Self-Respect
Mystery persists why PM Binyamin Netanyahu did not attend this week’s Sharm el-Sheikh Gaza peace conference after an official invitation was extended personally by Egyptian President Al-Sisi on Monday.
Officially, the PM turned down the invitation due to the conference falling on the eve of the chag (Jewish religious festival), Simchat Torah.
Much of global media have claimed that the strenuous objections of multiple Arab and Muslim leaders were the real reason for the cancellation.
And there’s at least one prominent Israeli journalist insisting it was Netanyahu himself that cancelled, but for political reasons. A potential meeting with Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, would have been two awkward in view of his coalition partners. Only then, according to this view, did the assorted Arab and Muslim leaders cynically seek to claim credit for the cancellation.
Personally, I pray it was Netanyahu who turned down the invitation for the reason his office actually stated, and not as a face-saving measure.
There is an important point that both PM Netanyahu and President Trump understand well. They each mentioned it prominently in their Knesset speeches this week.
Peace comes through strength. It is Israel’s strength that has made it popular in the past, and will also again, G-d willing, in the future.
Yet strength is not only measured in military terms. Strength is also measured in terms of cultural self-confidence.
The readiness to say to the world, “today is our religious holiday, sorry we can’t make it”.
The readiness to say to the world, “we have our own 3,500-year old calendar, and our anniversary of the tragedy happens tomorrow, not on your October 7th”.
The readiness not to run like poodles to stand with world leaders who not long before had vilified Israel, and Netanyahu personally, some in very extreme and even antisemitic terminology.
As Rabbi Sacks ztzl often used to say, non-Jews respect Jews who respect Judaism, and they are embarrassed by Jews who are embarrassed by Judaism.
