1 "Know thyself"
At Delphi in ancient Greece was the famous oracle where the priestess Pythia sat muttering words of prophecy. There, on one of the columns in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo the phrase "Know thyself" was engraved. I am reminded of Delphi every time the Philadelphi Corridor in Gaza makes the news. There is no connection between Delphi and Philadelphi, it is just my free association. When I hear the suggestion that Israel may relinquish control of the corridor that runs the length of Gaza's border with Egypt, I wonder, do we know ourselves, our place and our time, given that we so quickly seem to have forgotten the reason we returned to Philadelphi?
In the summer of 2005, the expulsion and destruction of the Jewish communities in Gaza were not enough for then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who did not heed requests (and warnings) to at least keep Israeli troops stationed along the Philadelphi Corridor to create a buffer between Gaza and Egypt. The Qatari money transferred to Hamas was "peanuts" compared to the mountains of military and engineering equipment and tools for the production of missiles and weapons smuggled across the border into Gaza. Our arrogance in thinking that we could keep things under control without the Corridor, set off the countdown to the terrible massacre inflicted on us.
Once I was invited to view the digging of the final section of one of the train tunnels to Jerusalem. We watched in awe as a monster tunneling machine broke through the hillside, swallowing the last cubic meters of dirt and coating the tunnel it had dug out with concrete. In one of the interviews I gave to the BBC during the war, the interviewer told me that an Egyptian official who spoke before me insisted that nothing had gone from Egypt to Gaza. I told him about the enormous digging machine and asked whether it had fallen from the sky or been hidden in a bag...
The Philadelphi Corridor is the route that supplies the oxygen for the mighty terror machine built by the new Nazis on our border. It is imperative if we wish to secure our existence that we strangle their main supply line. Otherwise, they will rehabilitate their capabilities in a short time. Now they tell us about sensors and technological means that will separate Egypt from Gaza. Really, after October 7th?! "A vow: Lest for nothing shall the night of terror have passed/ A vow: Lest for nothing shall I return to my wont/ Without having learned anything, even this time." (The Vow / Avraham Shlonsky).
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With a mighty hand and an outstretched arm
A split second in which President Donald Trump moved his head, a split second that separated him from death, God forbid, which would have plunged the American superpower into political and social chaos to the delight of the enemies of the free world, including those around us. I couldn't take my eyes off the already famous photo, that showed the moment after the assassination attempt, the kind of photograph that marks an era and conveys mountains of text in one image. I was reminded of the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima during World War II in February 1945. The American soldiers who captured the summit of Mount Suribachi in the south of the Japanese island planted the American flag there. That image of the planting of the Stars and Stripes with its triangular composition became iconic as a declaration of victory for the power that emerged from World War II as the leader of the free world.
The picture taken after the assassination attempt also has a kind of triangular composition with Trump's bleeding face, his first raised in determination, and the American flag. Above him a halo of sky, his eyes are looking far away and his expression is defiant: I am not afraid. On the contrary: My enemies should fear me. The base of the triangle consists of security personnel trying to protect Trump (each looking out in a different direction to create a fascinating tapestry of gazes). They are all enveloped in the deep blue color of the sky, and from this base Trump rises tall; he understands what has happened, so he stops for a moment and calls out to the crowd: Fight.
His fist, raised in a gesture of defiance merges with the pole holding the Stars and Stripes flag, and symbolically replaces it. True, Trump understands the media, but a moment after an attempt on one's life, one doesn't think about a picture, but about one's life: about why he embarked on this dangerous journey, and about the large public that supports him and wants his leadership. Trump sought to encourage the public and too say: Don't despair! Keep up the fight.
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The theater of farce and absurd
I watch with fear and trepidation the murderous expressions hurled at Prime Minister Netanyahu and his wife in the midst of a war, and wonder where did these rotten apples come from? A distinction should be made between harsh expressions that shelter under freedom of speech, even if they are a disgrace to their spokesmen, and explicit calls for violence, for example: "In the end, we will have to take Netanyahu... and his band of traitors and remove them from the Knesset by force" (Ilan Schoenfeld); "Once we have weapons... Every Bibist (Bibi's fan) will get a bullet to the head" (Uri Yaakov); "We're going to come and drag you from your Bastille ... when the angry citizens come and knock down these flimsy barriers... I want to tell you that all of us will come to take you" (Yolanda Yavor); "We're waiting with a hanging rope..." (Ayala Metzger). Madam Attorney General Baharav-Miara, where are you? What are you waiting for? Your hesitance is causing verbal violence to spiral. It won't stop at the security barriers surrounding the prime minister; it may spill out onto the street.
Now compare this with the ridiculous indictment filed against former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari. In essence, he called the Arabs a "murderous nation." Another legal absurdity is the persecution of Sa'ar Ophir, who on the morning of October 7 was one of the few who rushed to the aid of the communities in the Gaza Envelope. He killed terrorists, as a medic, he treated the wounded, and he prevented the kidnapping of dead soldiers. The State Prosecutor's Office decided that the man had "murdered" Hamas terrorists and sent the Tel Aviv Police Department to turn his house upside down. Ophir recalled how during questioning, his interrogator told him: "You are no better than these terrorists." How shameful.
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Woe to the nation that resists its redemption
In this week's Torah portion, Balaam, a prophet from the nations of the world, prophesied: "Woe, who can survive when God will do it!" (Numbers 24:23). Rabbi Yochanan , a third-century Amorah (the rabbinic sages whose views are recorded in the Talmud) who lived in the Land of Israel, explained: "Woe to any nation that is around at the time when God will redeem His people!" (namely, that interferes while God redeems His people from bondage) – he is compared to placing his garment between a male lion and the lion's mate, when that pair is in its mating season." This is how Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch interpreted Balaam's words: "Before the founding of Israel by God, no force will be able to maintain its independence, if it would oppose the principle which the founding of Israel meant to achieve,by applying that principle. With Israel's divinely guided entry into history, the future has been revoked for all those opposing this divine intention."
Read this again and think about it.
Rabbi Hirsch, who lived in Germany during the first half of the 19th century, did not strive for the return of the People to their ancient homeland in the land of Israel, but saw Jewish destiny as remaining among the nations and spreading its ideas and beliefs among them. In his remarks, he was referring to the Jewish faith and to the Jewish spiritual and cultural gospel that no force in the world can oppose in the final reckoning. But we, who know the horrific fate of German Jewry, can expand the interpretation of his comment and say, that the establishment of Israel and its "rebirth" on the stage of history as an independent nation among the nations of the world, are an expression of the principle that no force will be able to maintain itsindependence if they are opposed to Israel.
This historic law was formulated when we started our journey of becaoming a nation, in our foundational book of Genesis, in the covenant of the pieces (Brit Bein HaBetarim. Genesis 15). The law has been described as the conclusion of a covenant between heaven and earth, between God and the father of our nation. The covenant says that our ancestors would go down to Egypt and became slaves, and then it promises that "the fourth generation will return here." No matter how much we wander the world, eventually we return home; mighty historical forces will push us to Zion: "On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram: "To your offspring I assign this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates" (Genesis 15:18). Patience. We will win.
