The late Israeli statesman Abba Eban’s famous dictum that “the Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity” is a classic example of what psychologists have termed “projection,” seeing in others qualities that one fails to recognize in himself. Sure, there have been many peace offers that the Arabs have spurned over the years, but let’s give them a little credit – they did not see these territorial arrangements as genuine opportunities, but as shameful compromises. They negotiated peace in English, but they never masked their intentions in Arabic. In that sense, their track record of seizing opportunities to continue the prosecution of their war for the land of Israel is impressive.
In contrast, no other country holds a candle to Israel in its ability to miss opportunities. “Har Habayit be’yadeinu!” (“The Temple Mount is in our hands!”), Motta Gur famously said in the miraculous battle for the Old City of Jerusalem that put the site of our ancient Temple in our firm control. With G-d’s help, we won that battle, but our leaders snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by ceding authority over the Temple Mount to the Islamic Waqf.
The IDF’s chief rabbi Shlomo Goren valiantly led prayers there for two months, but apparently the shofar he brought, on Tisha b’Av no less, was too noisy for our Arab cousins, so then Prime Minister Levi Eshkol handed the Temple Mount over to the Muslims. For his part, Eshkol took offense at the chief rabbinate’s plans to segregate the sexes at the newly recovered Western Wall. “The Kotel was not a synagogue,” he is quoted as saying.
Though the missed opportunity may be among the greatest in the history of the world, the affable, Yiddish-speaking prime minister can be forgiven to some extent. His ignorance of Judaism merely matched that of the secularized public he led.
The government of Israel might reasonably be expected to consult the U.S. administration about planned arms sales to China, but normalizing life for Israel’s citizens is not something Israel need coordinate with any country.
And so it is today. A nationalist wave is sweeping the world. The British majority perceived that unelected Brussels bureaucrats were flooding their country with Muslim immigrants, not a few of an extremist bent, and were bailing out failed financial institutions, among other complaints. In the U.S., American voters across the 50 states fueled the rise of Donald Trump, based on a similar feeling that policymakers were neglecting the interests of the many for the benefit of elites. The so-called “deplorables” – the “half of Trump’s supporters” Hillary Clinton deemed “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic” – seemed to be looking for a leader unashamed to stand for the common folk.
But we’re not there yet in Israel. The courts, the media and the IDF’s top brass are embarrassed by the little people’s patriotism and common sense. Our ostensibly nationalist government has been handed a golden opportunity to reset our relations with the United States. The time was right to apply Israeli law over Judea and Samaria for the benefit of all its residents, Jewish and Arab alike. But Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu held up a too-modest bill that would bring the Jerusalem suburb Maaleh Adumim into “Israel proper.” Is this not madness? Is Westchester separable from New York? Hampstead from London?
In delaying the normalization of Maaleh Adumim’s status, the prime minister said he was deferring to the new administration’s request that Israel not surprise the U.S. with any unilateral moves. This seems quite puzzling. For one thing, it seems out of character for the Trump Administration, which has so far offered nothing but full-throated support for Israel. Secondly, the government of Israel might reasonably be expected to consult the U.S. administration about planned arms sales to China, but normalizing life for Israel’s citizens is not something Israel need coordinate with any country.
More than the master wants to hold the leash, the dog values the security and restraint of the connection. The world is passing Israel by. Like Eshkol before him, the current prime minister has a certain comfort zone. It was defined in part by Presidents Clinton and Obama, whose presidencies coincided with his terms of office, but primarily by the left-wing Israeli establishment which has from day one done all within its power to destroy him politically (and seems closer than ever to achieving that goal with the unhinged media and legal prosecution against him). The poor, persecuted prime minister suffers from Stockholm syndrome, a prisoner trapped within the values of his captors.
Nevertheless, Israel’s leader has a job to do, and he is not doing it. In failing to demonstrate leadership at this crucial juncture, it seems he has forfeited the moral authority to remain in power. Yes, every day he has served as prime minister was a day that the anti-Zionist left did not hold all the levers of power. But if he is lacking a clear vision of the direction Israel needs to go, or is unwilling to take the political risks to get us there, then it might as well be Yair Lapid sitting in office. The policy failures one could expect of a Lapid government could serve to stimulate a new nationalist leadership capable of bringing its ideals into operational practice.
Israel does not lack for leaders with vision and courage. Just a few days ago, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked presented a 5-point “national strength” plan. Point 3 addressed Maaleh Adumim, and demonstrates that not every Israeli remains stuck in the mentality of exile:
“The word annexation is a misnomer,” Shaked said. “We are not annexing an additional piece of land - it is the heart of our country.”
More crucially, Shaked does not see any inherent conflict between Israel’s assertion of its national interests and its international relations, adding “These days we have the ability to formulate new understandings with organizations and countries who understand the new trends. Alongside close cooperation with the Trump Administration we can promote our new ties with Russia, Africa, India, China, and the Gulf states. And first of all, we must tell the world what we want and what we are planning. We have to lead and not be led."
It’s painful to miss opportunities. The Temple Mount was in our hands. The friendship and support of the world’s most powerful country has been newly handed to us but is poised to slip out of our grasp.
How long will it take before Israel merits to take advantage of the opportunities that come our way? The answer depends more on the people’s values, beliefs and attitudes than those of politicians. We get the leadership we deserve.
Gil Weinreich is author of “Superpower,”newly released by Targum Press. The book examines Israel’s rising power, and the vital spiritual dimension underlying this shift, contrasting this experience with the hollowing-out trend, materially and morally, underway in the United States -- while making constructive suggestions for reversing this latter trend.