My youth was spent in the shadow of the mushroom cloud. I still remember nuclear war drills, air raid shelters, tests of the emergency brodcasting system, and the Friday Noon test of the Newton MA air raid siren. Perhaps because I was a kid, I did not give much conscious thought to the possibility of nuclear holocaust (although we were swamped with info-mercials about nuclear fall out). It was just too far-fetched a scenario.
Or, was it?
Recently, I've been haunted by a recurrent day/nightmare that I had in the late fifties and early sixties. The US and USSR face off and the world is on the brink of Mutually Assured Destruction. Just as Kennedy and Kruschev go for the button, a shofar goes off and God intervenes, sending the Messiah. The idea that man could blow himself up was just too horrible to even imagine (before The Planet of the Apes, that is).
Or, is it?
Haman's vicar on earth, Mahmud Ahmedinijad, evidently means to hit us with a nuclear bomb, at first opportunity. (Remember this?) Every day that passes he comes closer to his goal, while Europe cries negotiate (and drools at the idea of another 6,000,000+ Jews cremated). The idiots in the Democratic Party of the United States, funded by the Shalom Aleikhemesque George ('when you're rich they think you really know') Soros, also think they can reason with Iran. Even Israelis suffer from such cognitive egocentrism, as if giving the Golan sine conditiones to Syria will stop Iran, which expects the imminent arrival of the Twelfth Imam.
Ah, but they cry, Ahmedinijad wouldn't hurt Palestinians by nuking Israel!
To which I reply, why not? He'll be sending them to heaven (maybe, since Palestinians are overwhelmingly Sunni 'heretics'). After all, as Nasrallah has said, '"We have discovered how to hit the Jews where they are the most vulnerable. The Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them. We are going to win, because they love life and we love death." [And lest you think that this is uniquely Nasrallah or Shiite bluster, the first Caliph, Abu Bakr, is reported as saying: According to the Islamic practice, Khalid addressed the following letter to Hurmuz, the Iranian Commander (in 636 CE): "Accept Islam and you will be safe. If not, agree to pay the jizya or you will have to repent. I am bringing against you a people who love death as you love life."
It is not too late. We Jews must take control of our own destiny. First, we need to do and encourage Teshuva, widespread Teshuva, in light of God's clear warning. Second, we need to change governments and elect new leaders. Third, we need to strike Iran with whatever it takes. Let them curse us in Paris, in London, in Madrid and in New York. In a zero sum game, Israel will not be the zero.
2 comments:
Sorry, I have trouble taking Iran seriously, I don't know why (head in the sand, perhaps?). I just think that the powers that be won't let it happen, and don't think that Iran *really* wants to get into this.
Of course, the situation is not good.
Your cry for teshuva I find frustrating. I have heard this call so often and have found it largely pointless. More direction is needed: how? in what areas? what is the goal? how to reach those who don't buy into the religious system in a climate of isolation and denigration of the other, writ large? how do we elect new leaders, just like that? are we capable of striking Iran? how can we ensure safety post-strike? We need a step-by-step plan, not just cries in the dark. Otherwise you are adding to the general sense of frustration and widespread sense of inability with your own voice.
I feel the same way you do, basically, but I do not see a way to alter the course. If there were some way/institution, I would jump on board!
I appreciate your use of Richard Landes' language. Unfortunately, as he has argued, the Arab-Israeli problem is not a zero-sum game, but a negative-sum game.
ZS: there is only 100% to split between the two of us. If you get some (say 20%) it means I don't get that much (the 20%). So I wish that you don't get anything, since you getting a portion necessarily means I get that much less.
NS: where the Palestinians are willing to lose a great deal in order that Israel should lose [relatively] less.
Example of the wishes:
You are offered anything, but your enemy will get double of what you wish. ZS: I want to be blind in one eye.
You are offered anything, but your enemy gets half. NS: I want to be blind in both eyes.
Post a Comment