NOW IS THE TIME

 Those were the words of Bennett, Prime Minister of Israel, referring to the Iran nuclear issue, and inclusive of the gathering storm, once again, over Gaza as the Palestinians continue to send over incendiary balloons, setting fields afire, and storming border fences. Now is the time is a phrase that can and should echo through the world, as time is indeed of the essence. A fact that we are so expert and practiced at ignoring. Much to our detriment.

There is no single Israeli parent, mother or father, who wishes to see their child, boy or girl, grow up to be a soldier, to be placed in mortal jeopardy. There is no Israeli parent eager for a child to have to defend themselves in combat with other humans. Golda Meir said it correctly and tellingly when she said that "The moment the Arab mothers love their children more than they hate us, there will be peace."

At funerals for a terrorist shot in the midst of an attack, there is celebratory ululating at the funeral, vows of revenge, hatred boiling over, even though the dead had placed himself/herself in jeopardy. At Israeli funerals for the slain there is only tears. Sobbing fills the air as grief is shared. It is quiet, other than for the sounds of prayers and deep, soul shattering and heart rending grief. No gunfire. No praise for a terrorist. Only grief for yet one more killed in the line of duty or for being a Jew daring to walk, to tread upon the land of forefathers.

Surely it is time, more than time, for the world to recognize the need for truth and sanity, for peace, a strong peace, to be made. Surely it is time for the world to speak the truth, openly and firmly. The balloons are acts of war. Perpetrated against civilians, a war crime, but the world stays silent. A silence that echoes the sounds of the past, the mournful singing of the doomed - men, women, children - as they walk into gas chambers, as their bodies are shoveled into ovens.

The world equates the owning of nuclear capability of Israel to that of Iran. Israel has had that capability for decades, yet has anyone seen a threat to use on their eternally hostile neighbors? No. Certainly not. Such usage would be a last resort, only, G-d forbid, if there is no hope left at all. On the other hand, Iranians threaten all the time to use their nuclear bombs when available. So why, why, in the name of heaven, does the world remain publicly blind over this, ignoring the danger and the manifest difference between Israel and Iran, certainly not the only manner in which they remain different. 

Yesterday I read an article so pompously conflating the presence of praying, quietly, soundlessly, in a remote corner of the Temple Mount with war mongering. It is inflammatory, the pundits shout. Jews have no business up there. It irritates the Arabs. Moreover, Jews should leave the Western Wall and its Plaza as it too irritates the Arabs, so important to them as well. Huh! Since when? When they had possession they treated it as a slum, a narrow walkway behind houses or even using it as a wall of their homes. Truly! Catch a Jewish person doing that! Never. Ever. Ask Abraham and Isaac whose land this is? Or David? Or Solomon? Or Jesus.

In the meanwhile, the world is in crisis. So many crises. UN personnel are being targeted, told to "hibernate" in Afghanistan. So helpful! 4,000 phone calls in 4 days to Americans there, giving instructions for safe evacuation. 70,700 people evacuated since August 14. Amazing! The world? It stands and criticizes. Shut up and help! What does Turkey do? It send those paralyzed with fear for the lives of themselves and their families back over the border into Hell on Earth. The world? Silence. They criticize and carp. The refugees are in poor living situations, they shout. Well, do something. These are your Muslim compatriots so do something. Do not merely add to the rise in heat of the world with your useless hot air. 

Now is the time to do so many things. To get through to the benighted who refuse vaccination, endangering the lives of others. Time to acknowledge that we have mortally imperiled the world. Deep necessities, difficult, life changing ones, must be made if we are to continue to exist as a habitable planet. Scientists are not too optimistic about that. The world? So many continue to deny, even as people go by, drowning in unprecedented floods. Or starving in new lands of desertification. Or caught in wars over the remaining arable land. Or lose their way of living as their villages drown.  As island nations go under. As the earth itself shakes under our feet and mud covers the lost.

For sure, it is time. However, can we read watches any longer and recognize the loss of time, the ever growing nearing time of disaster? If so, time we sat down to some lessons and some reality. Time to learn the rule of when the big hand is here and the small hand is there - we are nearing midnight. Closer and closer. For sure, now is the time.