King David vs. President Bush
After seeing the incomparably lavish reception for President Bush throughout Jerusalem, one can’t help but wonder if the King David Hotel would have been so royally outfitted for King David himself. From the spit-shined parking meters to the silky American flags hanging from every lamp posts in the capital, no detail has been overlooked and no expense has been spared for this historic presidential visit.
With the airtight security, blocked roads, and posters plastered throughout the city, Jerusalemites can scarcely take a step without contending with the diplomatic pandemonium.
The paid advertisements that clutter the pages of Israel’s newspapers are sponsored by organizations spanning the entire political gamut from the far right to the extreme left and range from calls to return to the ’48 borders to affirmations not to relinquish “1 inch”. All of the messages have one thing in common – they are all pleas directed at President Bush and US administration. From empowering Bush with an article titled “Mr. President, the worlds fate is in your hands” to appealing to his sense of equity with “Mr. President, would you divide New York?”, the one comprehensive commonality is that Bush is the primary address for all appeals.
A fundamental tenant of Jewish thought is that G-d runs the world with a guiding principle of “midah k’neged midah” or “measure for measure”. While Buddhists call it Karma and other philosophies ascribe other titles, we first see the principle in the book of Genesis. Adam, ashamed with himself for his violation of G-d’s only directive, hides from the omniscient G-d of the universe who reciprocates the treatment by calling out “Adam, where are you?” Adam hid from G-d, and G-d responded accordingly, measure for measure.
Living through such a global event in such a spiritual city – one can catch a sobering glimpse into the national psyche of a frightened nation which is coming to terms with the reality that our very existence has never been in such jeopardy. The Muslim jihad is channeling their focus on the destruction of our tiny Jewish state and as we lay in the crosshairs of a soon-nuclear Iran, we desperately grasp in the darkness for an ally that will come to our aid. To our terror, our final hopes lie in the decision of a 51 year old Texan who struggles with the pronunciation of the word “nuclear”.
Knowing that G-d operates in this capacity, we can understand what G-d desires of us based on the challenges which confront us and there can be no situation better suited for the Jewish people than the one in which we find ourselves today. As the Arab world positions itself for the final offensive for which it has been patiently waiting for since our inception, The European Union and the United Nations prepare, at worst, to participate in our destruction, and at best, to sit by in complicit silence for the completion of their valiant efforts in Auschwitz just 60 years ago.
If we insist on placing our faith in The US and President Bush, then G-d will, indeed, place our fate in their hands. If we place our faith in their sense of justice and fair play we will be rewarded with morally bankrupt analogies by the secretary of State comparing the Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian Muslims to the treatment of the black slaves by the whites in the confederate south (one would think she would not disgrace the memory of her persecuted and enslaved ancestors by comparing them to bloodthirsty terrorists). If we place our faith in their sense in their sense of equity and fair play we will be rewarded by the most blatant and shameless of double standards (which label “racist” the State of Israel with 1.5 million Arab Israeli citizens while any the Arab state to be created would have to be free of every last Jew) which castigates a five year old in Judea an international criminal and labels a terrorist who murders a father and daughter a freedom fighter. If we place our faith in their character, loyalty, and integrity, we will be offered in turn as a sacrificial lamb to appease the Arab world by an administration under the greatest of pressure from within and without. The magnitudes of the “confidence building measures” in which we forfeit our Land are directly related to the ensuing Jihad and amount of Jewish blood.
The divine message communicated to us through our long history has been clear. The “idol” of the times in which we are sure that we can place our faith inevitably ends up being the tool of our very undoing. This principal is being played out right before our eyes as the US, our greatest ally and the entity in which we place our trust, is demanding of us a surrender that will put us in the most unprecedented danger. It is time that we place one last ad in the newspapers of Israel. One last ad on the billboards in our capital. Not an ad appealing to Bush or the United States, but an ad in which we affirm our faith in G-d and appeal to the Jewish People to act on that faith with the same character, courage, and integrity we expect from the rest of the world. An appeal for the Jewish People around the world to return to Israel united as one family and claim our eternal inheritance so we can finally serve our purpose as “A Light unto the Nations”.
