'...a nation of sailors on shore leave, living it up until the next stormy sea' That you are folks, I'm so glad I came to research here from Ireland, you've given me hope. There is a way forward for the West. Here, I feel most alive. 👍🐋🎗
My Aunts asked recently, when I was back in Ireland: "what are the Israelis like"? And I said, "ah, sure, they're not unlike that there woman named Rio and she Dances in the Sand"👍🇮🇱
Me Mc, I'm Pollannish. Listen lad - Be Grend😂👍👍🇮🇪🤣
We cannot worry about "standing." Europe is a huge disappointment, I agree. Europe has a deep hate for Jews, always has. And now, with the foolish import of so many Muslims, many western countries have to worry about their votes. And yet, as Michael points out, many Middle Eastern countries still stand with Israel. That is remarkable and fabulous.
So many of us ride the coattails of your faith while we helplessly watch your suffering. I am ashamed of my culture that is turning its back and averting its gaze from the very foundation of its so called beliefs.
We live in a world awash in cowardice and lies as it witnesses, if not abets, its own moral disintegration. We will all suffer from this. Western civilization is attending its slow death.
I so wish for your optimism. If anyone can re-emerge from these self inflicted wounds, it will be Israel, eventually. Maybe next time we will be more useful.
That is a brilliant line, sad as it is: "western civilization is attending its slow death." I keep hoping we will reach a point where something happens and we wake up. I just hope it isn't too late.
An Israeli friend asked me this morning: “How do we stay resilient, strong even when we are like a fugitive framed for a murder he did not commit while the entire world believes the framing.” And I answered: Stay strong and glory in our awesome gift: each other. Try every day to outsmart our enemies while carrying on our usual devotion to improving the world.
Your assessment of the situation is most thoughtful and inspiring. Thank you sharing your insights and perspective on how we got here and why we are here.
Wow, I needed this! Thank you, beautifully said. This is not an easy time, but our ancestors have endured far worse. The remnant always survived, and often thrived. We owe it to all of them to have faith and never give up.
Is there another people on the face of this planet who have survived and flourished as have the Jewish people. There is no possible logic to how it happens that we are still here, while other mightier nations are gone.
Yes there is a logic that works behind it. It is from the way our problems have been solved by taking a realistic attitude to our situation, and by taking the right steps in making sensible decisions for the future. Sometimes we err and do not manage well, but when we look at the Big Picture as a whole, we know that we are succeeding.
One of the main reasons we are still here is because the US (finally) got involved in WWII and vanquished the Nazis. Without that, the Nazis would have expanded their genocide to the Middle East and outward from there. The grand mufti (appointed by the British) was already involved in that plan. But the US also turned away the SS St. Louis, refused to allow the bulk of European Jews to immigrate, and refused to bomb the tracks to the camps or the crematoria-thus contributing to the certain torture and death of the Jews in the camps and on the streets of Europe. Why was that? The same reason the world is being so hateful to us now. Pure, unadulterated anti-semitism. From the churches to the mosques, humans are still being taught to hate and distrust Jews. The descendants of Nazis, most of whom went unpunished, carry on their sick, genocidal hate. No… we haven’t survived by some sort of divine intervention. We’ve survived by default. Pure luck. But now we have Israel- home to the smartest, pluckiest, most resilient people on the planet. They can’t give in and they can’t give up. And hopefully they won’t. Because appeasing the Jew-hating world has never served them well. Fight on, Israel!
"Because appeasing the Jew-hating world has never served them well." And yet our people have done that repeatedly in our long history.
From the Roman occupiers in the 1st century, to the Arab colonial slavers in medieval times, to the Bolsheviks in the 20th century, we have fallen for appeasement as a survival strategy -- and every time we nearly got ourselves annihilated. The Israeli Left spent decades appeasing those who never made it a secret that they dream of killing all Jews -- and to this day all Israelis are still paying a horrible price for that.
"Plucky and resilient," yes. "Smart"? Not when it clashes with that stubborn naivete in choosing friends. The Jewish progressives in the US are doing it again, trying to make peace with the Muslim takeover of the West. Again, Sharia law makes no secret of what awaits you, and no 'moderate Muslim' will dare to disown Sharia law.
Bottom Line: If our survival had depended on our "default" behavior, you and I wouldn't be here to argue about it.
Far as "pure luck", I refer you back to Michael Oren's comment on that explanation, which I cannot say better. I would only add that elevating "luck" to a "default" result spanning 4000 years is not even rational.
And what about all those *Return To Your Land* predictions from the Jewish prophets now materializing before our eyes, which Oren didn't mention in his piece? Which explanation is more likely: that Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, et al. succeeded in guessing an impossible future... in fact, the very same counter-intuitive scenario... by "pure luck"? Or that they were actually getting promises from a God who claims Israel for Himself, as they claimed was the case?
Occam's Razor says, "the simplest explanation is usually the right one."
Modern Thought says, "if the simplest explanation suggests the existence of God, overturn natural laws, invert logic, and ignore reason itself in order to exclude it."
Just finished reading Zipporah (Borowsky) Porath, Letters from Jerusalem, 1947-1948. After the Ben-Yehuda Street terror attack (3 dynamite-filled trucks) in February 1948 in Jerusalem, which killed over 50 men, women, and children and wounded over 170, she wrote to her family in New York: “The people who live here have superhuman guts and patience to absorb blow after blow—from the Arabs, from the British, from all sides. I know that on shmirah (guard duty) tonight, I’ll be gripping the sten gun just a little bit more firmly, for it is events like this that ignite the kind of burning anger which can transform even a peace-loving person into a fighter, a soldier.... Are there words to describe senseless human tragedy? Will I, can I, ever forget this day? I am becoming like the Jews who live here: every shock and sorrow nurtures them to grim restraint and fierce dedication.”
Beautifully written. Other than the atrocities of October 7th, the most heartbreaking aspect of this nearly two year nightmare is to watch liberal Jews and prominent democrats defend the actions of Hamas and the Palestinians.
'...a nation of sailors on shore leave, living it up until the next stormy sea' That you are folks, I'm so glad I came to research here from Ireland, you've given me hope. There is a way forward for the West. Here, I feel most alive. 👍🐋🎗
My Aunts asked recently, when I was back in Ireland: "what are the Israelis like"? And I said, "ah, sure, they're not unlike that there woman named Rio and she Dances in the Sand"👍🇮🇱
Me Mc, I'm Pollannish. Listen lad - Be Grend😂👍👍🇮🇪🤣
Moving.
Beautiful
Hope you’re correct.
Have never been so desolate regarding our standing in the world and here at home in NYC.
We cannot worry about "standing." Europe is a huge disappointment, I agree. Europe has a deep hate for Jews, always has. And now, with the foolish import of so many Muslims, many western countries have to worry about their votes. And yet, as Michael points out, many Middle Eastern countries still stand with Israel. That is remarkable and fabulous.
So many of us ride the coattails of your faith while we helplessly watch your suffering. I am ashamed of my culture that is turning its back and averting its gaze from the very foundation of its so called beliefs.
We live in a world awash in cowardice and lies as it witnesses, if not abets, its own moral disintegration. We will all suffer from this. Western civilization is attending its slow death.
I so wish for your optimism. If anyone can re-emerge from these self inflicted wounds, it will be Israel, eventually. Maybe next time we will be more useful.
Thank you.
That is a brilliant line, sad as it is: "western civilization is attending its slow death." I keep hoping we will reach a point where something happens and we wake up. I just hope it isn't too late.
An Israeli friend asked me this morning: “How do we stay resilient, strong even when we are like a fugitive framed for a murder he did not commit while the entire world believes the framing.” And I answered: Stay strong and glory in our awesome gift: each other. Try every day to outsmart our enemies while carrying on our usual devotion to improving the world.
A wonderful column, expressing real hope not just talking points. Thank you very much!
The prophet Zechariah refers to his people as "prisoners of hope" (asirei ha-tikvah) (9:12). It's in our DNA!
Your assessment of the situation is most thoughtful and inspiring. Thank you sharing your insights and perspective on how we got here and why we are here.
Hi, Matt. Is that you?
Wow, I needed this! Thank you, beautifully said. This is not an easy time, but our ancestors have endured far worse. The remnant always survived, and often thrived. We owe it to all of them to have faith and never give up.
Is there another people on the face of this planet who have survived and flourished as have the Jewish people. There is no possible logic to how it happens that we are still here, while other mightier nations are gone.
Yes there is a logic that works behind it. It is from the way our problems have been solved by taking a realistic attitude to our situation, and by taking the right steps in making sensible decisions for the future. Sometimes we err and do not manage well, but when we look at the Big Picture as a whole, we know that we are succeeding.
One of the main reasons we are still here is because the US (finally) got involved in WWII and vanquished the Nazis. Without that, the Nazis would have expanded their genocide to the Middle East and outward from there. The grand mufti (appointed by the British) was already involved in that plan. But the US also turned away the SS St. Louis, refused to allow the bulk of European Jews to immigrate, and refused to bomb the tracks to the camps or the crematoria-thus contributing to the certain torture and death of the Jews in the camps and on the streets of Europe. Why was that? The same reason the world is being so hateful to us now. Pure, unadulterated anti-semitism. From the churches to the mosques, humans are still being taught to hate and distrust Jews. The descendants of Nazis, most of whom went unpunished, carry on their sick, genocidal hate. No… we haven’t survived by some sort of divine intervention. We’ve survived by default. Pure luck. But now we have Israel- home to the smartest, pluckiest, most resilient people on the planet. They can’t give in and they can’t give up. And hopefully they won’t. Because appeasing the Jew-hating world has never served them well. Fight on, Israel!
"Because appeasing the Jew-hating world has never served them well." And yet our people have done that repeatedly in our long history.
From the Roman occupiers in the 1st century, to the Arab colonial slavers in medieval times, to the Bolsheviks in the 20th century, we have fallen for appeasement as a survival strategy -- and every time we nearly got ourselves annihilated. The Israeli Left spent decades appeasing those who never made it a secret that they dream of killing all Jews -- and to this day all Israelis are still paying a horrible price for that.
"Plucky and resilient," yes. "Smart"? Not when it clashes with that stubborn naivete in choosing friends. The Jewish progressives in the US are doing it again, trying to make peace with the Muslim takeover of the West. Again, Sharia law makes no secret of what awaits you, and no 'moderate Muslim' will dare to disown Sharia law.
Bottom Line: If our survival had depended on our "default" behavior, you and I wouldn't be here to argue about it.
Far as "pure luck", I refer you back to Michael Oren's comment on that explanation, which I cannot say better. I would only add that elevating "luck" to a "default" result spanning 4000 years is not even rational.
And what about all those *Return To Your Land* predictions from the Jewish prophets now materializing before our eyes, which Oren didn't mention in his piece? Which explanation is more likely: that Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, et al. succeeded in guessing an impossible future... in fact, the very same counter-intuitive scenario... by "pure luck"? Or that they were actually getting promises from a God who claims Israel for Himself, as they claimed was the case?
Occam's Razor says, "the simplest explanation is usually the right one."
Modern Thought says, "if the simplest explanation suggests the existence of God, overturn natural laws, invert logic, and ignore reason itself in order to exclude it."
Thank you 🙏 for your perspective that is so important as it reflects so many lenses
Thank you, Rabbi.
From a devout atheist
Just finished reading Zipporah (Borowsky) Porath, Letters from Jerusalem, 1947-1948. After the Ben-Yehuda Street terror attack (3 dynamite-filled trucks) in February 1948 in Jerusalem, which killed over 50 men, women, and children and wounded over 170, she wrote to her family in New York: “The people who live here have superhuman guts and patience to absorb blow after blow—from the Arabs, from the British, from all sides. I know that on shmirah (guard duty) tonight, I’ll be gripping the sten gun just a little bit more firmly, for it is events like this that ignite the kind of burning anger which can transform even a peace-loving person into a fighter, a soldier.... Are there words to describe senseless human tragedy? Will I, can I, ever forget this day? I am becoming like the Jews who live here: every shock and sorrow nurtures them to grim restraint and fierce dedication.”
Beautiful.
I've never been so optimistic about Israel and it's greatest generation.
Beautifully said
Exquisitely thought and expressed, Michael. You are a great asset to our people, to Israel and this world.
Beautifully written. Other than the atrocities of October 7th, the most heartbreaking aspect of this nearly two year nightmare is to watch liberal Jews and prominent democrats defend the actions of Hamas and the Palestinians.
Those lost Jews will go the way of their equivalents from other points of history….to the wind and out of the Jewish story.