PrintApril 24, 2011
Where is Moses When We Need Him?
My fifteen year old son recently told me that he decided he is an atheist. My first reaction was that this must be part of a healthy and normal stage of teenage rebellion against a mother who is a very proud Jew and vociferous supporter of Israel.
However, after a bit of prodding, I learned that my son does not believe in God at the moment because God has not done anything of late to prove that He exists. There has been no parting of the Red Sea, no plagues or burning bushes, and no miracles to rid the world of all of the evil that is inescapable and impossible to ignore, even in the eyes of an American teenage boy. And I have to admit, it does seem logical to question God's existence when bad things happen to good people, when Islamic terrorists commit murder and mayhem on a daily basis, and when human suffering is so pervasive that millions of individuals are impacted globally with no end in sight.
However, while I do not personally question God's existence, as I celebrate the Passover holiday with its story of deliverance of the Jewish people from slavery and oppression to freedom, I do pray for a modern day Moses who will lead the Jewish people through this tumultuous time.
Today, Jews could use someone to remind them that not only are they God's chosen people, but that with that, comes responsibility. The first time the Jewish people worshiped a false idol, they were forced to wander in the desert for 40 years before finally reaching the Promised Land. They have since spent thousands of years fighting to maintain their presence on that land. Sixty-three years ago, Israel officially became a nation state and Jews must ensure that they are not driven from their land by yet another murderous and hateful people -- this time comprised of the region's Arab and Muslim populations -- who wish to see them annihilated.
Why is it that many American Jews do not see -- or seemingly care about -- the dangers facing Israel? Why do they not see how the threat to her existence has increased exponentially during the two and half years of a fumbling and disastrous Obama administration? American Jews voted overwhelmingly for a man who was clearly not going to be a friend of Israel. Perhaps they can be forgiven for ignoring all of the warning signs and falling for Obama's hopenchange rhetoric and empty promises (also known as lies). However, there is no excuse for American Jews' continued idolatry of a President whose policies include demonizing the Jewish state and propping up her enemies who have promised to destroy her.
On Obama's watch, the Mideast is blowing up. His policies of appeasement, responsibility to protect, tolerance for Islamic fundamentalism, and failure to denounce terrorism have resulted in the strengthening of the world's greatest danger, Iran. The tyrant who promised to annihilate Israel (and who could have been overthrown in 2009 were it not for US support of the mullah-controlled dictatorship rather than freedom-fighting Green Movement) has gained in power and hegemony in the region.
Obama's Mideast intervention has further resulted in America's allies falling like flies, a decades-long peace between Israel and Egypt coming apart as Egypt reaches out to Iran, Syria's Assad drawing ever closer to Iran while feeling emboldened to murder that country's freedom fighters, and the region's decades-long stability, the Pax Americana, decimated and replaced with violence and chaos.
Israel's borders are now completely surrounded by enemies -- and well-armed enemies, thanks to American military and financial support. In the next war, Israel faces a barrage of sophisticated weaponry from Hamas, Hezb'allah, Syria, and perhaps Egypt and Iran. More ominous, however, is that she also faces this alone as Obama has made perfectly clear that as long as he is in the White House, US support for Israel no longer exists.
This brings me back to our modern day Moses. While I believe the words of the Bible that "those who curse Israel will be cursed," I fear the fateful day that harm comes to Israel and the Jewish people before her enemies are destroyed. And it is in this vein that I pray for someone to lead the Jewish people (or at least the American Jewish people) in fulfilling their responsibility and destiny to help ensure Israel's survival without the need for a wake-up call in the form of a devastating war.
Anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment are on the rise the world over. In Europe it is rampant. Here in America, the BDS movement is growing daily and Israel Apartheid Week is celebrated on college campuses. Pro-Palestinian groups set up their "Wall of Lies" and comfortably dance in Grand Central Station, and pro-Israel speakers are jeered and heckled when they attempt to speak at public forums. And way too many American Jews belong to the pro-Palestinian, George Soros-funded, and Obama-supported group J Street.
In an interview with Sean Hannity last week, Donald Trump voiced the sentiment that many of us have been uttering:
"I don't understand. I have so many Jewish friends that are big Obama fans and they're supporting Obama and giving tremendous amounts...Obama's terrible for Israel, he's terrible for Israel."
Many Jewish activists are dedicating their lives to change the narrative and build support for Israel. Websites and blogs that root out anti-Semitism and bring truth to an otherwise insanely irrational world of thought grow daily. And many pro-Israel groups have been formed to fight anti-Semitism and support the tiny Jewish state that brings so much good to the world and that only wishes to be left alone to live in peace with its neighbors.
However, the message is not reaching the masses. The Jewish people need a leader who can stand at the top of the mountain holding his or her staff and promising God that the Jewish people have learned the lessons of history and they will bond together to ensure that Israel's enemies do not begin the process, once again, of destroying her. But sadly, I do not see that person emerging. And that is not meant as a slight on those who are trying. But like my son, I could use a little sign from God that although bad times are coming, we have a home court advantage that we will not lose this time around.
I often wonder if Elie Wiesel survived the Nazi concentration camps because God had a greater plan for him down the road, or if Bibi Netanyahu will face Obama at their next meeting and instead of saying, "Let my people go," order him to "Stop bullying Israel." Perhaps Joe Lieberman or Eric Cantor will rise to the occasion and visit with Ahmadinejad to share the message that notwithstanding the present administration, any attack on Israel will be met with far greater devastation to he and his people than ever imagined (a few plagues in the meantime would not be so bad). Or perhaps someone unexpected will appear.
In reading about the tenth and final plague that ultimately led to Pharaoh releasing the Jewish people from their bondage -- the death of all Egyptian firstborn -- one passage from the Passover Haggadah struck me as being particularly relevant today:
Why was it important that every Egyptian was afflicted? It was to teach them an important lesson; namely, that even though only some were directly involved in oppressing the Hebrews, all were responsible because they did not stand up and protest Pharaoh's evil deeds against our ancestors.
This Passover holiday, I pray that the Jewish people do not have to learn a lesson the hard way and that all of Israel will not have to pay the price for Jews worshiping another false idol rather than standing up and protesting his policies against our homeland.
