Friday, February 27, 2015
In the days ahead, Jews around the world will
celebrate Purim, a festival the Bible directs us to remember, when the
Jewish people were delivered more than 2,000 years ago in Persia (modern
day Iran) from an evil anti-Semite --Haman -- who had manipulated the
king into issuing a decree that would annihilate the Jews.
According to the biblical account, Esther, a Jew,
and her cousin, Mordecai, who raised her, were the instruments of
deliverance.
This Tuesday, just hours before the Purim holiday
begins, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address the U.S.
Congress, at the invitation of House Speaker John Boehner, to explain
why his country cannot tolerate the threat from another group of evil
anti-Semites in Iran to annihilate the Jews: the acquisition of nuclear
weapons by the Ayatollah Khamenei and his government.
The city of Washington, as is its custom, has been
buzzing for weeks about the political ramifications of the Netanyahu
speech. Once again, it's all about them.
The Obama administration, failing to disguise its
contempt for the prime minister, refuses to attend, calling the whole
process of inviting him unseemly, coming just two weeks before Israel
holds elections.
National Security Advisor Susan Rice, having seen no
advance copy of the speech, calls it "destructive." Commentators and
reporters poll and pontificate, as a few dozen lawmakers deliberate
about whether to boycott an address by our closest and most reliable
ally in the Middle East.
But millions of Americans, and others around the
world will be grateful: to the nation of Israel, to Prime Minister
Netanyahu, and to Speaker Boehner and the lawmakers of both parties who
will welcome him.
They'll be grateful because they are hungry to hear
the truth spoken at the highest levels of international discourse
--thankful that at least one leader (there may be others; Canada's
Stephen Harper comes to mind) is willing to speak the truth on the world
stage when the spirit of hatred and murder is on the loose, radiating
from the Middle East to every continent.
Who else has warned for more than a quarter century
about the danger of putting nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran's
Jew-and-Christian-hating theocracy?
Who but Netanyahu has taken on the kangaroo courts
of the U.N. Human Rights Commission, which pounces on Israel after every
conflict, but ignores real atrocities just miles away in the realm of
Hamas and the battlefields of Syria, Iraq, and Iran?
Has another leader exposed the pretense behind the
Palestinian Authority's celebration of terrorist suicide bombers and its
goal to take all of Israel back in stages, while the West pumps
billions of dollars into P.A. coffers?
Is there another head of state who musters the
courage to tell smug, high-ranking American and European diplomats that
it's not a crime for Jews to build apartments in their eternal capital?
Israelis may be irritated at their leader for his
sometimes abrasive personality. They may be miffed that he plunged their
country into elections and another round of endless advertisements and
political wrangling.
Or they may think he's too hardline and is
jeopardizing Israel's relationship with the United States or doesn't pay
adequate attention to their country's social needs. Or all of the
above. They will have an opportunity to render their verdict on March
17.
In the meantime, the gravity of the world situation
and the daily reports of the persecution and murder of Christians and
Jews has focused the attention of millions of Christians, as well as
Jews, on what Netanyahu has to say. Many will pray and intercede, and others will fast, as Esther and her people did in biblical times.
We will pray for Israel, for Benjamin Netanyahu and
Israel's leaders, for wisdom for our own leaders, and for discernment to
navigate the dangerous waters ahead. Who knows whether, as in the days
of Esther and Mordecai, the address wasn't appointed "for such a time as
this."
Long after the political ebb and flow of the winter
of 2015 is forgotten, the Netanyahu speech may well be remembered as one
that defines the central conflict of the era. That makes his
adversaries, no matter where they reside, uncomfortable.
So, thank you, Israel -- and "Hag Purim Sameach!" Happy Purim!
