Held Together: Israel, Security, and the Bonds of Jewish Peoplehood

Happy April Temple Beth Israel,

Out of the blue early one morning in the middle of March, I received a text from an old army buddy in Israel.  “Hey. I heard what happened outside of Detroit, with the terrorist attack. I know you don’t live anywhere near Michigan, but how are you and your congregation handling all the chaos and craziness?” I’m rather used to receiving the warring texts from Israel in the middle of the night, but I was absolutely flabbergasted to receive a What’s App text from my old friend, since he’s been a little preoccupied with his own family’s survival. I was even more unprepared to have him ask about our security threats, considering how his entire family has been living in a bomb shelter since the beginning of March. I was unready for this simple gesture of compassion, but I shouldn’t have been shocked.

Over the last few weeks, Israel, the United States, and by extension the entire Persian Gulf have been at war with Iran at its proxies, Hezbollah, Houthis, and Hamas. While it’s impossible to predict the outcome of the war, in terms of its accomplishments, successes, failures, or the prospect of regime change, it is worth noting how the United States and Israel are internalizing the current conflict, respectively. Like most wars, we prosecute the battle plan, gazing into the rearview mirror, fighting ghosts from previous conflicts: Iraq and Afghanistan most recently. Though it is human nature to apply the lessons from previous wars to our current situation, in the United States, most Americans view this war as a manufactured crisis of mis-adventure: the wrong war at the wrong time. This is not a war of necessity, as very few have been lately. Americans were promised affordable housing and healthcare, reasonable gas and grocery prices, and no more foreign wars. Furthermore, nobody has explained the reasons, objectives, cost, or timetable for the war’s duration.

In Israel, a very different war is being waged, one where the public understands and begrudgingly supports this latest campaign because they are living under very different conditions and threats. This current war with Iran is hopefully the last phase in a series of conflicts that were brought to Israel on October 7^th, 2024. Until all the threats, including the Houthis in Yemen are addressed, Israel will not stop its current pursuit to ensure the eternal peace and security that has eluded the country since its inception. 

For better or for worse, Israel and the United States are changing the landscape of the Middle East once again. However, this time, we are witnessing an older, more mature Israel bring the fight to her enemies. She’s no longer the little darling of the Middle East, but a bona fide world power. Israel is a nation that projects Jewish strength outwardly.

Israel is fighting a war of existential necessity and whether we know it or not, like or dislike it, deny or admit it, she is fighting this war not just for Israelis or diaspora Jews, but rather the entire free-world. Every twenty years or so, Israel does the world a  favor when she bombs a hostile Arab country’s nuclear weapons program: the Iraqi Osirak Nuclear Reactor in 1981, Syrian Al-Kabr nuclear reactor in 2007, and the Iranian nuclear program in 2025-2026. These same Arab countries have more than enough oil and natural gas. There has never been a legitimate non-aggressive reason for the same countries that chant death to Israel and death to Jews to develop nuclear energy, other than to acquire nuclear weapons. 

Israel absorbs the brunt of the world’s irrational hatred of Jews. In the so-called cultured west, we have the luxury of living in a liberal, progressive society, but since Oct. 7^th, and perhaps even a little before then, the illusion of our own safety and security has been shattered. American Jews thought they could outrun antisemitism, but it found us in Pittsburgh, San Diego, and this week outside of Detroit.

Throughout the Book of Exodus and the Book of Numbers, Moses painstakingly reminds the Jewish people to keep and remember the Sabbath. The old expression is that as long as the Jewish people have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jewish people. However, I’d like to add an addendum to that clause: as long as the Jews have defended Israel, Israel has defended the Jews.  

So yeah, I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised when my old army friend texted me from his bomb shelter to check in on me and TBI; that’s just Israel being Israel, and we don’t know how lucky we are to have her.

Hodesh tov/Enjoy April, Chag Pesach Samaech, Zissen Pesach