Global Thunder

There was a rabbi who was fond of saying that of all the lessons he learned from his teacher, the greatest one was learning how to walk in safety. When a person is lost in the forest, and thunder and lightning break out, there are two options. One is to look up at the sky and marvel at the thunder and lightning. The second, and better thing to do, is to look down and apply the flash of lightning so that you can see where to walk. "I learned," said the rabbi, "how and where to walk"

Lately we have witnessed global thunder and lightning. Mr. James Baker has unsuccessfully visited Israel and Arab countries six times on behalf of Mid-east peace talks. He has continuously tried to pressure Israel to give up land in the name of peace. He threatens Israel with not budging from his position until Israel will capitulate to his demands. We wonder what Israel will do under such threats.

G‑d in heaven knows that in order for Israel to survive it constantly needs many miracles. In order for us to recognize miracles taking place we must see contrast. Here are some examples. In reviewing the Middle East crisis we know that Saudi Arabia promised America they would cooperate with the peace talks. However, the Saudis together with the Arab coalition have now decided they will not join in any negotiation.

If anything, Kuwait emerged the winner of it all, but has regressed into a country that is being accused of daily atrocities towards its people, post-war violence, and outright merciless discrimination towards Palestinians. Kuwait issued a dictate to the allied armed forces saying that they will never allow an American presence on their land. Instead of rewarding the United States, they have given them the ultimatum to remove their soldiers as to hold national elections, the council will not meet for a specified amount of time. The persecutions are blatantly strong. The Kuwaiti ministry of education announced that children who attended school under the Iraqi regime many of the Palestinians would not be allowed to enter Kuwait public schools. In addition, 91 percent of the seats in Kuwait universities will be reserved for Kuwaiti students and the remaining 9 percent will be for students of gulf countries, meaning that there will be no place for the Palestinians to apply. In Israel the Palestinians can attend school and receive outright subsidies for the universities! It is now clear that the Kuwaiti officials have not advanced forward to democracy but have regressed adapting the behavior shown by Saddam. Addressing the needs of refugees, Kuwait publicly claims that it is not discriminating. Refugees can remain in their land, but the United Nations forces see things differently. They say that the refugee problem in Kuwait is increasingly dangerous especially with quotas set by the Kuwaiti government.

In Iraq the Kurdish plight has accelerated with the death toll becoming severely increased and the refugee camps overly populated and unsanitary. Increased fighting is reported daily.

Coupled with these events have been some major world catastrophes: cyclones and earthquakes and governmental unrest in Russia and Korea. Surely, with all this global lightning and thunder one wonders what will be happening next.

Israel, however, is grabbing the opportunity to help establish peace when possible. They have gone out of their way to help the plight of oppressed people wherever possible. An extreme example of this is the 30 hour airlift of over 14,500 Falashas from Ethiopia. As the country was falling to rebel insurgence and civil war, the United States and Israel secretly negotiated the release of these unfortunate persecuted Jews. With a large monumental airlift one would think that a mishap or glitch would take place but, not, in a miraculous way, every one of the planes that took off returned safely and every refugee lived. If anything, babies were born in flight and the planes arrived with more refugees than those who left Ethiopia. This, indeed, is a wonderful miracle. This is in contrast to the Austrian airline that took off and blew into pieces, leaving over 230 passengers dead. In taking advantage of a situation, Israel was able to save thousands of lives and not create refugee camps.

By being forceful with the United States and rightfully stubborn in the negotiations, Secretary of Defense Dick Chaney has rewarded Israel with a favored status in picking their country as a home where the stockpiling of military missiles and planes will be kept. Instead of cutting down on Israel's aid the government has now decided that the Arrow, an anti-missile missile, a project of the Israeli defense, would receive 71 percent of its funding in research, totaling over $750 million. Recent tests show the Arrow to be three times faster and more reliable than the Patriot. In contrast, the New York Times printed an article saying that the Patriot caused much damage by its fallout, leaving much to be desired.

This week the Palestinian leadership experienced a tremendous internal feud, a violent civil war, in which pro-PLO leaders shot one another. Yasser Arafat's men who met with James Baker were involved in a tremendous clash in which a large number of Muslim fundamental Hamas wounded and shot young people for disagreeing. Israel, in contrast, had to step in and make peace between Hamas and Fatah groups, something unheard of before in history.

Indeed, with the global thunder and lightning come the reward of seeing where you are going. Israel must take advantage of the world situation by continually moving forward in the right direction. By being strong in their negotiation, demanding equal respectability as negotiating partners they will achieve an everlasting peace in the Mid-East. By arming Israel and making sure its defense lines are continuous, Israel psychologically disarms countries from attacking it. It has been said that an armed society is a polite society and armed country receives respectability. Let us hope and pray that after the thunder and lightning, we will see the end of the rainbow with the rebuilding of the land by the righteous Messiah.