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Abraham and the impossible

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Sar Kenan, Gateway to Canaan, ancient gateway into Israel from the north. Abraham came through this gate. The Canaanites came later. (Iran, take heed.) To deny that is the height of chutzpah and against Providence. The secular Zionism of the present Republic of Israel misses the real significance of this artifact.

The Torah tells us that Abraham was extremely old and that Sarah was beyond child-bearing age. Indeed, the Talmud says she had no womb! Rabbi Akiva Tatz, a physician and a philosopher, offers a familiar as well as unfamiliar commentary:

When these two people, totally devoid of any possibility of having a child, were told that they would in fact have a child, they laughed. And a child was born. And his Divinely given name was Yitzchak—“He shall laugh”. Isn’t this the entire story of the Jewish people?

This suggests Judaism begins with the impossible. Ever hear of the “Six Day War”?

Abraham would know what Netanyahu does not

Abraham leaving home

Abraham’s journey from Ur to Canaan. Painting: József Molnár, 1850

This last comment should be taken to heart by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s demoralizing endorsement of a Muslim Arab state in the West Bank, i.e., in Judea and Samaria, the heartland of the Jewish people.

Jews should bear in mind that such prime ministers are all-too-human or anti-heroic. They do not believe in the impossible, or in miracles, which means they do not believe in the God of Abraham. They are creatures of politics, and politics is nothing more than the “art of the possible.”

What is deemed possible, of course, depends largely on the intellectual and moral character of the politician.

As everyone knows, however, today’s politicians are little men whose mental horizon extends no further than the possible, which amounts to nothing more than security.

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Hence, it’s ironic that Netanyahu aspires to be remembered as the “Protector of Israel.” No one has been longer than him as Israel’s PM, and today Israel is threatened with annihilation by thousands of missiles Iran supplied Hezbollah in Lebanon, and most of those missiles were accumulated by Hezbollah during Netanyahu’s premiership–the passive “Protector” of Israel!

Hezbollah’s deployment of that vast number of missiles is the result of Israeli do nothing policy, a policy of passivity for which Netanyahu is largely responsible.

This timid policy means that Israel must be attacked first before it responds – which makes nonsense of Netanyahu’s aspiration of being known as “Protector of Israel.”

But what more is to be expected of a politician whose political aspirations are no loftier than security? Does this Include his own security or longevity as Prime Minister?☼

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