Persistence in the Face of Hate

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his was the year that Vladimir Putin proved he was the best chess player in the world and Donald Trump proved he could write the angriest tweets.

This was the year when the United States moved its embassy to Jerusalem after a 30-year wait, a big Trump bear hug after eight years of cold-shoulder Obama.

This was the year of lost boys in a Thai cave, of a sudden opening in North Korea, of Venezuela’s unraveling. This was the year when the United States finally got serious about Iran, flinging to the wind the “plan of action” that amounted to nothing more than a pile of words.

This was the year that Bashar al-Assad won the war in Syria, defying the odds, defying history, defying anything decent in the world. This was the year that Iran and Russia helped him win that war.

This was the year of Israel’s nation-state bill and Bibi Netanyahu’s remarkable longevity. In just ten more months, July 2019, Netanyahu will become Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. David Ben-Gurion probably could have never imagined it, but then again, he could probably have never have imagined that 13 chareidi Knesset members would serve in Bibi’s coalition.

This was the year when an unadorned anti-Semite proudly led England’s Labour Party — and got away with it — likely portending a trend in liberal politics. And this was the year that Israel reached out to European nationalist leaders like Austria’s Sebastian Kurz and Hungary’s Viktor Orban — men who represent movements that were once the scorn of Jews.

This was the year of endless rockets from Gaza, of burning fields, of verbal violence from Mahmoud Abbas, of more calls from otherwise reasonable people for a 23-year-old notion called “the two-state solution.”

This was the year that the booming Israeli economy was upgraded to “AA” and the number of startups in tiny Tel Aviv outpaced the entire world. This was also the year, despite it all, that Israel led the Western world in births per capita, a breathtaking testament to Jewish persistence in the face of hate, a stunning gavel strike on the brightness of the Jewish future, a beacon of hope.

24

The number of Republican seats that Democrats need to flip to take control of the US House of Representatives. Should they succeed, expect gridlock and further investigations.

FAKE NEWS ITEM OF THE YEAR

The Mueller investigation. Until the prosecutor proves that President Trump or one of his senior staff knowingly solicited help from the Russian government in order to defeat Hillary Clinton, the multimillion dollar probe amounts to a huge waste of time and money. Unless proven otherwise, Paul Manafort is a convicted tax cheat, not a traitor. George Papadopolous? Give me a break. Michael Cohen testified that President Trump asked him to pay someone off. It is to be determined whether that was a violation of campaign finance law.

If Trump was stupid or evil enough to collude with the Russians, lock him up. In the absence of that information, the incessant coverage of the investigation tells us more about media bias than the facts of the case.

QUOTE OF THE YEAR

“Once again, increasingly radicalized Americans confront conventional politics and good-faith legal disputes and react as if the sky is falling — as if no decent human being could possibly disagree with their analysis.”

—National Review’s David French, in reaction to a letter from Yale University law students opposing Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the US Supreme Court

Letdown

The war in Syria — because it didn’t have to end this way.

When Barack Obama famously backed away from his “red line” in Syria, Bashar al-Assad took his cue, prosecuting his war with vigor. That Russia and Iran teamed up to help the dictator win that war speaks first to the heartless calculus of realpolitik, and second to yet another reason to be glad that the JCPOA will soon be a dead letter.

In the end, Russia will have its Mediterranean port and Middle Eastern princes and dictators (not to mention the Israeli prime minister) will pay homage to Moscow. Iran on Israel’s borders is the least likeable result of the war, a strategic reality that will be a headache for years to come.

THE FORECAST

Imagine for a moment that a far-right leader, accompanied by right-wing nationalists, visited the grave of Nazi commander Heinrich Himmler, laid a wreath, and eulogized his valor.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of England’s Labour Party, did something similar when he laid a wreath at the graves of Palestinian terrorists who carried out the murders of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

The only surprising thing about the entire affair is that Corbyn still has a job. That he hasn’t been instantly dismissed indicates that his liberal constituency accepts his anti-Semitism. The rise of Bernie Sanders, and recent electoral wins of anti-Israel leftists in the United States indicates the Democratic Party might not be far behind.

(Originally featured in MIshpacha Issue 726)