accurate assessment of the situation. What is a Jew's responsibility in such a case?
First and foremost, to consider these questions:
1. Is having a Jewish State an imperative for World Jewry? Is the Jewish People ready to go back to the days when there was no Jewish State, no IDF, and Jews had to depend on Diaspora governments to treat the Jewish population with kindness, or at least benign neglect?
2. Is having a Jewish State a religious obligation? Did God command us to establish a nation at Mount Sinai and did he send us to Israel to do it? Is this command still valid or did He change His mind?
3. If Israel as a state is a practical or religious necessity, who is responsible to sustain it? All Jews, all Jews except for the ultra-ultra-Orthodox, all Jews living in Israel, all Israelis plus Jews living in places of impending danger, as in Europe?
4. What is the level of responsibility of individuals in these groups? To donate money, make phone calls, write letters, go on missions and solidarity marches, send their children, maybe even make aliyah themselves? How much effort is enough?
5. Who is competent to advise people in wrestling with these questions? Any family member or neighbor, any educated Jew, any accredited rabbinical authority, any community leader? Can someone whose livelihood depends on staying in a stable community in the Diaspora give unbiased advice? How difficult it must be for synagogue and school rabbis to advocate aliyah, thus calling their own conduct into question and undermining their own livelihoods!
These questions absolutely positively must be faced now, because an extremely dangerous time has come to us. The death of "He Who Will Not Be Missed" does not presage a time of relief and expanded possibilities of peace with Islamic moderates. In fact, the factional fighting in the PA-controlled areas has already begun, and we definitely will not like the winner. Here's why:
The most ruthless and barbaric of the potential leaders is the one who will win. There is no other mechanism for the transfer of power there except through force, intimidation and assassination. Whoever is most skilled in those areas will come out on top.
The disgustingly polite and politic eulogies we witnessed in recent weeks indicate that the world is not only willing, but longing, to forgive and forget the atrocities that were that man's life's work. So there is no reason for any of his potential successors to deviate from his path.
On the contrary, the unruly mobs we saw at his funeral want his successor to be just like him -- another terrorist to lead a million martyrs to conquer Jerusalem. Those people want exactly what he promised them -- the murder of Jews, the destruction of the Jewish State, and a new Arab Palestinian State to replace it, and they'll shred anyone who even thinks of compromise.
So why is this time more dangerous than previous times? Europe, with its growing minority population of radical Islamists, is anxious to buy local calm with the coin of Jewish blood. It will pressure Israel to appease and retreat before the terrorists, and will pressure the US as well. After Iraq, the US also may feel obliged to repair its relations with Europe and the Islamic world by arm-twisting Israel. An unsympathetic world will dismiss all that Israel has suffered to this point as part of a closed chapter of history that ended with the dead terrorist's funeral. It will be Oslo II: Israel will be coerced into making more and more painful concessions as a way of strengthening the winner of the Palestinians' selection process. After all, we cannot prove murderous intentions on the part of the "new regime" until we have a significantly large enough tally of newly murdered Jews to attribute to it.
Remember Rabin's obscene phrase "sacrifices for peace"? We will hear it again.
If Israel were strong enough, it could stand up to the pressure, point to the suicidal absurdity of giving in to Palestinian demands and insist on reciprocity:
Peace for peace, war for war, and land for land. Let the Arabs give up their occupied territories and their illegal settlements, then we can talk about Jewish ones. Refugees? There are Arab countries (22 of them!) for Arab refugees, and Israel for Jews. Reparations? Sure, let me calculate how much the Arabs owe to the Jewish refugees they abused and robbed and expelled from Arab lands in 1948, and then we can negotiate for Arab losses -- the ones not caused by Arab rejectionism, wars of aggression and terrorism.
If only Israel were strong enough ?
We are commanded to be a Nation that will be a light to all the other nations, and we are not strong enough. We are making do with what we have, but our hearts are breaking over what we don't have -- the rest of World Jewry. You who don't see yourself as significant, nay, vital, to our struggle - when will you come home? When is it your turn to be responsible?
It's a good question. For one thing, it's partly his fault for not having updated his fitness profile in a very long time. But as an expert in emergency trauma medicine, his usual reserve duty is teaching army medics, and you don't need to be in top shape to teach in a classroom. Usually, younger men go with the combat units; however, this time there was no "someone else" to send. The commando unit had to have a medical officer while engaged in an extremely difficult and dangerous mission, and there was no one else to fill this vital role. For unknown reasons, many doctors hadn't shown up for their reserve duty this time.
So, the "doc" did his duty, as he always does, doing his best to protect his family, his people and his state from the destruction so desired by the explosive vest makers, the human bomb senders, the missile throwers, the snipers. How could he refuse?
This is what always happens when someone fails to fulfill his responsibility: another person has to step up in his place. And sometimes, as in this case, the one who accepts the responsibility isn't the most fit person for the job. Very often, there is no suitable "someone else", and the committed make do with what is available. The cost cannot be calculated ? would a younger, faster doctor have been able to treat the wounded more effectively? ? but that doesn't mean there is no cost. And it doesn't mean we are exempt from the analysis of how well we are fulfilling our responsibilities, or not, and at what cost.
This accounting of the soul is a private matter that each individual must do for him- or herself. Nevertheless, to describe the relevant facts and name the questions to be asked is a communal responsibility. Members of the community have both the right and the imperative to open discussion of significant matters -- and nothing is more significant than survival.
One tiny Israel, surrounded by Arab states who wish to destroy it. Vilified by the press, loathed by Europe, censured and undermined by the UN, bullied by the US State Department and overwhelmingly outnumbered ? this is a dismal picture most Jews would agree is an accurate assessment of the situation. What is a Jew's responsibility in such a case?
First and foremost, to consider these questions:
1. Is having a Jewish State an imperative for World Jewry? Is the Jewish People ready to go back to the days when there was no Jewish State, no IDF, and Jews had to depend on Diaspora governments to treat the Jewish population with kindness, or at least benign neglect?
2. Is having a Jewish State a religious obligation? Did God command us to establish a nation at Mount Sinai and did he send us to Israel to do it? Is this command still valid or did He change His mind?
3. If Israel as a state is a practical or religious necessity, who is responsible to sustain it? All Jews, all Jews except for the ultra-ultra-Orthodox, all Jews living in Israel, all Israelis plus Jews living in places of impending danger, as in Europe?
4. What is the level of responsibility of individuals in these groups? To donate money, make phone calls, write letters, go on missions and solidarity marches, send their children, maybe even make aliyah themselves? How much effort is enough?
5. Who is competent to advise people in wrestling with these questions? Any family member or neighbor, any educated Jew, any accredited rabbinical authority, any community leader? Can someone whose livelihood depends on staying in a stable community in the Diaspora give unbiased advice? How difficult it must be for synagogue and school rabbis to advocate aliyah, thus calling their own conduct into question and undermining their own livelihoods!
These questions absolutely positively must be faced now, because an extremely dangerous time has come to us. The death of "He Who Will Not Be Missed" does not presage a time of relief and expanded possibilities of peace with Islamic moderates. In fact, the factional fighting in the PA-controlled areas has already begun, and we definitely will not like the winner. Here's why:
The most ruthless and barbaric of the potential leaders is the one who will win. There is no other mechanism for the transfer of power there except through force, intimidation and assassination. Whoever is most skilled in those areas will come out on top.
The disgustingly polite and politic eulogies we witnessed in recent weeks indicate that the world is not only willing, but longing, to forgive and forget the atrocities that were that man's life's work. So there is no reason for any of his potential successors to deviate from his path.
On the contrary, the unruly mobs we saw at his funeral want his successor to be just like him -- another terrorist to lead a million martyrs to conquer Jerusalem. Those people want exactly what he promised them -- the murder of Jews, the destruction of the Jewish State, and a new Arab Palestinian State to replace it, and they'll shred anyone who even thinks of compromise.
So why is this time more dangerous than previous times? Europe, with its growing minority population of radical Islamists, is anxious to buy local calm with the coin of Jewish blood. It will pressure Israel to appease and retreat before the terrorists, and will pressure the US as well. After Iraq, the US also may feel obliged to repair its relations with Europe and the Islamic world by arm-twisting Israel. An unsympathetic world will dismiss all that Israel has suffered to this point as part of a closed chapter of history that ended with the dead terrorist's funeral. It will be Oslo II: Israel will be coerced into making more and more painful concessions as a way of strengthening the winner of the Palestinians' selection process. After all, we cannot prove murderous intentions on the part of the "new regime" until we have a significantly large enough tally of newly murdered Jews to attribute to it.
Remember Rabin's obscene phrase "sacrifices for peace"? We will hear it again.
If Israel were strong enough, it could stand up to the pressure, point to the suicidal absurdity of giving in to Palestinian demands and insist on reciprocity:
Peace for peace, war for war, and land for land. Let the Arabs give up their occupied territories and their illegal settlements, then we can talk about Jewish ones. Refugees? There are Arab countries (22 of them!) for Arab refugees, and Israel for Jews. Reparations? Sure, let me calculate how much the Arabs owe to the Jewish refugees they abused and robbed and expelled from Arab lands in 1948, and then we can negotiate for Arab losses -- the ones not caused by Arab rejectionism, wars of aggression and terrorism.
If only Israel were strong enough ?
We are commanded to be a Nation that will be a light to all the other nations, and we are not strong enough. We are making do with what we have, but our hearts are breaking over what we don't have -- the rest of World Jewry. You who don't see yourself as significant, nay, vital, to our struggle - when will you come home? When is it your turn to be responsible?