As understandable as shutting out the current dangers facing Israel’s security, we as a people do not have the luxury to draw back from reality.
Here’s a never-before-heard story, a real scoop: one day, a little Dutch boy walking through the countryside noticed a leaky dyke. He stuck his finger in the dyke to stop it from leaking, and then his whole hand. Ever hear this one before? Could it have been passed on for generations? Are you quite sick of it? Do you plug your ears and cover your eyes when confronted with it? It stands to reason that you would; how many times can you listen to the same story, about a Dutch boy and a dyke about to burst?
This thing is, this story is more or less our own: just this Tuesday, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) uncovered a Hezbollah attempt to recruit more members; the Russians have taken over a large airport in Iran, and terrorist organizations are trying to take root in the settlements. Meanwhile, what is it that we do? Each night, we sit down in front of our shiny television, munch down on sunflower seeds and shed tears of joy or grief over every Rio de Janeiro sports event. The Olympics tend to drive us crazy, so that every four years we remember that they exist for about two seconds. A three second pause would constitute a real miracle. At the same time, though, tunnels are continue to be dug in the south—maybe in the north, as well—Hamas or Hezbollah terrorists are plotting to overtake Kibbutz Hanita, Kibbutz Manara or Kibbutz Nahal Oz, as we split open another bag of Afula seeds. Where are they, anyway? We’ve already finished a kilo of them. No matter; someone bought another kilo.
We’re sick of hearing about our own troubles, but each day they continue to grow, even as we become less and less inclined to pay them any attention. So we laugh at foolish Trump and evil Clinton, while illegal weapons are caught at our border, and Hezbollah militants are dropping like flies in Syria. This makes us happy, as we think that the more of them that die, the better. We imagine that the world is too busy with its own problems now to worry about us, when in reality no one has turned their attention from us for even an instant. It’s only us who want to forget about ourselves. Slowly, the noose around our neck is growing tighter. The Russians are the ones doing the tightening, with the help of old friends bent on seeing our demise, who are ever so temporarily turning the flames down low. In light of this, I am reminded of the purposely skewed reports on the eve of the Yom Kippur War, which described the Egyptian Army’s equipment as rusty and unusable, and claimed that the Egyptians have erected vast cemeteries throughout the Nile Delta.
But what does it all mean? Well, it means that for the time being, we must focus on building Sparta and forget about Athens. We must prepare ourselves, check our emergency inventory and think about every possibility, because the one that will eventually materialize will be the one we never considered.
So there you have it, the story of the Dutch boy and the crack in the dyke. If you’re sick of hearing about the dyke about burst, think about where you fit into it.
As reported by Ynetnews