EVER DEEPER

Yes, the world keeps on digging deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper into the morass of mud and.  muck. At times it seems as if we purposely go out of our way to upgrade upheaval and confusion and downgrade the certainty of being right, hewing to the moral and the positive. It seems to me that we prefer putting one over on the other rather than reveling in the joy of shared success. As a result of that perverted outlook and attitude we deepen our immersion in the miasma of the filthy polluted swamp even as there remain a few, a small minority, of those willing to slog against the flow of false leaders and bewitched flock. They seek a way out, an exit of light, but the search grows more hopeless day by day.

Today I cry out against the false political leaders of Israel and against the rabbinical leaders who went along with the flow and even added to it. Once again, as always, the people of Israel, stubborn as the day is long, a trait which has enabled their survival and ironically in their dispersal as well, followed the wrong path of their history. 

It seems that there is never a topic on which everyone can be united and certainly not for any kind of extended period of time. Israel, which was racking its insides in passionate disagreement over the nature of the state of Israel, the nation, be it in Israel itself or round the world of the Diaspora, pulled itself together. United in determination after October 7 and the horrendous massacre and kidnapping. 

Today, close to 470 days of imprisonment of the hostages, buried alive in the physical darkness of the tunnels and the emotional darkness of hopelessness and abandonment, ignored by the world, of little concern, we now live with the consequences of our eternal stubbornness and bickering. Shrinking of the numbers of living hostages. Almost 1,000 of our best and brightest, our bravest, young, still in their teens, reservists leaving families behind, girls and women falling in service. Thousands upon thousands of wounded. The wailing unable to be comforted cries of parents bereft of children, of husbands and wives deprived of their partners in life. Children bewildered as to why Abba has disappeared, why Ima is crying.

We are living with the consequences and will continue to do so. We have shredded our nationhood, our unity, our conjoined identity all in the name of politics and power. Of arrogance of leaders and the false prophesying of rabbinical figures, vehement in their support of this war for questionable motives in many cases. Or the malignant rabbinical figures of another group of Israelis who deny and defy their responsibility to defend this nation, their nation, their home. They claim their Talmud studies exempt them from service in IDF. No, it does not. The Bible itself has many rules about warfare and there is no such exemption, certainly not a given for a huge number of eligible soldiers for the nation. The blood of their fellow Israelis is upon them, indelible on their hands and in their souls. 

The leaders of the nation now admit to sabotaging some of the efforts to rescue the hostages. The direct opposite of the commandment upon us to rescue captives, even to the point of selling our belongings if necessary. And yet these puffed-up leaders determined to keep the reins of government in their hands sabotaged it all or at least to a great degree. Upon them is the blood of their fellow Jews. Upon them is the unknown fate of the Bibas baby boys. Upon them is the heart-breaking face of a woman whose husband remains in captivity. Upon them are the tears running down the faces of the parents whose children remain in brutal captivity with no end in sight other than death or eternal unknowingness. Can there be any note of positivity in their actions? Might it be possible to find merit and understanding?

Full disclosure, I have to agree with some of this viewpoint. I do not think there's any other final way to defeat Hamas and its terrorism, other than to hammer them completely into dust, unable to be resurrected or put together again. A Humpty Dumpty nation guaranteeing at least a semblance of peace and quiet. I think, as well, that to agree to this deal, which appears to be an agreement with the devil, with the world acquiescing in it, is poisonous and will never, ever come to fruition. 

Other than perhaps the first three of the first day and maybe the next four during that first week will be freed and who knows if it will be living souls or cold bodies or moldering bones. The deal is too vague, to slanted pro- Hamas and they can, as usual, break the deal as the world stands by in a thunderous silent acquiescence or in vociferous voicing of hatred for Israel and all Jews. Once again there go the remaining few, back into a cold Hell, to perhaps be entombed there forever.    And then? Renewed reinvigorated warfare, more death on all sides, and traumas to our soldiers caught within a cycle of violence and bloodshed, a seemingly new version of ancient centuries of extended warfare.   

There is no logic that can be applied. There is no sense of understanding. Not in a people trained to value death, to encourage children to die in its name rather than live for it. The corrupted thinking and desires of these false and dangerous leaders on both sides of the equation. Leaders of religion who forget their duties and cede their pulpits to the violent and the wrong.  

So yes, there is a basis for understanding and support. There is also a fear, justified, that the cost of these releases is too high as we open the gates of the prisons of Israel. and out spew the terrorists eager to pick up sword and gun again and have at it once more. Evermore. The coppery smell of blood will suffuse the air. The wails of grief begin again. And while there are those who want peace and. respect, they are too few. Perhaps too idealistic as they toss aside pictures of reality.  

I have no answers. I wish I did. At present it is clear that no one has the answer or even a part of it. I wish I had leaders, secular and/or religious in whom I could place my trust. Good, solid, caring people with no selfish motives. Perhaps that is asking too much of them for they are human. But I believe we are all prepared to accept some errors   as long as the general trend is the right path, the right way, the moral way. Would that we could find such. 

Bonnie Raitt sang of the need for a hero, asking where one is at time of need. I second the thought and the question.

Where are they? Or are they to be found within all of us if only we dared to see the truth and act upon it. Maybe. I don't know.

On the morrow.