Faith In G-d And Samson's Weapons - 1977

“K A H A N E”

The magazine of the authentic Jewish Idea

Nissan -5737   April-1977

FAITH IN G-D AND SAMSON'S WEAPONS

The men of little faith fear Washington far more than the All Mighty.  The descendants of the Jews who turned in fear and prostration to Egypt to save them from Assyria and who turned as some beggar standing in a doorway to Assyria for succor from Babylon, today raise their eyes unto Washington and from Plains, Georgia shall come their salvation…

The key to the Jewish redemption lies in the deep and abiding faith in G-d that is as strong as the situation is bleak.  In the face of darkness and danger, the Jew trusts all the more in the All Mighty and the threats of finite flesh and blood fade into insignificance if trust in the infinite King of the Universe is real and unbending.  “Israel, trust in the L-rd,” is more than a topic for a temple rabbi’s sermon.  It is the foundation of Judaism, that upon which rest all the 613 commandments.  “And the righteous shall live by his faith.”

What does a Jew do when the United States attempts to strangle Israel by demanding betrayal of the land to the Arabs or risk losing American weapons and support?  He first prays to the All Mighty and affirms his faith in Him.  He vows not to violate the commandment that forbids giving up Jewish land.  He realizes that retreat is insanity and that it will lead not to peace but to disaster.  He knows that each bowing to Washington will lead only to more demands.  And so he prays and has faith.

And then he turns and says:  You have the choice of selling us conventional weapons (and what a ludicrous term that is and when did cluster bombs and missiles and napaim become “conventional”?) or not.  But know that if you do not, we will develop and if need be use the unconventional nuclear, chemical and biological weapons that can destroy not only Arabs but their Soviet allies.  And then he opens the New York Times and Washington Post of March 21 and reads:

“The Pentagon is quietly upgrading its ability to wage war with nerve gas, a weapon that can cause agonizing death from spasms and convulsions if only a drop or two gets on a person’s skin. The reason is a growth in the Soviet Union’s chemical warfare capability… ‘We underestimated the threat and it got us into trouble,’ said a chemical warfare expert.”

And the same day the times quotes Dr. Alexander Langmuir, the former top civilian epidemiologist as saying that he devoted one fifth of his time to military biological warfare studies “because he regarded biological warfare as a serious threat to the United States.”

The United States is permitted to develop biological and chemical weapons because it is threatened.  Israel is not?  The United States is allowed to have an atomic arsenal that is awesome and can destroy the world many times over, because of fear of the Soviets?  Israel – threatened daily with extinction by the Arabs – can do no less.  Faith in G-d and fear of neither enemies nor allies.  That is the Jewish way.

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