A slight adaptation and translation (by AI) of a recent column by Yehuda Epstein:
Let us be realistic…
In recent months, scarcely a day passes without another blow from our “good friend” in the White House. Now we hear of the sale of F-35 jets to Saudi Arabia; earlier we witnessed the spectacle of Donald Trump warming relations with New York City’s mayor of Islamist-tinged sympathies. As we rub our eyes in disbelief, the commentators explain that we must recognize the limits of our power and “be realistic”—that one simply cannot oppose the President of the United States, and even a friendly president marks out red lines for us. Meanwhile America is already preparing a “path” to statehood for the murderers in our midst, and the political left senses an opportunity to revive the insane idea we thought had died.
“Be realistic,” say the men of logic. “We cannot manage without America,” proclaim the diplomatic experts. Some in the study hall echo them, arguing that since we are in exile we must bow our heads—unaware that the expiration date of exile’s oaths has passed, and the hour has come for renewed love between us and our Father in Heaven. At the very point where trust in the Almighty is demanded—He Who has shown His mighty hand and manifold miracles since our return to the Land—there gather all the faint-hearted, clicking their tongues and insisting we must heed the voice of the American president. The secular skeptic, the left-leaning thinker, is startled to find that some observant Jews—precise in every commandment, punctual in prayer, devout in concentration—remove their tefillin, fold their tallit, and then declaim—like that same secular man—that the Holy One has abandoned Israel and that our fate depends on “the special relationship with America.”
The Jew who read the Binding of Isaac; the Jew who weeks ago read of the covenants with Abraham—Brit Bein HaBetarim and Brit Milah—the Jew who daily recites the verses from Nehemiah (9:7–8) about God choosing Abram, bringing him out of Ur, finding his heart faithful, and promising the land to his descendants—this Jew imagines that Donald Trump can nullify that eternal covenant. Ask him whether he believes the verse, and he will answer: certainly — only that he is being “realistic.”
There is, however, one problem with such realism, whether secular or religious: it tends to lead one to conclusions that are realistic to the point of despair. For example: that Israel cannot truly survive against a hostile world; that even unimaginable concessions will never satisfy the Arabs; that it is irrational to plant a small nation of Jews in the middle of a vast Muslim world; that America, our supposed great ally, is itself becoming saturated with Israel-haters on right and left; that even the Republican Party now contains growing anti-Israel elements; that political, economic, social, and military data are all stacked against us, while enemies abound, armed with the most advanced technology and wholly dedicated to Israel’s destruction. The “realist” will eventually conclude that the Balfour Declaration was a wild and unrealistic adventure, and that the Jews ought to have stayed in Europe—and perhaps pleaded that the mustached tyrant of Germany also “be realistic” and abandon his murderous plans. One never knows where realism will lead…
Israel does not exist according to the cold realities visible to human eyes. Our people run on a different operating system: higher, spiritual, guided by the Creator toward the purpose of Creation. Our foremothers were barren to teach that by nature Israel has no existence at all. Its existence is from beyond nature. Thus we were born, thus we survived, and thus we shall reach final redemption—despite all the “realistic” data.
Trump’s election planted in many an illusion that we could evade our calling to trust in God alone and rely instead on some covenant with a flesh-and-blood leader. For this we owe Trump a certain gratitude: he helps open blind eyes. May we finally grasp that the rules of history that govern the nations do not govern Israel. We have a covenant with the Almighty; we have a mission to sanctify His Name. The more we flee it, the more He will pursue us in mercy until we return.
Instead of lamenting the collapse of the fragile tower of “special relations” with America, we must return to the covenant that has proven itself throughout our existence. That is the true reality of the Jewish people.
So let us—finally—be realistic.