Giants Of The West

Moshe Kempinski

The world is seemingly looming over the small and fragile state of Israel. It is raising its fists in frustration and filling its chest with indignant airs over the incalcitrant Jews of Israel. On the other hand this same world is much more insecure and bruised than it was before the financial crisis.

It is a world which is much more frightened and fragile than it was in before the events of 9/11. Mankind feels a lot more unstable and uneasy in our time as bastion after bastion of security has fallen and anchor after anchor of permanence has been uprooted.



As a result the world is a lot more dangerous to itself in general and to Israel in particular.



Mankind yearns for simple solutions and quick conflict resolution in the best of times. Yet in times of insecurity and confusion it is more easily drawn down that futile path of simplified solutions. It is especially in such times that individuals and leaders arise and speak in comforting sound bites and with packaged metaphors. Such leaders, in such times, can become formidable foes of complicated and layer-deep truths, even if their intentions are well meaning. President Obama has become such a leader.



His administration's proposed peace plan with its two year deadline is an example of the dangers that Israel is confronted with. The new American president has adopted the classic colonialist attitude of coming in to a situation and imposing a solution on the "unruly children" in the third world .In the words of Samantha Powers considered one of president Obama's closest adviser (the Washington Post identified her and retired Maj. Gen. Scott Garion as “closest to Obama, part of a group-within-the-group that he regularly turns to for advice. ;



"What we need is a willingness to put something on the line in helping the situation. Putting something on the line might mean alienating a domestic constituency of tremendous political and financial import;.....also, to support what will have to be a mammoth protection force, not of the old Rwanda kind, but a meaningful military presence. ....Unfortunately, imposition of a solution on unwilling parties is dreadful. It’s a terrible thing to do, it’s fundamentally undemocratic. But, sadly, we don’t just have a democracy here either, we have a liberal democracy. There are certain sets of principles that guide our policy or that are meant to, anyway. It’s essential that some set of principles becomes the benchmark, rather than a deference to [leaders] who are fundamentally politically destined to destroy the lives of their own people.( in an interview in Berkeley in 2002)"



What Israel may be facing then is an administration that toys with the idea of military intervention in Israel on behalf of a Palestinian state.



President Obama's two state solution is in reality, in Benny Begin's words ,a two stage solution for Israel's destruction..Yet there are few in this floundering world that have the nerve and stamina needed to stand up to this man being termed as "the coolest President America has known" . There are few capable of helping President Obama confront reality rather than to be dazzled by his own rhetoric. This administration needs to be reminded that the Middle East is not a third grade class and those are not spitballs that are being thrown around in this region.



Yet at this point the plans and machinations of the west are looming over this country like giants of great powers. It is, as always no coincidence that this week’s Torah portion relates similar fears by the people of Israel as they were about to enter into the "land of Promise".





And they spread an evil report of the land which they had spied out to the children of Israel, saying: 'The land, through which we have passed to spy it out, is a land that eats up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come of the Nephilim; and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.'( Numbers 13:32-33)

They too , saw the obstacles before them as Giants. They too fell into that faulty vision because they lost sense of their own self worth and lost the understanding of the Divine source of their power. They too could not hear the pure faith filled voices of Yehoshua and Calev;

And Yehoshua the son of Nun and Calev the son of Yefunneh, who were of them that spied out the land, rent their clothes. And they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying: 'The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land. If HaShem delights in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it to us--a land which flows with milk and honey. Only rebel not against the LORD, neither fear the people of the land; for they are bread for us; their defence is removed from over them, and HaShem is with us; fear them not.'( Numbers 14:6-9)



Prime Minister Netanyahu will be answering the American demands on Sunday. It would do him well to read the Torah portion on Shabbat and avoid the cries of those who see themselves as grasshoppers. Rather he should heed the supporting calls of those who have not lost faith and have not abandoned vision. He should fine-tune his soul so that it too could hear the call declared by Calev so very long ago. A call that continues to resonate throughout Jewish history.



“ Ki Yachol Nuchal La; for we are well able to overcome it.(Numbers 13:30)