When You’ve Got Nothing, You’ve Got Nothing to Lose
In the end, Moses stood alone in front of his people. As Zimmerman wrote, “When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose.”
Moses’ life was coming to an end, and he appealed to G-d to allow him into the Land of Israel. He would gladly step down from leadership and appoint Joshua instead. He would be happy to cross the river as one of the millions of Israelites, eager to perform the hundreds of commandments meant only for the land that G-d had chosen.
“Please let me cross over and see the good land that is on the [west] side of the Jordan River, including the good mountain and the Temple, which is called ‘the Lebanon.”’ [Deuteronomy 3:25]
G-d said no.
“G-d said to me, ‘This suffices for you. Speak to Me no more regarding this matter.’ [Deuteronomy 3:26]
Finally, it was time for Moses to do what almost all politicians would consider outrageous — to tell the truth. The truth was that a nation without honor is a people waiting to be conquered. With Israel, honor is service to the Almighty.
“Look: as G-d, my G-d, commanded me to, I have taught you rules and ordinances to abide by in the land that you are entering in order to possess. You must safeguard and perform them, for that is what will attest to your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of other peoples, who will hear all these rules and say, ‘Only this great nation is such a wise and understanding people.’” [Deuteronomy 4:5-6]
Jews represent the greatest irony of mankind: A divine nation that excels in the gentile game and yet despised precisely for its success. A people who represent less than 0.2 percent of global population received 22 percent of all Nobel Prizes. They took away awards in the fields of chemistry, economics, literature, physics — you name it. And for those who argued that Jews just make trouble, some of them even walked away with a Nobel Peace Prize.
And when the Jews were allowed to establish a state, they repeatedly pulled back from enemy territory soaked with their own blood. Israel withdrew twice from the strategic Sinai Peninsula and abandoned the holiest site in Judaism, the Temple Mount. Despite repeated attacks, the nation pulled out of Lebanon several times as well. Despite numerous promises, the Jews expelled their brethren and handed Sinai and the Gaza Strip to those sworn to destroy them — all in the name of peace, of course.
Israel’s alliance with the United States has provided the American elite with upgraded weapons platforms, stellar intelligence, economic and political cooperation. No other country has come close.
So, why is Israel and the Jews so hated?
Two years ago, Shira Ruderman, who headed her family’s foundation, hired a prominent institute to study this question. The Network Contagion Research Institute sifted through 100 million tweets over a 30-month period to find out what ordinary people were saying. The results were shocking. Israel was by far the most vilified country on Earth. The Jewish state was accused of human rights violations 111 more times than North Korea, 55 more times than Iran and 12 times more than China — all of them listed by the U.S. State Department as the greatest abusers worldwide. The ascent of Donald Trump, a friend of devout Jews, only led to a six-fold increase in Jew-hatred.
How about the American elite? Sift through the most popular podcasts where Israel and many Jews are portrayed as veritable demons. The latest canard is that Jeffrey Epstein, the man you’d never let your kid sister with, ran a global pedophile network with the Mossad. Parents watch out: Israel wants to corrupt your children!
And let’s not forget Gaza. Whether Democrats or Republicans, the Gaza Strip has become Israel’s playground for genocide and starvation — a giant and digital Auschwitz. Even Trump supporters have joined the fray, with Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene, who maintains ties to the Hasidic community, alleging starvation and genocide.
“For what great nation is there that has a god as near to it as G-d, our G-d, is to us whenever we call upon Him? And what great nation is there that has rules and ordinances as just as this entire Torah, which I am setting before you today?” [Deuteronomy 4:7-8]
None other than Moses would have the credibility to impart this message. He was the greatest prophet and leader in history. He grew up in Pharaoh’s palace. He argued with G-d repeatedly to save a brazen and unappreciative people. He even offered his own life to save his fellow man.
Moses’ bottom line to Israel was stop playing the gentile game. You will never win, and you are never supposed to. Forget PR. Nobody cares. Double standard? How else do you explain the Six Day War and last month’s pummeling of Iran. Forget sacrificing the Jews to impress the gentiles. That will only whet their appetite. Forget persecuting the devout. That will only legitimize gentile anti-Semitism.
Israel, Moses asks, do you want the nations to respect you? Then, respect yourself. Do you want the nations to honor you? Then, honor yourself. How? By studying and observing the Torah, the word of G-d.
Many centuries after Moses, a man known as the Great Asparagus watched Germany roll through and occupy his native France in just six weeks. Charles de Gaulle had been a gauche career officer dismissed by his superiors as a haughty aristocrat who held crazy ideas on how to fight a war. But in June 1940, many of his superiors, particularly Marshal Henri Petain and Pierre Laval, decided that their future rested in obeying Hitler and urging the rest of Europe to follow.
De Gaulle fled to Britain and addressed his defeated France on the BBC. He knew that any new military strategy was irrelevant, any promises of imminent liberation would be ridiculous. De Gaulle decided on a message that could enable tens of millions of Frenchmen to survive a long occupation despite the treason of the political and military leadership. It was time for the truth because the nearly two-meter general had nothing else to offer.
“I am talking about honor… I am appealing to your common sense. It is absurd to consider the fight as over…I am talking about the higher interest of our nation. Honor, common sense, and the superior interest of the nation command to all the free French to continue fighting wherever they are and however they can.” [DeGaulle address from London. June 22, 1940]
