Enough: I will not be silent as my state changes its face

Israel is at war with Iran. Violence is everywhere.  Death and destruction are booming. In Israel, those not in battle spend our days and nights in safe rooms, while the walls often shake with the explosions of missiles either striking nearby or being shot down and falling broken to the ground.  While in the frightening calculus of war, Israel’s military and intelligence are clearly superior, its political leadership is not.  As a result, our country and its citizens have gradually become a pariah people – a status that has spread to Jews everywhere, with frightening consequences.  We are truly becoming what Balaam the prophet called us (Numbers 23:9) “a people that dwells apart.” Apart, but not in peace.  Apart, but not in triumph. And our hostages remain apart, but in terrible isolation and terror.

But, of course, we cannot remain apart, nor can we go it alone. Neither militarily, dependent as we are for resupply on others – most prominently the United States – but also other nations.  Neither diplomatically, for as a tiny minority that we are, we cannot afford pariah status. Neither emotionally, for with no one outside those who share our Zionist and Jewish dreams empathizing with our insecurities and sense of vulnerability in spite of our military prowess, we remain broken.

Alas, our strongest ally, without whose assistance our future is bleak, is now led by an irresponsible adult who responds only to adulation and turns away from anyone whom he deems a ‘loser’ or whose demands he considers excessive.  No matter how impressive our efforts have been to demonstrate that the state led by mullahs and religious fanatics is far less mighty than it has claimed to be, we cannot remove its greatest threat – its nuclear core.  We have not the armaments to penetrate its protective cover – only the Americans have that – nor the size to absorb its remaining thousands of missiles and drones.  Nor have we the leadership that can bring the Iranians to the negotiating table and agree to dismantle their nuclear ambitions in favor of some sort of end to active hostilities.  We are not even sure our leaders crave peace more than personal power – both here and in the United States.  Will the American President force us all to the peace table? Or does his ambassador to Israel, speak for the religious fanatics?  We are also disabled by our own set of religious fanatics who control our government and as well as the one whose assistance we need and for whom that ambassador speaks.

All this has divided Israel – whose people are united in the belief that a nuclearized Iran continues to pose an existential threat to the country we inhabit – but are at odds as to whether God will save us or reasonable statecraft and negotiation will.  The assurance of the religious zealots that all the signs point to a miraculous God-given victory stands in stark contrast to those who believe God has shown most vividly during the Holocaust that an Almighty can be silent and stand apart in the face of human evil and hatred and in the end only humanity can save itself from the evil perpetrated by humans who hate.

Peace requires the ascendancy of reason and compromise.  It requires political courage and leadership.  It is not something that only an apocalypse and messiah’s arrival can bring.  How dark must it become before we find people who see the light and overcome petty rivalries and insane dreams.  We need someone to arise – in Israel, America, and Iran alike – and declare “Enough! Let’s stop and talk.” Speedily and in our time.