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Moshe Kempinski , author of The Teacher and the Preacher, is the editor of the Jerusalem Insights weekly email journal and co-owner of Shorashim, a Biblical shop and learning center in the Old City of Jerusalem.
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By Moshe Kempinski
June 6, 2007
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The enemies of Israel have learnt a lesson that has served the Anti-Semites of the world throughout the generations. When faced with interior dissent or upheaval, it is always prudent to blame the Jews. There are always two good reasons to do that. First the Jews are not well-liked by a large part of the world. Second, Jews in a copy of the classic "Abused Child Syndrome," take the blame on to themselves.
The Palestinians are gripped in a bitter internal struggle that does not discern between the innocent and the guilty. Yet both the Hamas and the Fatah understand that if no common ground for a cease fire can be found, they can always blame, attack and vilify the Jews. As a result the warring factions compete to see who can lob more kassam rockets at the civilian population of Sderot and the Western Negev.
Israel retaliates hesitantly and yet even that minor reaction sets the wolves of the world to begin their howling accusations and blistering attacks. The stage is set for blaming the Jews again.
One can see the same mechanism building up on the Syrian front. The UN Security Council has decided to establish an international court to try the President of Syria, Basher Assad and his relatives for the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The Syrian President, looking to divert attention, has begun preparations for a war against Israel. The Syrians have been acquiring anti-aircraft missiles, anti-tank missiles and cruise missiles from Russia, and strengthening their troops on the Golan for a possible land-snatch accompanied by missile attacks on Israeli civilian populations, following the prototype of last summer's Lebanon war.
The Hezbollah have been watching with great concern the airlift of American weaponry into Lebanon to aid the Lebanese government in their current struggle in Northern Lebanon in Ain al Hilwe, a sprawling camp packed with more than 47,000 refugees. The struggle against Islamist militants like the Fatah al Islam militia, a group inspired by Al Qaeda, has filled the Hezbollah with the fear that they will be the next victim of the American-equipped Lebanese army. As a result, here too there are murmurings of a desire to attack Israel.
Israeli political leadership is still floundering and vacillating as to how to deal with the threats that loom ahead in Israel's immediate future. Our current prime minister is the same individual who declared in 2005 in an address to the Israel Policy Forum how tired he was. "We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies, we want that we will be able to live in an entirely different environment of relations with our enemies." Well, he certainly has done that.
It is not a random fact that this government expelled the Jews of the Gaza settlements on exactly the same dates as when the spies sent by Moshe came back with an evil report. It is not by chance that the second Lebanon war began during those same days of weakness of spirit. It is that same faint heart that led to the decision to not enter the land of Israel that set these days on the Jewish calendar in infamy. It is no wonder that that same spirit led to the expulsion of Jews from their homes on these dates. It is those same days that we are approaching this summer.
And Calev stilled the people toward Moshe, and said: 'We should go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.' But the men that went up with him said: 'We are not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.' ... 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.' ( Bamidbar/Numbers 13; 30- 33).
Therein lays the trap and the problem. As long as our leadership and a large segment of our people see themselves as grasshoppers, unable to contend with the "giants" that surround us, we are destined for greater failure. Hamas , Hezbolla and Bashir Assad are being enticed not by the allure of their power but rather by the sickly smell of Israel's self appraisal of weakness.
Yet in this realization comes the solution as well. One of our great sages, the Gaon of Vilna, wrote that it is the "sin of the spies" that will plague the Jewish people throughout the generations until the last days. "Many will fall in this great sin of, 'They despised the cherished Land.' Also many guardians of the Torah will not know or understand that thy are caught in the sin of the Spies, that they have been drawn into the sin of the Spies by many false ideas and empty claims, and they support their claims with the already proven fallacy that the commandment to settle the Land of Israel no longer applies in our day, an opinion which has already been refuted by the Torah giants of the world, both the early and later authorities." (Kol HaTor, Ch.5)
It is in these last days that the "Sin" will have to be rectified as the opportunity arises. That opportunity is beginning to loom before us again. We need to establish once again the spirit of Calev and declare "'We should go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it." It was in Hebron, the city of Calev, that I witnessed that spirit alive and well again recently. We were participating at the wedding of Rivka and Chanoch at the steps of the Tomb of the Patriarchs. It was a celebration infused with joy, determination and vision. We sang and danced with old and young people who would not let the threats that surround them deter them from their voyage. At one point as we gathered for evening prayers, shots rang out in some hidden alleyway in the Casbah. No one flinched or stopped their silent meditation and the prayers continued until the band began to play again. As the dancing resumed I thought how all things can be put into perspective in one momentary decision and experience." People of vision will not let momentary fears and diversionary noise interrupt their forward looking appointment with destiny. So the declaration of Calev needs to be repeated and memorized: "for we are well able to overcome."
Yet this time this declaration needs to come with actions not words. Assad needs to understand that his exploits may lead to his demise. Hezbollah need to sense that an old/new spirit ahs returned to Israel's Defense Forces. Hamas needs to be returned to the holes and cellars out of which they crawled. Powerful actions in the Gaza arena and in the north may not completely cripple our enemies but they would reestablish the delicate balance of power and deterrence that has been shifted by the grasshoppers.
That simple truth would not only overturn the damage created by the action of little leaders in our generation but it also the effects of the actions of ten men who saw themselves as grasshoppers over 3118 years ago.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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