I was asked each day following the activation of the nuclear reactor in Iran why there is nothing about Iran in the Israeli media. There may have been a small news item somewhere, but the news is not really of much interest to anyone.
I wonder how the threat seems so far away. Could it be Iran’s new launch and delivery capabilities or a renewed determination to eliminate the tiny nuisance along the shores of the Mediterranean is now paled by comparison to a focus on much bigger fish? Perhaps it is Iran’s desire to conquer Europe and America and bring them under an Islamic Caliphate taking center stage and diverting attention?
Possibly we cannot comprehend the dangers since we have belittled the Iranians for so long, ridiculed their intentions and ignored their progress and determination? Or maybe it is that Iran, much like Iraq and Afghanistan, are someone else’s problem?
We do not give the Iranians the credit they deserve, and we will end up paying dearly for this mistake. There seems to be no world leader who will stand up and fight their evil intentions, not mere words of rhetoric, but of actions. We have become a society that acquiesces and concedes, and soon we will feel the wrath of the Mullahs.
Clearly a decision to act against Iran will usher in a new world order at a price to humanity and Mother Earth not previously extracted. The horrors unleashed will be amazing in grandeur and magnitude, from whole areas becoming inhabitable, water bodies becoming death traps for centuries, to possibly billions dead due to bacteria and viruses never previously encountered.
Who is willing to take the risk and be blamed till the end of times as the man who started it all? Who is more responsible, the aggressor or those who allow his aggression? The eyes of the world are turned toward The American Peace Laureate or alternatively Israel. Israeli politicians are embroiled in everything but substance. As always they are receiving conflicting advice from strategic consultants and experts, some pointing to the danger of doing nothing, others to the reasons Israel must not act.
Israel will not fire at a vessel whose passengers made their aggressive intentions known. “We simply cannot fire at a vessel with hundreds of civilians on it,” said this week the Military Advocate General. I was sitting three rows behind him, in utter amazement. What would Israel do if an airplane were approaching her airspace with hundreds of passengers held hostage at gunpoint by hijackers?
Israel had to grapple with exactly such issues in past decades, and the decision was not and never will be easy. As we all fly more and more, I imagine myself in a hypothetical scenario if a plane outbound to the States from Israel in which I am flying were to be hijacked. What would I do? What would I expect the Governments of the USA or Israel to do?
I am reminded of people exactly like you and me in such a scenario on a Tuesday morning nine years ago. They realized that talk is cheap and the hijackers were planning something even more horrible than the scattered news at that hour about an attack on US Soil and the World Trade Center twin towers.
Decisions had to be made on the spot. There was no time for contemplation, academic freedom or other philosophical discussions. The President was reading to first graders. The whole defense apparatus was unprepared and everyone was scrambling to make sense of the unfolding horrific news.
The passengers and crew on United Flight 93 from Newark, NJ, to San Francisco, CA, had minutes to make a decision. They too could have awaited a positive outcome, or for someone else to take action. What would you have done if you were seated in this flight? Would you have been willing to fight for the lives of others, at a clear risk to your own life? What about your wife and kids, parents and siblings, friends and business?
A decision was made and action mounted by the 40 members of the passengers and crew who were still alive.
The most amazing courage and leadership were exhibited in those defining moments. A decision was made and action mounted by the 40 members of the passengers and crew who were still alive.
The plane broke into fragments upon impact and a crater was created. But the White House and Capitol Hill, believed to have been the targets of this flying bomb, were spared. The bravery of the passengers and crew changed the course of history.
It is often a most difficult decision to act, especially when that act will affect the lives of many. Israel cannot rely on anyone, nor should she trust others’ promises. She must act in her best interests, and in her interests alone.
The only ones who seem to fathom the Iranian danger are the Arab nations. They would be participants in a coalition of the willing, yet those willing may be unable to do so very soon. It may all be too late.
Achievement takes the courage to change and carry the burden, but we have become a global society of big talkers while someone else pays the price and bears the consequences. We even choose to ignore the obvious and rewrite reality to escape action.
We must learn from the passengers of United Flight 93 who did not know what the next minutes or hours would bring. They made the ultimate sacrifice, not knowing what would happen to their loved ones or if anyone would care or even remember their sacrifice. They only knew it was the right thing to do, to fight the good fight and give their lives so others could live.
This is exactly the modern history of the State of Israel. Israelis are people who know the path to take and proceed, even if they shake with fear on the inside. Israelis are pioneers who expect nothing from anyone else and give everything and more. They are courageous people who ordinarily look just like us but are destined to do extraordinary things.
This essence flowing in the blood of Israelis is still there. Outwardly they seem distracted by all the wrong things, a peace that does not want to materialize, enemies who swear to eliminate the State, a world determined to delegitimize the Jews because they are Jewish. But inside, just below the skin, blood vessels carry within them the secret power, the agents of future existence, the light of all the sacrifices made throughout the millennia.
We must have the courage to act as necessary, the will to carry on the task whatever the cost and the chance to avoid facing such decisions. Israel’s precarious position is not much different from the one the passengers and crew of United Flight 93 faced on a day that changed our present and future.
The intentions of Israel’s enemies are known, and the process of destruction has been set in motion. The time to act is now, without further delays. Salvation will come from action, not the lack thereof. Israel will weather the storm, and emerge stronger and better. So will the world.
