Is.Ra.El

JACOB WRESTING WITH AN ANGEL

With global political unrest raging, especially in democracies such as Israel, France, Mexico, and America, this may be a good time to use Highland Institute’s Securus Locus perch to look at what’s going on. Since historically the Jews have been the canary in the mine, let’s take a critical look at Israel to indicate what lies ahead in America.

With an estimated global population of fifteen million, the Jews barely represent two-tenths-of-one percent of the world population. Yet, they exert an influence 100x their size, as measured by education, accumulated wealth, and the number of Nobel prizes.

Is.ra.el literally means he who struggles with god. Since its founding in 1948, Israel has fought, won, or survived six major wars. This David & Goliath story reflects the struggle of fewer than ten million Jews against 1.5 billion Muslims. Yet, today, at the pinnacle of its economic and military power in over two thousand years, Israel is tearing itself apart internally!

At the time of its founding, America’s founding fathers were unable to deal with the concept of slavery, and thus kicked the can down the road, eventually requiring a bloody civil war to settle the matter. Similarly, at its founding 75 years ago, Israel’s democracy was too weak and too rushed to enact a proper constitution. Today, the conservative Sephardic sect is pitted against the liberal Ashkenazi sect in a roughly 50-50 standoff over judicial reform.

The Talmud, a compilation of ancient teachings regarded as sacred, tells us that although it was the Romans who physically destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem, the real cause of the Jews’ fall was the internal strife and hatred among the factions.

The Jews, while perhaps the most intelligent people in the world, also have a tendency to be arrogant, argumentative, held in contempt, and politically naive, as evidenced by the Palestinians’ successful global BDS campaign which would deny them their historic homeland.

With China, Russia, and Iran uniting to challenge America’s global dominance, we are confronted with a similar potential tragedy, featuring the mutual disdain between the Left and the Right, the Conservatives and Progressives, bringing to mind Buddha’s analogy of grabbing hot coals to throw at one’s enemy.

— Sina.