The Only Guarantee of Israel’s Existence

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke yesterday at a service for Israel’s Memorial Day.  The event and his words are reported by Arutz-7:

Quoting from the Book of Jeremiah (31:16), the Prime Minister stated, “Our grief is overwhelming, our hearts ache, where will we find comfort? The prophet said: ‘Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears; for thy work shall be rewarded. ‘”

But Israel’s grief continues.  They can recite this verse from Jeremiah to comfort each other, but the bloodshed and the loss have not ended.  The events described in Jeremiah 31 have not been fulfilled.

“We shall find solace in building the land and the people, in striving for days of peace, and in our knowledge that their work shall be rewarded and their heroism shall be remunerated,” he added.

Notice where the Israeli PM directs his people to find comfort—in their own works.  Never in biblical history did that achieve the desired goal.  Moses gave a better prescription when he prophesied the exile and return of Israel: “Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back….The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.”  Israel does need man-glorifying works; they need a divinely accomplished circumcision of the heart.

He said: “If the fallen soldiers were with us today, they would have witnessed countless miracles throughout the years. The soldiers from the War of Independence would have witnessed the rebirth of the State of Israel; those who fought in the Sinai Campaign would have seen the ingathering of the exiles; those who fell in the Six-Day War would have watched us as we return to Mount Moriah and the Western Wall…

These are certainly remarkable events, whether one calls them “miracles” or not.  What no one can dispute is that the miracle of spiritual rebirth has not occurred.  The most religious Jew to the most ardent secularist knows that the nation is spiritually and morally destitute.

“Those who fell in all these operations, campaigns and wars to protect Israel, would probably be surprised how Israel has turned from a state verging on the desert with only meager resources into one of the most developed, prosperous and advanced countries in the world.  My friends, none of this would have happened if not for the young men and women who sacrificed their lives to ensure our existence…

It is also a country where military service is required, where extremely high taxation is demanded to pay for security, and where many live in poverty.  It is nothing like the days prophesied by Isaiah when “the wealth on the seas will be brought to you,” when “foreigners will rebuild your walls and their kings will serve you.”  It is not a day when “your gates will always stand open, they will never be shut, day or night.”

“They would see that a huge earthquake shook the Middle East region in the past year…. But as the days go by, one thing is becoming clear – Israel is an island of freedom, democracy and progress in a vast, important swath of land.” 

Israel is an island of freedom and democracy when measured against its neighbors.  But the people in Israel do not feel free.  They are enslaved, either to their own sins or to the sins of others.  Israel is not a people who say “our offenses are many in your sight…and we acknowledge our iniquities: rebellion and treachery against the Lord.”  Fasting many abound in Israel today, but it’s not very different from Isaiah’s time when “on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all of your workers.”  Isaiah promised that one day “the nations will see your democracy righteousness and all kings your freedom glory.”  When the nations discuss Israel today, they talk about its president convicted of rape and its former prime minister indicted for bribery.

Netanyahu added that until freedom and democracy “light the skies of other countries,… we know that there is only one guarantee of our existence and future – the Israel Defense Force – the protector of the Hebrew people, backed by the spirit of the people.”

This is so tragic.  It’s like hearing an echo of King Zedekiah, who refused to trust the words of Jeremiah for his deliverance from Babylon.  Instead he fled the city until the Babylonians captured him and put his eyes out and he was never heard from again.  If Zedekiah had uttered these same words, that the guarantee of Israel’s future depended upon the Israelite army, he should have expected the disappearance of the nation within a generation after his death.  Somehow, the Hebrew people survived for the next 2,500 years without the Israel Defense Force.  Amazing!  But God gets no credit, nor does he get any trust.  To judge from this speech, Israel has learned nothing in the meantime.