The View From The Golan
Some Questions Answered
Last week I opened the forum to questions. Here are a couple and what I hope are useful responses.
The first is of a more spiritual nature and the second focused on the realpolitik of the current situation.
The 1st question is: “Do you believe there is a divine being protecting you and Israelis from harm?”
So the simple answer from me is Yes! Of course, I am a religious Jew living in the Land of Israel and this most certainly has shaped my world view.
However, I would like to elaborate on the idea of “divine protection” as learned from our Sages. Often we think of divine protection as Gd’s hand watching over us on our path through life. Perhaps it is more pronounced during struggles or danger. I am walking in Gd’s ways therefore He is watching over me. But what do you do when harm comes to you? When you or those around you suffer? Where is this protection when, Gd forbid, a child is killed in war?
In this instance, as we are talking about war and its expansion to include a much more direct battle with Iran, it is very helpful to view the idea from the following angle. Gd (the Divine) has a plan for His creation. It is laid out for us in His Torah, the words of His Prophets, and the teachings of our Sages (I will leave it to you to read up on it). The founding of Am Yisrael and its life in Eretz Yisrael is central to that plan. That plan will come to fruition and there is no one in the world who can stop it.
For instance, we read last week about the Nation of Israel leaving camp around Mt. Sinai and setting out to the Land of Israel. In just a few days they would have entered but the people complained and the entrance was delayed. This week the people were at the entrance to the Land and sent in leaders of the tribes to scout it out. After 40 days, 10 out of the 12 leaders came back and gave a report that so disheartened the people it almost drove them back to Egypt. For this the people of that generation were condemned to never enter the Land of Israel but to die in the desert, leaving the job to their children and grandchildren. 40 days, a year for a day, a year for a day, that became 40 years of the Jews wandering in the desert. And indeed, after 40 years Joshua brought the People into the Land.
This movement towards fruition of the plan and then falter is repeated over and over again through history. This is the concept of Netzach Yisrael or the eternity of the Jewish People (נצח ישראל חא ישכר). In essence, Am Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael and Torat Yisrael are all intertwined in the fulfillment of Gd’s plan, and despite the setbacks, Gd’s Divine Protection is always there. Sometimes hidden, sometimes barely visible, other times out in the open for all to see.
However, this is protection of the whole and not necessarily each individual that makes up the whole. Therefore, soldiers are injured or killed, people are killed by missiles, etc. As Gd says to the people before the Exodus from Egypt:
וּלְקַחְתֶּ֞ם אֲגֻדַּ֣ת אֵז֗וֹב וּטְבַלְתֶּם֮ בַּדָּ֣ם אֲשֶׁר־בַּסַּף֒ וְהִגַּעְתֶּ֤ם אֶל־הַמַּשְׁקוֹף֙ וְאֶל־שְׁתֵּ֣י הַמְּזוּזֹ֔ת מִן־הַדָּ֖ם אֲשֶׁ֣ר בַּסָּ֑ף וְאַתֶּ֗ם לֹ֥א תֵצְא֛וּ אִ֥ישׁ מִפֶּֽתַח־בֵּית֖וֹ עַד־בֹּֽקֶר׃
Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and to the two doorposts. None of you shall go outside the door of your house until morning.
וְעָבַ֣ר יְהֹוָה֮ לִנְגֹּ֣ף אֶת־מִצְרַ֒יִם֒ וְרָאָ֤ה אֶת־הַדָּם֙ עַל־הַמַּשְׁק֔וֹף וְעַ֖ל שְׁתֵּ֣י הַמְּזוּזֹ֑ת וּפָסַ֤ח יְהֹוָה֙ עַל־הַפֶּ֔תַח וְלֹ֤א יִתֵּן֙ הַמַּשְׁחִ֔ית לָבֹ֥א אֶל־בָּתֵּיכֶ֖ם לִנְגֹּֽף׃
For when Gd goes to smite the Egyptians, He will see the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, and Gd will stand over the door and not let the Destroyer enter and smite your home.
Meaning, if you do not do this, or you go outside during this time you are liable to lose your life as the Destroyer will not discern between individuals. And often, so too, in times of war, the righteous and the evil are caught up in the destruction.
Am Yisrael enjoys Divine Protection through the ages and we also do as individuals but we never really know to what degree we are worthy of it or what other circumstances are at play catching us up in the suffering or loss.
Perhaps the best place to feel this tension and longing is in the Psalms of David. Check out Psalm 142 for starters.
The 2nd question asks: “What is the source of the conflict between Iran and Israel?”
I will try and answer this as simply as possible. First of all, there was no conflict between Iran and Israel until Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took power in Iran in 1979. In fact, Israel and Iran had a working relationship.
This changed after the Islamic Revolution that overthrew the Shah in January 1979. It changed for the following reasons, as written and espoused by Khomeini during his brief exile in France in 1978-1979 and repeated by the regime ever since. Here a few of his key points:
The Rise of Islam: At the center of his vision was the establishment of a truly independent Islamic government in Iran, based entirely on Sharia law. This would revive Islamic Shi'ism and serve as a revolutionary force to liberate the Islamic world of Western influence.
The Evils of Western Culture: The West is inherently corrupt and imperialistic, whether capitalist, communist or socialist, focused on materialism which fostered a moral decay wherever it was to be found. It is the duty of Islam to wash this away.
The Need to Combat America: He portrayed the United States as the "Great Satan" whose influence was corrupting Iran and all Islamic nations. The US was the symbol of Western culture and power and must be defied, overcome and ultimately destroyed or rendered powerless against the will of a revolutionary Iran.
The Zionist Cancer: Israel was referred to as the “Little Satan”, an extension of the Great Satan’s influence in the muslim world. He called Israel a “cancerous tumor” and the "nucleus of evil” that must be destroyed. It was an affront to Islam that it occupied muslim lands and it was the duty of the Nation of Islam, the Ummah, to unite to destroy it.
The Iranian regime since the revolution has never wavered from its goals. During the 1st Lebanon War it set out a plan to harass Israel from as many directions as possible. For more than 3 decades it has implemented that plan, supporting Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria, Shia militias in Iraq and Syria, and across the world (i.e. Israeli Embassy bombing in Argentina in 1992, 29 killed, and Israel Association in Argentina, 1994, 85 killed, with hundreds wounded in both incidents).
It has pursued the acquisition of nuclear weapons since the 1990s and a sophisticated program of ballistic missiles for almost as long.
This is a religious conflict, based on one side's (the Iranian’s) vision of world domination. It is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Arab Muslims and Christians. Israel, the US and all other western countries stand in its way and therefore we are at war.
Meir
Some Sources:
The Fundamentals of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change
12 Statements from Imam Khamenei on the definite collapse of the US regime, Khamenei.IR
An Iranian Worldview, The Strategic Culture of the Islamic Republic, Marine Corps University Press
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