Haman-dinijad

By Moshe Feiglin

25 Adar 5770
March 11, '10

Translated from the NRG website

Something about this Purim bothers me. It seems too relevant. Once again, a Persian Haman has emerged - Haman-dinijad - and once again, he has made the existence of the Nation of Israel a topic for debate. Some say that the world is better off with Israel and others that the world is better off without Israel. The 'enlightened' academia has not yet decided, but it looks like the scales are tipping in favor of a world without Israel.

These days are too reminiscent of the thirties. The giddy optimism after World War I was gradually replaced by the foul winds of anti-Semitism and hatred. Slowly but surely, the enlightened world surrendered to the new fashion. Weak politicians made peace with the trend. Frightened Jews closed themselves in their neighborhoods as violent anti-Semitic incidents became routine. The establishment explained that the Jews must ride the murky wave and that with time, it would pass. Only a few Jabotinskys made the rounds of Europe, futilely warning of an impending holocaust.

When I was a boy, I was taught that another Holocaust cannot happen because we have a state. This line of thinking was bolstered by Religious Zionist determinism that declared that the redemption process was a given; despite its ups and downs, it could not stop. I always found comfort in the thought that while the State of Israel could bring suffering upon itself, its existence was guaranteed. Today I no longer think so. The redemption is certainly guaranteed, but on one of the declines on the path that leads to redemption, we can certainly lose our state - at a terrible price.

Every physical holocaust must be preceded by de-legitimization and de-humanization of the intended victims. The Haman of old and today's Haman both rely on the political/conceptual plane before executing their plans of annihilation. The murder of six million Jews would not have been possible if not for the fact that it was preceded by the negation of their honor and basic human rights. Annihilation was simply the next step in the process. The Persian tyrant's nuclear plans are not as dangerous as the public debate that he has managed to arouse and the "Jewish Question" that has once again found its way into public discourse.

The Mabhouh affair is a good example. If it were not so serious, it would even be funny. The entire 'enlightened' world is busy hunting down the cops and protecting the robbers. What does that say about how Israel is viewed today in the world?
If Israel's most senior ministers have arrest warrants waiting for them in Europe's capitals, if 'enlightened' regimes are searching for them as if they were international criminals - pirates - what does that say about the State of Israel? Israel has turned into a pirate ship, sailing on borrowed time. In the eyes of much of the world, the sooner its captain and crew are captured and the ship sunk - the better.

It is more comfortable for the average Israeli to hide his head in the sand and to trust Israel's leadership to deal with this problem. If he or she do not look too Jewish, they can also feel fairly comfortable outside Israel. But that is precisely the syndrome of 1938. The threat is so horrific that the average person cannot integrate it and chooses to ignore it, instead.

This is not a problem that will go away if we ignore it. If you read the Scroll of Esther, you will understand what made Haman hate the Jews. Listen to the current Haman-dinijad and you will find the same paradigm.

The story of Purim begins with a feast that the king, Ahashverosh, hosted in his palace. The feast was actually a celebration of his royal decree forbidding the Jews who had returned to Israel from the Babylonian exile to continue building the holy Temple in Jerusalem. In honor of the auspicious event, Ahashverosh invited the Jews of his capital, Shushan, to celebrate. He made sure that the holy Temple vessels that had been stolen by the Babylonians when they destroyed the Temple were prominently on display.

The Jews were flattered to be invited and were glad to participate in the feast. In other words, they forgot who they were, wanted to prove that they were good Persians and were happy for the opportunity to rub shoulders with Persian high-society. That is where Haman stepped in. If you look at the caricatures in the Nazi Der Sturmer, you will see that the assimilated German Jew aroused the same disgust in the German Amalek.

And what does the current Haman-dinijad say? He says that he has no problem with the Jews. He only has a problem with the Zionists. "It is a shame what the Germans did to the Jews," he disingenuously says, "so let the Austrians and Germans find them a place to live in Europe - not at the expense of the Palestinians." And between us, the Foreign Ministry of the 'Singapore of the Middle East' - as Israel's president defines us - has a hard time explaining why the modern-day Haman is mistaken. If we are not a Jewish state, but rather, a state of all its citizens - as former Chief Justice Aharon Barak claims - then what right do we have to act like colonialists? What right do we have to conquer and expel another nation from its land in Sheikh Munis, a.k.a. as Ramat Aviv?

"It is all the settlers' fault. We will eliminate their settlements and everything will work out," some people in Tel Aviv claim. There were German Jews who also thought that the hatred they were experiencing was because of the Ost Yidden - the Eastern (Polish) Jews. About a year ago, I read an interview with German Jewish Holocaust survivors who are still convinced that the horrors that they experienced could have been prevented if not for the Ost Yidden.

It can't happen to us because we have the IDF? We love to rely on the IDF, its sophisticated weapons and cutting edge technology. But the IDF lost its moral balance in Gush Katif and has not yet regained it. An army without moral balance will not be able to save us.

The Purim story has a happy end. But Jewish history has other stories that do not end quite as happily. We would be wise to learn the Purim story well to understand what caused the turn-about that saved the Jews. It just may help us to deal with the storm clouds gathering on our horizon.