Change & Uncertainty

Thousands flee the violence in Libya into Tunisia 

 

Scholar says Mideast unrest is a change the world should believe in - latest update 08:30 25.02.11

 

"I don't agree that there's nothing in the middle between either sending the Marines or wringing our hands. We're not going to send the Marines, that's not going to happen, but wringing our hands is morally and strategically problematic. If it takes declaring the Ghadafi regime illegitimate, an outlaw regime, if we say this unequivocally, not through the secretary of state, not through Vice President Biden, but through Barack Obama himself, standing up in broad daylight saying, 'Look, we've seen all we need to see from this regime, we don't think Muammar Gadhafi is redeemable, and we call upon the Libyan people to hold these criminals accountable' - this would make a tremendous amount of difference."  -- Fouad Ajami

 

This is interesting, as the very next day (yesterday) Pres. Obama declared that Gadhafi must leave Libya 'now'.

So when do we look for that "tremendous amount of difference" to start kicking in?  I hope it's immediately apparent. I wish I could be as optimistic as Ajami.  

As he explains it,

"Not everyone is Mohamed Atta," responds Ajami, referring to the young Egyptian who was one of the September 11 hijackers. "I don't think that I want to hold Atta as a rebuke to those young people, and what they are showing us - that they are willing to stay peaceful in revolution. And I can't tell them, 'Look, you are all pathological Mohamed Attas.' It's just completely cruel. Because people come because of the love of their country and because they've defeated the fear of death squads. I won't break faith with these people until I see something that calls for breaking faith with them. Before that, I won't condemn them. I saw Libyan people conquering fear with all they know about the cruelty of the monster Muammar Gadhafi and telling us they wish to be free of his tyranny. I don't think it's much of a choice. When you see history, and you see it to be noble, you have to respond. You can't hold previous afflictions and maladies against them. So my conscience is clear on this one - this is a good revolution."

 

I, on the other hand, never did have "faith with" these people, so there is nothing there to break.  And in my jaundiced view of history, I see very little that is noble... except perhaps the timeless Jewish doctrine of uncertainty to which Rabbi Wein lately referred.  

May we be blessed in these days of Change & Uncertainty to grasp "the essence of Torah values"

... that good is ultimately a wiser path in life than evil, that faith in God is a necessary component in personal and national Jewish life and that by raising generations of loyal and committed Jews, the certainty of Jewish survival and accomplishments will conquer the uncertainties of the circumstances of general human existence.

 

See also this interview with Bibi in The Telegraph (UK): "Hope must defeat anxiety."  :)

Comments

[Mannie Sherberg]

When it comes to dealing with creatures like Ghaddafi, these moral statements are worse than useless -- they are an utter waste of time. Ghaddafi has the power lust of a Caligula and the morals of a vulture. He is no more likely to heed Obama's advice to "leave now" than he is to join Chabad. Even the belated sanctions are useless. As John Bolton said this morning, there's nothing we can withhold from him that will serve any purpose. Arms? The guy already has more weaponry than he can use. Money? He has many billions of dollars. International respect? That's absurd. The man is responsible -- among other atrocities too numerous to count --for the slaughter of a jumbo-jet full of innocent human beings -- and we indulge in meaningless balderdash and equally meaningless sanctions? The only thing that would prove useful at this juncture is Ghaddafi's assassination. And unless that's done by the Libyans themselves, it ain't gonna happen. The best thing we Americans can hope for now is that the president shuts up and stops embarrassing all of us with his verbal inanities and diplomatic naivete.