There is a Jew who resided just outside of Washington D.C. with blonde (and by mid-summer it was a radiant platinum sometimes opaque at the temples) with blue eyes which often would stare idly as if peering deep into some unknown. He was the Jewish boy who the other Jews were never quite sure what to make of this kid who would definitely be picked as the one who did not belong. Often this left him alone where at times he was chased by some of the older kids because he was the lone Jew alone without any back-up. But that boy had another ability, he could usually outrun trouble and often told others that there was a seam of anti-Semitism out there in the greater world, but the other knowing and wiser Jews all told him to be quiet before he tempted fate and that after all this was America and “It can’t happen here!” It always ended with “It can’t happen here!” There was a problem hearing those words because he had read some of the editorials from back in history, in any period of history, and his forebearers always had this one refrain when anybody warned of danger and the answer was always, “It can’t happen here!” The place where this was said loudest was a little before the time for the boy who cried wolf’s days; it was the 1930s throughout Europe and especially in the Weimer Republic as it was almost the key words of a generation, “It can’t happen here!” That young boy who cried wolf, who tried to tell the rest of the anti-Semitism, well, he is still crying wolf and with a great urgency. This time he is not alone as some of the most important people in Israel are learning that it can happen anywhere but in Israel it is not to be tolerated, never again, because it can happen here and here is anywhere there is even a single Jew and often most likely when there is but a single Jew.
The sad news can sometimes lead to good news, though for most that is a hard thing to grasp. Some come to Eretz Yisroel with a heavy heart leaving their life half lived and needing to start their life from scratch in what is a new land that slowly they will realize is also their ancient lands. Some never cross that line but when they do it can be so rewarding. That boy would often tell other kids that there would come a time when each and every one of them would make Aliyah and come home to Eretz Yisroel even if it was the last thing they had ever anticipated. The French and Ukrainian Jews are starting to understand and their numbers are on the rise. Not too long ago the panacea for young Israelis was to go get work in Germany. Well, Germany just adopted quite a few thousands of young apparently single Muslims who swarmed into Berlin and invaded all of Germany. Guess there will be no-go zones in Berlin, Frankfort and numerous other places will grow or begin and it will likely cause some strife when Octoberfest is celebrated across much of Germany, as well as any excitement across Europe will be affected and the Jews will return needing to flee home to Eretz Yisroel. The world is turning over a new leaf which is remarkably familiar to the old leaf. The old leaf which blamed the Jew, singled out the Jew and the Jew, it would be claimed, brought all the scorn on themselves by their very nature as a Jew. Reporting has gotten so pathetically anti-Semitic that the former Chairman of the BBC, Michael Grade, could not remain silent and allow the deceits to continue. Michael Grade felt compelled to send a letter of protest to the leaders of his former company, the BBC. In his note passed to the new head of the BBC was written, “You promote equivalence between the Israeli victims of terrorism and the Palestinians who were killed by Israeli security forces in the act to carry out terrorist attacks.” Michael Grade took the command of the BBC after the Hutton Report, an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of David Kelly, a biological warfare expert and former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, a report very critical of the BBC. The BBC has not changed and neither has the world. Perhaps that is in part why that young boy some decades later has not changed his tune.
Israeli Flag
As a matter of fact, it has only become more shrill and insistent. Still the majority have simply repeated that same mantra chanted throughout the ages despite all the evidence to the contrary, droning on in the face of history claiming, “It can’t happen here!” It has become such a theme that one would have thought to put it into a musical ditty with an up-tempo cadence which would slowly grow faster with time sort of as a warning to those willing to see. Perhaps that is the most troublesome part of the entire affair, wrong with the decades of evidence and the corresponding unwilling ability to remain blinded to the events around us. The Rabbis to whom we have traditionally looked for guidance when things get so bad that they are unavoidably striking into our daily lives demanding to be seen, and the Rabbis calm us and steady the boat reminding us that “It can’t happen here!” These words roll off their tongues with a hypnotically calm tone which can be so assuring that, like sheep, we jump over these events and when everything has settled to the new level of danger we join with the Rabbis and almost now get to singing, “It can’t happen here!”
How does one rise and be heard above the chorus of a thousand-thousand voices all in perfect harmony singing “It can’t happen here!” when there is but one lonely voice seemingly cast to the wilderness. Even that one gadfly finds himself starting to be hypnotized joining the chorus and singing “It can’t happen here!” but is jolted back into viewing the reality, but only because of an addiction to reading the news and constantly asking what does it all portend and he is reminded of history which teaches us as Jews one thing, It can always happen here, there or anywhere which means that as Jews we must always see our world for what it is and resist the sirens’ calls of “It can’t happen here!” because not only can it happen anywhere at the drop of a hat, the precipitous drop in the economy, the start of a war, an outbreak of plague, or any of a countless number of triggers which all assure that it will happen everywhere. The answer, my brethren, is in Israel where at least eventually the leaders awaken and do something, more often than not a half-measure because of those still out in the valley of dry bones refusing to come to the living and they remain stuck in place chanting their favorite old tune singing, “It can’t happen here!” Trust history which teaches it can and will happen wherever your here happens to be. It always has, always is and always will happen here, and as the current Stabbing Intifada or whatever the accursed ones are chanting as their current kill the Jew mantra, proves it will happen even in Eretz Yisroel, but at least in Eretz Yisroel we are armed with an entire force, the IDF, which when called upon creates miracles which prove that though the age of Prophets has been declared over, the age of miracles remains with us.
Beyond the Cusp
A Share of my mood, please enjoy.
Beyond the Cusp 