Posted on 04/15/2003 1:36:06 PM PDT by yonif
Year after year, generation after generation, Jews spend Pessah night retelling the story of their exodus from Egypt.
We try to instill in our children a sense of our ancient journey from slavery to freedom and try to provoke discussion over its meaning. In fact, our need to recall the past is so strong that each of us is obligated to imagine that he or she personally went forth from Egyptian bondage.
Why does our faith demand that we go to such great lengths to remember? I have long believed that implicit in this commandment is a deep understanding of human nature.
Mankind easily forgets the meaning of the great events that have transformed it. We must constantly struggle to remind ourselves of the forces that have truly shaped our destiny. For most of us, appreciating one of those forces the power of freedom requires nothing less than an Herculean effort.
In 1974, at the age of 26, I participated in my first Seder with a group of Jewish activists in the Soviet Union. Though we knew little about that night's rituals, identifying with the seminal story of freedom's triumph was not particularly difficult for us especially with KGB agents waiting in a car downstairs.
The 10th plague the slaying of the first born which challenged each Jew to decide whether to smear the blood of the false Egyptian god on his doorpost, was another idea to which every refusenik could relate. By publicly declaring our desire to emigrate to Israel, each of us had chosen to challenge the Soviet god and stand up against tyranny. The same yearning for freedom that once drove our people felt as if it was literally pulsing through our veins.
Some years later, I would have the opportunity to lead a Seder for the first time. In truth, my memory of the text of the Haggada was by then rather sketchy, and the Seder itself had none of the traditional trappings. There was no unleavened bread to eat, no bitter herbs to taste, no Haggada to read and I was the only Jew present. In fact, I was the only person in the room. But my outside "guests" didn't seem to mind. As I retold the story of Pessah through the small window of my punishment cell to two fellow inmates, they too could immediately identify with its universal message.
The reason was simple. This isolated group of dissidents in the Soviet Union had already experienced the power of freedom to transform an individual and understood its power to transform a society. They needed no reminders. The idea that a nation of slaves could win its freedom and defeat the most powerful empire in the world was to us not an ancient legend, but an eternal truth. We knew that missiles, planes and tanks were in the end no match for the inner strength of people willing to resist tyranny. We also understood the undeniable logic in one of our fellow dissident's prediction that the arms of a state that always had to point a gun at its own subjects would eventually tire. To us, the collapse of the Soviet Union was as inevitable as freedom's march was inexorable.
SUCH THINKING was extremely rare outside the Gulag. Western policymakers had largely forgotten the power of freedom. To them, sentiments about the triumph of liberty may have been inspiring, but they were hardly practical. Like a Pessah tale that was nice to read but which no "serious" person would believe, most paid homage to the values of a free society but dismissed as hopelessly na ve the notion of an imploding evil empire.
Instead, these skeptics preferred a more "realistic" approach. D tente, and its various policy offshoots, was the product of such realism, and opposition to it, whether it came from the likes of a senator Jackson or a president Reagan, was considered reckless, if not dangerous. But history would show that the so-called "realists" were completely divorced from reality. Their failure to appreciate the awesome power of freedom blinded them to the inevitable collapse of the Soviet superpower. They were the ones exposed as hopelessly out of touch, and the so-called dreamers proved astute pragmatists.
More than a decade later, after hundreds of millions have been liberated, many have again forgotten the power of freedom to change the world. Promoting democracy among the Arabs, as a few have boldly called for, is again cast as na ve adventurism. The Arabs, we are told, have never lived under democracy. Their culture and religion, we are assured, are inimical to the idea of liberty.
The realists dangle the "pragmatic" alternatives before us: Cut a deal with "friendly" dictators. They will fight terror. They will preserve order. They will make peace.
For the past 10 years, Israelis have witnessed the horrific consequences of this type of realism. Rather than place its faith in the power of Palestinian democracy, Oslo placed its faith in the power of Yasser Arafat's dictatorship. Arafat, we were told, was a man with whom we could do business. We would give him unlimited power and in turn he would protect us from terror and make peace with the Jewish State.
Even today, after Arafat's 30-month terror war against Israel and 10-year reign of terror over the Palestinians, the lessons have not been learned. Again, the rush to create a Palestinian State with "a man we can deal with" before Palestinian democracy has a chance to take root is in full swing. And again, it is being sold as the product of hard-headed realism.
IN SHARP contrast to this latest turn of events, last summer the power of freedom was remembered. In his historic speech, President Bush articulated a vision that Andrei Sakharov always championed: Only a country that respects the rights of its citizens will respect the rights of its neighbors. If the Palestinians were to build a society that protected individual freedom, President Bush promised that America would support the Palestinians' legitimate yearning for self-determination. It was not only the most noble vision of peace this region has ever heard, but also the first realistic one.
But predictably, the president's ideas were received by those who have forgotten the power of freedom as "na ve" and "impractical." Democracy, the critics argued, is nice in theory, but pragmatism demanded a different course be pursued. In London, in Paris, in Moscow and even in most quarters in Washington and Jerusalem, the skepticism took a familiar form: nice dream, but let's get back to reality.
Alas, if the fall of the evil empire couldn't change these skeptical minds, it is doubtful that the celebrations erupting in Baghdad will. There will be more excuses, more cynicism, and more hesitation.
But now it's the turn of Iraqis to experience the overwhelming power of freedom. Men and women who have lived for decades under tyranny will soon know, perhaps for the first time, what it is like to live without fear. The challenge for America and its allies will be to convince them that they need not live in fear again.
More importantly, the leaders of the free world will have to convince themselves that tyranny is no more inherent to the Arab condition than it is to the human condition. To ensure that the institutions needed to preserve and protect liberty in Iraq are given the chance to develop, these leaders must once again believe in the power of freedom.
The effect this freedom will have on the region is sure to be breathtaking. It will prove as contagious in the Middle East as it was in the Soviet Union. Soon, Iranians, Saudis, Syrians, Egyptians, Palestinians, and all who live in fear will envy those who no longer do. And they will increasingly find the courage to stand up and say so.
For those living under the blanket of liberty, the power of freedom is often forgotten. Tonight, Jews will be able to remind themselves of that power, as we have been able to do for three thousand years.
When I read of our triumph over an ancient empire, I will surely recall our triumph over a modern one. And I will know in my heart that the dream for peace and stability in the Middle East will only be realized when we stop believing that the power of freedom is only a legend.
The writer is minister of Diaspora affairs and Jerusalem.
Hopefully his experience in that position will give him the necessary skills to become PM. Israel needs a moral leader. Sharon is a strong man who can bring "peace" (if "peace" means very few bombings), but I think Sharansky has a better chance of coming up with a long-term solution.
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