A week ago, on April 14th 2024, Iran openly entered the conflict between Israel and Hamas by launching airborne ordnance at Israel. Five days later Israel responded with something short of retaliation.
With a Passover/Pesach, pause — or an attempt at one — expected. I took time to speak with Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations for the FRDH First Rough Draft of History podcast. Steven has lived in the region, speaks Arabic and Turkish and knows his stuff.
This is the first time I am posting audio at this substack. The FRDH, First Rough Draft of History podcast has been going for nearly eight years. If you like listening to as well as reading my work, please, get in touch and let me know.
Some other Passover thoughts:
“Let all who are hungry come and eat”
These are words said near the beginning of the Seder, before the blessing over the matzo. My memory of first hearing them goes back more than 65 years.
Interpretation through metaphor is an important part of Jewish thinking. The religious texts at the core of our identity are so ancient they need to be re-interpreted constantly in the light of whatever era of history we are living through.
Here is the full passage in which “Let all who are hungry” appears:
Today, we no longer have to wait in hope, there is a Jewish state in the land of Israel. Jews are free there. So how to interpret in the 21st century this ancient aspiration of the diaspora which opens the service of food, thanks and celebration that is the seder?
Charity and Hope.
How else to understand the meaning of this invocation? We have this bread, special to us because it reminds us of the time we were slaves in Egypt. We are no longer slaves. If you are hungry, share it with us. Listen to our story. Take sustenance and re-build your strength. One day you will not be without food either.
If you are a Jew remember when we were not free and scattered far away from the land. But this is no longer true. Not since Solomon was building the first Temple in Jerusalem have Jews been this strong and free. And even in Solomon’s time, Israel was surrounded by enemies.
But on this Passover/Pesach in Israel, many Jews in Israel fear where the next attack will come from or are consumed by impulses of revenge. These feelings are a form of bondage.
As a diaspora Jew I say to my co-religionists in Israel that I am not afraid. And if you need take some sustenance from my metaphorical table, please do. Living away from the line of fire, I can see more clearly than you, that vengeance will not end the threat of Hamas or its inevitable successors. Unchain yourself from the desire for vengeance and recover your freedom to think and act rationally.
And to my fellow Jews in the diaspora I urge you to stop showing solidarity with Israel by mimicking Israelis fear and desire for revenge. You are not under fire and can think rationally. Maybe start by asking yourself a question I asked Steven Cook in the podcast above:
Can you think of any comparable situation in modern times where a terrorist/insurgent group like Hamas, embedded in a local population has been rooted out by a superior, organized army?
And if you can’t — believe me, you can’t. It has never happened — then what is the best way forward to preserve Israel in security and freedom, so that next year you can celebrate Pesach in Jerusalem.
PASSOVER 2024 - ISRAEL, IRAN, GAZA: WHAT NEXT? WAR, PEACE, TRUCE?