B"H
MORE THOUGHTS ON ELECTIONS
Dear Friends:
Recently, I saw an Associated Press account of a meeting in Cleveland between presidential aspirant Obama and "100 Jewish leaders." I am not being partisan, nor advocating voting for or against anyone in particular, but I think it important to try to understand one comment.
Obama is quoted as follows: "This is where I get to be honest, and I hope I'm not out of school here. I think there is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt an unwavering, pro-Likud approach to Israel that you're anti-Israel, and that can't be the measure of our friendship with Israel."
What bothered me about those words?
First, the words "this is where I get to be honest," which clearly imply that all the apparently pro-Israel words that came before were not honest. Is he being "honest" now and not before? That's how it sounds.
Furthermore, these words were clearly what was uppermost in his mind. He was just waiting to get his chance to put us in our place. But what's so bad? Does Obama have to join Likud?
I'll tell you what's so bad.
There's an implied threat here. He's implying very clearly that he stands above us and is judging Israel. He is warning us: "there are limits to my endorsement of Israel; you Jews had better be careful."
Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. McCain, and whoever else is listening: With G-d 's help, I am going to try to give perspective on these words.
Passover is coming. At the Seder Table we read the Haggadah, which recounts events that took place in Egypt some 3300 years ago, when Egypt was the mightiest kingdom in the world. Pharaoh was apparently invincible and the Children of Israel were slaves in a society from which no one had ever escaped. Yet within a year Egypt disintegrated under the blows from Heaven.
We Children of Israel are Children of G-d. We have a divine destiny. Sometimes we forget what our mission is. Sometimes the nations of the world forget what our mission is. But G-d does not forget.
Mr. Obama - and others on the world stage - with all due humility, I would like to remind you that we Children of Israel have returned to our Holy Land after two thousand years in response to the plan of Heaven, as predicted by our Prophets and our Sages. We are not there by accident and, no matter what the population statistics or the apparent "balance of power," the Power that directs our destiny is the Al-mighty G-d.
You, who speak arrogantly of your attitude toward Israel and the Jewish People, you who act as if you pull the strings and direct the affairs of the world, are mere puppets who have been given permission to open your mouth for a few seconds. Soon your moment under the sun will end, and you will lie in the dust heap of history along with the other pretenders to power and glory. Your arrogance, as if you have power over Israel, as if you have power over anything whatsoever under the sun, will lie in the dust with you. The greater your arrogance, the greater will be your downfall!
Do not lecture us about an "unwavering, pro-Likud approach" to Jewish affairs. Neither Likud, nor Labor, nor Kadima, nor any of the other parties rule the future of Israel. G-d has brought us back this far and G-d will bring us back completely at the moment and in the way He chooses.
As the Prophet Yechezkel says in the Haftara that we just read on Parshas Parah, "Not for your sake do I act, O House of Israel, but for My holy Name that you have desecrated among the nations to which you came. And I will sanctify My great Name that you desecrated among the nations.... Then the nations shall know that I am Hashem ... when I become sanctified through you in their sight, and I shall take you from the nations and gather you in from all the countries and I shall bring you to your Land and I shall sprinkle pure water upon you that you be cleansed from all your contamination and all your filth.... [1]
Not only is it time for the politicians to realize the truth, but it is time for us, the Children of Israel, to realize the truth. At that moment, " G-d will be One and His Name One..." and we will experience the Final Redemption with the coming of Moshiach ben Dovid, may we greet him soon in our days!
Roy S. Neuberger
© Copyright 2008 by Roy S. Neuberger
[1] Yechezkel (Ezekial) 36:22-25
