Here’s a safe prediction for 2022: If Iran quakes in its boots, it won’t be out of fear of retribution

It would be fascinating to know whether Anthony Blinken’s State Department office is actually decorated with a progressive pop-art remake of Teddy Roosevelt’s “Big Stick” foreign policy mantra or not. But judging by a year of Iran policy, the administration practices the Little Twig dictum, regardless of the decor.

Does anyone seriously think that a White House that presided over the Afghanistan rout will do anything beyond negotiate, or slap on some ineffective sanctions? Not Tehran, or Israel for that matter. So here’s a safe prediction for 2022: If Iran quakes in its boots, it won’t be out of fear of retribution. And that, Roosevelt would say if he rose from the grave to comment on his successor’s policies, is a recipe for trouble.

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Zero, as in zero-Covid, is so last year, to judge by Australian prime minister Scott Morrison. Despite the surge of Omicron cases, the premier of what was recently a notorious lockdown state declared that “the days of lockdown are over” because the link between infection and serious illness has been broken by vaccines. It’s a brave new world.

Chinese Mussar

Readers of the Current will be aware that it’s not generally the address for uplifting, inspiring nuggets. But in an otherwise bleak season, the story of the Chinese man reunited with his lost mother is a heartwarming example of hope.

Li Jingwei was just four years old when he was kidnapped from his home in southwest China and sold by child traffickers to a family 1,100 miles away.

In a story carried by multiple media outlets, Li’s determination to find his lost home was realized decades later. The little boy preserved a mental map of his home village, including houses, bamboo forest, and pond.

Posting the drawing on the Internet recently, Li was amazed by the results, as netizens quickly pinpointed his home, leading to an emotional reunion with his mother, who it turned out, lived a short distance away.

There are surely multiple news angles to the story, but why waste a good chance for a Chinese-themed mashal?

According to Jewish Agency stats, Israel is the largest Jewish community in the world, with 6.9 million Jews out of the global total of 15.2 million. For context, American Jewry is now estimated at 6 million.

Israel’s boom is an incredible, miraculous homecoming against all the odds. True, it’s a bittersweet return. Israeli secularism is sadly going nowhere, and we’ve imported some of the worst of the world we left behind, as ongoing controversies over religion and state highlight.

But we shouldn’t lose sight of one big thing: like Li Jingwei, the Jewish People set out on a journey into deep, dark exile. They lost most of their identity, struggling to remember who they were as they set down roots in a host of cultures.

But they never completely forgot where they came from. And eventually, a faint memory of their roots helped find the way home for a reunion against all the odds.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 893)