An Ancient Fear Reappears

 An Ancient Fear Reappears

The topic of this letter is somewhat unusual as I seldom write about statistics, but an insight while reading past Shabbat's Parasha has prompted some ideas.

The first chapter of the book of Sh’mot/Exodus continues to tell the story of the Hebrew people, who were very fruitful in the land of their sojourn. But then a Pharaoh who did not know his Egyptian history came to power, or in the words of Scripture, “a Pharaoh who did not know Joseph".   By this time, as mentioned, the Hebrews were very prolific, compared to the local population.  Fearing that these foreigners, living among them, might join an invading army, the king decided to do something about it.  So, Abram’s vision that his seed would be in a very dark place for four hundred years was about to be fully manifest.  “Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. And Elohim said to Abram, 'Know for certain that your seed will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years'” (Genesis 15:12-13).

We know the story. YHVH heard Israel's cry and sent a deliverer. But what if we were to superimpose the above scenario on our situation here in Israel, comparing ourselves to the Egyptians whose land was being filled with who may be termed as an alien people group? Let’s examine the numbers: The Jewish population of Israel is around 8 million.  The Arab population is Israel is close to 2 million, in the “West Bank” there are about 2.2 million Palestinians, and in Gaza 1.7 million, making a total of around 5 million Arabs.  The greatest concern that we are living with every day, just as did the Egyptians, is that if a foreign entity such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, or in Syria, or the nation of Iran were to invaded our state, the West Bank Arabs and those who are Israeli citizens may join the invading forces.  We have always been conscious of a possible fifth column in our neighborhood. 

This fearful concern almost came to pass on October 7^th. But Hamas made a tactical error as Iran, Hezbollah, and the Houthis in Yemen, with the help of the West Bank Arabs and possibly also Arab Israeli citizens, had a specific date planned and coordinated, to attack the Jewish state together. Thus the enemy from within would join the ones from over the border.  Had that happened we would have been overwhelmed by thousands of rockets, drones, along with invading forces. The damage to our roads, communication systems, electronic power, and everything else would have made it very difficult to gather and mobilize our forces.    Thankfully, the Almighty Protector of Israel put it in the minds of Hamas leaders to attack when they did, thus throwing off the enemies' coordinated plans. Hamas jumped the gun but did succeed in breaking through. Once they did, the call went out on all the Arab networks and communication systems for all the Arabs to join in and that included the local population.  The failure of the all-encompassing plan gave us time to mobilize and within just a couple of days we had an army of over 300 thousand troops and armaments along the borders of Gaza, Lebanon, and in the West Bank. 

The government ordered every citizen to have their home shelters ready for use and initially for all communities, big and small, to post local guards 24/7 in and around their towns.  The population in the villages and towns along the borders of Gaza and Lebanon was evacuated. 

This was kind of a long-winded way to compare the present to what went through the minds of the Egyptians in their concern about the Hebrews.  Some of the local Arabs, and many of them in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) celebrated the attack on the southern kibbutzim and towns and on those who participated in the party that took place near the Gaza border on that fatal day. So, what do we do now?  We obviously cannot take the same measures that were taken by the ancient Egyptians. But maybe we can pray that the Almighty will send our Muslim enemies a deliverer who will lead them out of Israel to their 'promised land' in one or all of the 57 Muslim countries. Hopeful thinking? A figment of my imagination? Or perhaps the solution is found in the following statement? "When a man's ways are pleasing to YHVH, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him" (Proverbs 16:7).