NY State Assemblyman Dov
Hikind was handcuffed today in front of Senator Charles Schumer’s
office. He was arrested for disorderly conduct as he blocked the entrance to
the powerful U.S. Senator’s New York City office. The question we need to ask
is how in the world will this make any
difference or help protect Israelis from the growing threat of Iran?
Let’s
be honest: Comparing Barak Obama to Neville Chamberlain, or the threat of Nazi
Germany to today’s Iran, is unfair. Obama
is by no means as educated as Chamberlain was. Neither can we assume a similar
altruism. Chamberlain genuinely believed he had achieved “peace in our time”
for the United Kingdom. And when he eventually perceived how his miscalculation had
only advanced Hitler’s quest for European dominance, the former U.K. Prime Minister did an about face and wholeheartedly
supported Churchill’s bid for Britain’s war with Nazi Germany.
Further, all bombs are not
created equal.
Atomic weapons arsenals in the U.S. and Soviet Union in the 1970s became deterrents that relegated a potential military conflict to a benign
Cold War. But nuclear weapons in the hands of a State that currently boasts
bragging rights to the highest rate of terror-supported activities in the world
is another matter. Iran has, among other threatened and often-times successful
atrocities, sworn to eliminate the State of Israel.
Comparisons
of Iran to Khrushchev’s Soviet government are also misleading. The
Soviet’s vantage point progressed from a seemingly virtuous but ultimately
failed economic system. Its adherents formed the basis of a naïve worldview
based, at least in theory, on uniting world workers. By contrast, the religious fanatics who
will hold the keys to an Iranian nuclear arsenal are
boisterous evangelists of a death cult. Deals and armistices and non-aggression
pacts with such an aggressive player on the world stage hold little promise for peace.
How
many times during an armed conflict with Israel did Islamic leaders
raise the white flag of surrender or accept a negotiated truce only to fire
upon the Israelis immediately after their guard was lowered?
One
need not be a prophet nor science-fiction aficionado to anticipate the dark
dystopia enabled by a powerful, nuclear-armed and genocidal band of
Ayatollahs and their hundred-million legions of fundamentalist cannon fodder. The
ability to extrapolate from recent history and sociological norms should make anyone of even semi-intelligence more
than alarmed by a deal that gives America’s long-standing enemy, and Israel’s
most dangerous and blood-thirsty adversary, the ability to produce a nuclear
arsenal over time.
What can
one man do?
One
man can do plenty if he is Winston Churchill or Menachem Begin—if he is charismatic and capable and attains a position of authority whereby he can
make a huge difference. But even the smallest among us are obligated to do our
share.
Dov
Hikind understands this instinctively. He understands that a N.Y. State
Assemblyman may have little sway in the U.S. Senate or Congress. Nevertheless,
he’s willing to do whatever it takes to bring attention to the
village-is-on-fire seriousness of a nuclear Iran. Those who chained themselves
to the White House fence or marched in Selma, Alabama for civil rights
understood this, as well: All that’s necessary for evil to triumph is for good
men to stand silent.
Of
course Hikind’s arrest in front of Senator Schumer’s office was street theatre.
But street theatre brought attention and an eventual weakening of American willingness
to maintain immoral military actions in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Hikind was cuffed and charged so that others would wake up and also raise their voices.
There
was a simple message for Senator Schumer, too—a message which echoed Biblical
Mordecai’s plea to Esther the Queen: “Do not
imagine that you, in the king's palace, can escape any more than all the Jews…
And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as
this?"” (Esther 4:13)
Most
of us are not elected officials. Most don’t even have a blog. But all of us possess
a vote and a voice and social media and prayers. All of us should be willing to
sacrifice now so that countless others will not suffer later.
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