Obverse and Reverse
Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu is, as of this writing, in Washington for talks with President Donald Trump. The purpose is to make Israel’s case for the total removal of any military threat from Iran. They will no doubt touch on Gaza and Lebanon, with a word or two also about Israel’s intentions in Judea and Samaria. What they will not talk about is arguably an even more pernicious threat.
Two pieces of information came to light recently. Several days ago, a recording of former prime minister Ehud Barak was released. The context of the recording was a conversation with American financier, child sex offender, serial rapist, and human trafficker Jeffery Epstein. Having had anything to do with that guy is in and of itself enough; it is what Barak says, however, that is the real meat of the story. Barak describes a plan to pick and choose what kind of Jews are allowed to come here. With creation of the state, everyone was taken, he explains. Now, “we can be more selective”. Maybe I am a little oversensitive, but one should be very careful when using terms like “selective” when it comes to Jews. I could not help but think back to when he was elected prime minister in 1999, when he declared that he would be the prime minister of not only those who elected him, but of everyone. It is hard to understand how someone with multiple degrees, who was able to rise to the rank of general in the IDF, and could convince people that he is an appropriate choice to lead the nation could be so devoid of any self respect.
Today I came across a story on the Arutz 7 website that quoted Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef as saying that those who say Hallel – a celebratory prayer recited on holidays and the first day of each month – on Israel’s Independence Day are idiots. We are in exile, he claims. And that is true, on a spiritual level. The people who do say Hallel are simply expressing gratitude to G-d for the opportunity to have an expression of Jewish identity in the land given to us to do just that. They have a perspective that says that this state, flaws and all, is no less G-d-given than anything else, and that it is within the context of this independence that we can grow as a people and as a nation. One can have, and express, an opinion on anything. Given the context of the quote and the sensitivity of the subject, is it really necessary to get abusive?
To each of these two men, the other is the idiot and the undesirable. Ironically, they might be the best indication that we are indeed in Exile, and their respective outlooks on who we are and what we are actually constitute a threat far too serious to be ignored.