Fundamental Flaw

Today I managed to attend a couple of sessions/panels at the Jerusalem Conference. I took notes, but this I'm writing from memory. It stood out, because it's a typical and fundamental flaw in Israeli thinking.

Many politicians were included as speakers and panelists at the conference. Most plentiful were Likud MK's (Members of Knesset) and the wannabees, the "hopefuls" running on the list. They generally gave such good Right-wing speeches, you'd expect them to be in Ichud Le'umi.

Likud MK Silvan Shalom was one of the speakers in "The Threats Facing Israel and the West, Is There a “Clash of Civilizations?" I had missed Rabbi Gold's introductory remarks, but I was told that when Silvan Shalom criticized him, it was clear that MK Shalom had misunderstood the rabbi's words.

MK Shalom tried to prove that dangerous ideologies can be defeated by military means. I have no problem with that basic premise, just the example he gave. He described World War Two as nations uniting to fight the ideology of Nazism.

That wasn't the situation. No country cared about internal Nazi ideology. They didn't care when Jews and other "undesirables according to Nazi ideology" lost their jobs, homes and lives. If Nazi Germany had just stayed in Germany, nobody would have gone to war.

The European countries which were at war against Germany were in defense of their existence. They were fighting the German military, not the Nazi, pro-Aryan ideology. No country, and that included the United States, went to war against Nazi Germany to save Jews.

I have no doubt that the myth is believed by the vast majority of Israelis, and that's why they suffer the delusion that America is our friend and would save us, if necessary. This fundamental flaw endangers us. We must be strong, self-reliant and independent.

I also partially disagree with a later speaker, Maj. General (reserves) Yossi Peled past OC Northern Command, Candidate for Likud, who said that "unlike most every other country, Israel can't afford to lose even a single war." True, G-d forbid, losing a war would mean the end of the State of Israel. But the Jewish People have been in existence for thousands of years, and we have suffered defeats and the destruction of our ancient country and independence. And as the world saw in 1948, we've come back to life.

If G-d forbid this modern country is destroyed, then in a hundred or a few hundred years, the Jewish People will try again and G-d willing finally get it right.

Please pray that G-d succeeds in planting true wisdom in our leaders.