Only God
The fact that the warrior Arik Sharon, from the political Right, replaced IsraelТs most decorated soldier, Ehud Barak, from the political Left, as this countryТs prime minister, and yet Jews remain helpless victims of Arab terrorists, should teach us that politics cannot solve IsraelТs dilemma.аа That Israel still stumbles along like a drunkard should teach us that politics has deprived this country of direction or of any sense of national purpose.а
That IsraelТs government continues to genuflect to Washington and still seeks the peace of a murderous villain like Yasser Arafat, should teach us that politics has enfeebled this country and undermined its dignity or sense of national honor.аа The successive election of seven Israeli prime ministers¾Begin, Shamir, Rabin, Peres, Netanyahu, Barak, and Sharon¾and their obvious inability even to diminish the УArab problemФ¾should teach us that democratic elections have been exercises in futility.
That Yasser Arafat remains alive despite his many rivals, that he should endure an air crash and persevere despite a crippling disease; moreover, that this ugly terrorist should win international esteem and make Israeli prime ministers appear like cretins and cravens, should make us suspect that he may be serving a world-historical purpose.а That purpose, negatively stated, is to prevent IsraelТs success of a secular democratic state.
I dare say that Arafat is nothing but an instrument of Almighty God, a whip to teach Israel that neither democratic politics, nor this or that prime minister, nor the United States, nor the Israel Defense Forces, nor technology can win the peace that Jews so ardently desire.а Arafat is thus teaching us that we can rely only on God for our salvation, but then, only if we make peace with God by serving Him rather than the idols of modernity.а
Stated another way, the sole function of the long-decadent but militant Arab-Islamic world is to create conditions that will compel Jews to become Jews!
It is no accident that the Arabs control the oil-rich Persian Gulf, which induces the democratic West to appease and arm Arab dictatorships and thus reveal the moral bankruptcy of Western democracy.аа It is no accident that the United Nations repeatedly condemns the diminutive State of Israel, for this confirms this verse of the Torah:а УBehold a people that will dwell alone and not be reckoned among the nationsФ (Numbers 23:9).
That verse can also be rendered, УBehold a people that
dwells alone and does not reckon itself
among the nationsФ!аа Israel, however,
desperately wants to be recognized as a conventional democratic state.а In witness thereof, ponder the title of
Benjamin NetanyahuТs book, A Place Among
the Nations!
The Arabs, personified by Arafat, will not allow Israel to so modest a place!а They are programmed, committed to IsraelТs destruction.а But this threat of destruction is precisely what Israel needs to become Israel!а Indeed, IsraelТsа becoming Israel is precisely what our sick world itself so desperately needs:аа The spiritual rebirth of GodТs Chosen People, the teachers of ethical monotheism, who alone know how to ascend JacobТs ladder, to link body and soul, heaven and earth.
No political ideology, no political system, no political leader, no gentile nation, can help Israel climb that ladder.а
Nevertheless, in death and destruction, the Arabs are unwittingly making more and more Jews recognize that they must take their destiny into their own hands.а This they can only do by returning to their one source of life, the Torah.
The Jews must therefore restore their truth-bearing emunah in the God of Israel.а With truth-bearing emunah they must stand alone and thereby set an example to mankind of a nation wherein freedom dwells with righteousness, equality with excellence, wealth with beauty, the here and now with love of the Eternal.