The Need of Balance

The main suspect of last week's terrorist attack in Bulgaria had a quite big file of involvement in activities of different terrorist groups. He was held for 2 years in Guantanamo, but - being a Swedish citizen - he was sent back to Sweden, where charges were not pressed against him. The Swedish authorities probably didn't find him dangerous enough to keep him in jail or custody in order to protect innocent people from him. The result of this decision is seven dead and several injured people, whose only sin was going on a vacation by the Black Sea, or being a busdriver. I am sure, the Swedish authorities were trying to make a responsible decision, and avoid the conviction of someone who  has probably not killed anyone yet. The freedom of the individual (liberal value) gained priority over the security of the community (conservative value).

In the beginning/middle of the last decade, when the second Intifada reached its peak, Israel has built a system of fences and walls in order to prevent Palestinian terrorists from getting into Israeli cities. Some might say it is only a coincidence, but as the fence was built up, the number of terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens dropped radically, leading to the end of the daily violence, thus saving many lives on both sides. On the other hand, tough security measures hardened the freedom of movement for many Palestinians, including the peaceful ones. The security of the community gained priority over the freedom of the individual.

Sweden is glorified in the World as one of the leading countries in human rights and freedom.
Israel is criticized in the World as being an oppressor and using "excessive force".


The 13th century Jewish polyhistor, Maimonides teaches, that one of the most important principle is to walk the golden middle way. The Hebrew word "Emet" means truth, but it also means balance. It consists three Hebrew letters: aleph (the first one in the alphabet), mem (the 12th one in the middle), and tav (the 22th or last one). The two extremes on the sides, but in the center, the golden middle one. Truth = Balance.

If we lose balance we'll eventually fall

3000 years ago in the Middle East slavery was common. In Babylon slaves had no rights, they had to work all the time, the law didn't secure their life, rather entitled their masters to kill them if they didn't need them anymore. Same in Egypt. There was only one nation which recognized the basic rights of the slaves: Israel. The Torah prohibits the masters to kill their slaves, who even received a day of rest every week! In those times and place the Torah represented unbelivable social rights and liberalism.

Nowadays, the leading media and organisations in the World judge countries and societies based on how "Western", how liberal they are.

In the Western cultures less and less children are born, but proportionaly more and more of them are born to single mothers. Besides many useful sources, all kinds of unhealthy material is easily accessible to children. Even though, freedom of speech in most countries doesn't apply on incitement and racism, it is nearly impossible to enforce those prohibitions. In fact, Western societies idolize individual freedom even when it poses a great danger to society.

Judaism refers to the Jewish people as light for the nations. Jews should be the examples of living by truth, in the right balance (unfortunately we sometimes fail to succeed in this). When it is normal in the World to treat certain people as objects or working machines, we should show, that every human being deserves the basic human rights! Similarly, when the World has gone too far in worshipping individual freedom, we should show that the golden middle way for the community is a bit (but not too much) back towards the conservative side.



This post is dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Burgas terrorist attack:

Maor Harush (24) Acre, Israel
Itzik Kolangi (28) Petah Tikva, Israel
Mustafa Kyosov (36) Yurokovo, Bulgaria (bus driver)
Amir Menashe (28) Petach Tikva. Israel
Elior Preiss (25) Acre, Israel
Kochava Shriki (42) Rishon LeZion, Israel (pregnant)

May them be the last ones who had to die due to the lack of Emet in the World.

About the changes

In the Middle East, often the most unexpected happen. Last month, old, well-established regimes fell. Fall of these dictators is not the most unexpected story, but the way they fell, was something, which was never predicted by any Western analysts (at least, I never read or heard such). The power of Tunisia's Ben Ali, and Egypt's Mubarak were not terminated by military intervention (like it happened in Iraq in 2003), nor by murder (like Mubarak's predecessor, Anwar Sadat), neither by a civil war or a coup, or any other known ways in the Middle East. They had to leave their office as a result of a way of angry protests, mostly by the masses of the young, unemployed population.

Watching, and reading the coverages, i didn't notice any burning American or Israeli flags, didn't see masked, armed terrorist-type marching. They were quite similar to the big protests in Europe: some objects caught fire, but the people behaved mostly peaceful (some cases, like beating and molesting Western journalists could make us worry though, but let's be optimistic at this point). The events were spread through internet social networks, such as Facebook, or Twitter. These sudden revolutions were carried out by a society of young Arabs, who use the internet, and see there the World outside, while they are fed up with their situation. Maybe the new generation of Arabs represents something, which has never existed before in these countries (or if it has, it had to hide): the Civil Society.
It is clear, that even if this society will not be ruling these countries, it will definitely be an important segment, which the new rulers (whomever they will be) will have to listen to.
Now, the question is: what do they (this new society) want? How do they think about politics? We don't know this yet. They will not even necessary be united in any idea, or goal. All we know is that they wanted change. But there is a chance now. Since they didn't show any signs of anti-Israel sentiment, hopefully they will not want to destroy the Jewish state, and they will not listen to the propaganda of hatred. They might say: "You, Jews can keep that twenty-something thousand square kilometers, we still have more than 10 million."

What I am saying, is of course not sure at this moment. The future is very uncertain now. We don't know, which direction these countries will turn after the fall of their previous dictators. I am afraid, even this new Arab society doesn't have any idea about it either. There is an unbelievable ideological vacuum there. But now, if we (Israel and the Westerners) communicate, and make our relations with the Arabs wisely, we can help them forming a new Middle East of peace, and mutual appreciation.

Lichtik ליכטיק: civ

Lichtik ליכטיק: civ: "In the Middle East, often the most unexpected happen. Last month, old, well-established regimes fell. Fall of these dictators is not the mos..."