Turn
off the "Light unto the Nations" – What
nations was Israel to “enlighten?” The Muslim states who enable and
endorse jihad while subjugating their own populations with unendurable Sharia
laws? The members of the European Union for whom Israel’s existence and success
are anathema? Or is it the United Nations, that cesspool of moral turpitude? I would suggest
we drop the plural from nations to nation and that Israel focus on being a
light unto its own nation–the Jewish nation.
by Ruth King
Israel’s
first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion proclaimed: “History did not
spoil us with power, wealth, nor with broad territories or an enormous
community: however, it did grant us uncommon intellectual and moral
virtue, and thus it is both a privilege and an obligation to be a light
unto the nations.”
Where did that hubris-fraught term originate? From the Book of Isaiah. There are three references.
“Yea,
He saith, ‘It is too light a thing for you to be My servant, to
establish the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the scions of Israel, and I
shall submit you as a light unto the nations, to be My salvation until
the end of the earth’ (Isaiah, 49:6)
“I
the Lord have called unto you in righteousness, and have taken hold of
your hand, and submitted you as the people’s covenant, as a light unto
the nations” (Isaiah, 42:6)
“And unto your light, nations shall walk, and kings unto the brightness of your rising” (Isaiah, 60:3)
The
notion mesmerized those who aspired to become a utopian, agrarian,
virtuous, socialist model to the world. It even lured some realists who
wanted the nation to be admired, respected and looked upon as a role
model.
In
the early post-independence years, the “light” bearers of Israel were
depicted as super heroes–farmers/scholars who made the desert bloom and
could turn their plough shares and pruning hooks into rifles at a
moment’s notice to defend their nation, yet remain devoted to the goal
of achieving peace with their neighbors and eager to make sacrifices to
obtain it. Who would not be delighted by this image, coming as it did
only three years after the Holocaust? How comforting was it to see them
as models to illuminate a dark and venal world?
But
Israel’s implacable neighbors sought only to destroy it and the price
of survival became a seemingly endless series of wars, which sat ill
with the utopian image.
Nonetheless, the afterglow of the
“light unto the nations” continued and subsequent Israeli leaders
continued the destructive fantasy and self-righteous preening. A good example is the egregious comment from supposedly tough Golda Meir: “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children.”
What hogwash. Did Meir not understand that she was creating a moral equivalence between barbarians who kill children and those who must take harsh measures to stop them? There is a direct
line from her statement to the abominable movie “Munich” which draws
parallels between the perpetrators of the murderers in the Munich
Olympics and those who sought to find them and bring them to justice.
Israel’s adversaries also took up the ‘light unto nations” rhetoric as a weapon against her. In a speech to the Jewish Theological Seminary in November 1984, Nobelist
Bishop Tutu declared that Israel betrayed its status as “a light unto
the nations” by losing its direction and becoming unfaithful to its
calling.
Defending
the nation became an abrogation of Israel’s supposed role as the light
unto the nations and Israel’s detractors have had a field day voicing
their disillusion and prodding for more appeasement, surrender, and
abnegation.
What nations was Israel to “enlighten?” The Muslim states who enable and endorse jihad while subjugating their own populations with unendurable Sharia laws?
The members of the European Union for whom Israel’s existence and
success are anathema? Or is it the United Nations, that cesspool of
moral turpitude?
I
would suggest we drop the plural from nations to nation and that Israel
focus on being a light unto its own nation–the Jewish nation.
It has enough to gloat about.
It is a shining, thriving democracy with outstanding humanitarian,
academic, scientific and cultural institutions which has never lowered
its standards to those of its genocidal neighbors. It has wonderful
people in the brave settlers of Judea and Samaria and countless
patriotic citizens and soldiers. There are clear-seeing and speaking
academics like Moshe Sharon, Steven Plaut, Emmanuel Navon and the Nobelist Robert J. Aumann. There are legislators past and present like Naftali Bennet, Aryeh Eldad, Michael Kleiner, Yoram Ettinger, Danny Danon, and Moshe Feiglin. There are journalists like AFSI’s own William Mehlman, Sarah Honig, Ruthie Blum, David Hornik, Caroline Glick, Martin Sherman.
They
buck international political pressure (and Israel’s own still active
destructive light unto the nation moral preeners) to declare “this land is my land and we are the only ones with the right and legitimacy to define its borders.”
In his Independence Day speech in May 1948 Menachem Begin spoke far better than Ben Gurion.
He said: “Our God-given country is a unity, an integral historical and
geographical whole. The attempt to dissect it is not only a crime but a
blasphemy and an abortion. Whoever does not recognize our natural right to our entire homeland, does not recognize our right to any part of it. And we shall never forego this natural right.” He ended:”God,
Lord of Israel, protect your soldiers. Grant blessing to their sword
that is renewing the covenant that was made between your chosen people
and your chosen land. Arise O Lion of Judea for our people, for our
land. On to battle. Forward to victory.”
And
that victory in Israel’s War of Independence was a light unto Israel,
to Jews everywhere and to all people of good will, that shines to this
day, and illuminates the path to freedom for all the Jews in the
Diaspora who are oppressed.
Thank you Nurit Greenger
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