In just one week, our country and, consequently, the world will change forever. If we move to the left, we risk the real possibility of turning our backs on 250 years of American exceptionalism. A shift to the right, and we gain the possibility of resurrecting our Founding Fathers’ dreams.
I recently participated in a forum regarding the upcoming election. I identified 12 issues, amongst them trade, taxes, foreign policy, Israel, rebuilding the military, school choice, and the Supreme Court. On all 12 issues, all participants agreed that only one candidate represented what they themselves believe in. I then suggested that we put issues aside and focus only on gridlock. I asked, “Who do you believe will be beleaguered by scandal and investigation after investigation that will cripple their ability to lead?” Once again, the answer was unanimous.
Put aside gridlock and focus only on integrity: Who do you think believes that the laws of this land can be skirted or manipulated to serve their interests? Unanimous once again. Think of all of the time and money spent decades ago investigating Bill Clinton. It won’t be any different this time should Hillary win. No one has ever run for this highest position in the land with such a black cloud hanging over their head.
I remember five years ago discussing Obama and Israel with a fellow congregant. I was shocked that he had no problem with Obama and Israel. I told my friend then that whatever Obama cannot push through in his almost two terms as president, he will ram down Israel’s throat in his last two months. I told my friend that Obama will utilize the United Nations in those final two months, after the election, with nothing to lose for him or the Democratic nominee, to marginalize Israel like never before. I pray to G‑d that I am wrong, but my gut tells me that I am correct. And if he does resort to such lunacy, only one candidate will work to reverse the damage done.
You cannot simply stay home. You cannot follow the trends of the past. You must open your eyes to what will happen here in America and what America will look like in four to eight years. Don’t believe me? Take a look at Europe.
But we live in New York, you might say, and it’s blue, a Democratic state, and with the Electoral College in play, there is no chance. It’s pointless; she will take the state in a landslide. Not the point, my friends. The average German citizen could not have stopped Hitler. But they nevertheless owed it to themselves and to their descendants to be able to say that they did something to register their lack of acquiescence. The damage will be almost irreversible or, at the very least, will not be corrected in our lifetime.
When things do go awry in life, it is a rare blessing to see them corrected.
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World War II had ended, and the whispers of formal recognition of a Jewish state were percolating. Not amongst the world leaders yet, but amongst the dreamers of Zion. Nestled underground in a kibbutz near Rechovot was a factory that produced bullets for the Haganah in a clandestine operation. The kibbutz looked run-of-the-mill, and a large part of the kibbutz population themselves were unaware that under their very feet was an ammunition factory producing bullets for the defense of a land, a people.
The British too were unaware of the factory’s existence, and the operation was almost discovered numerous times by a pesky British officer who would appear unannounced on many occasions. They simply had to find a way to conceal matters from this one officer. The rest of the British personnel would show up at predictable times, giving the kibbutzniks time to hide their activities, but this one officer presented a potential problem. On one occasion he complained to his Jewish hosts that the beer they served him was always warm. They informed him that if he would be kind enough to tell them in advance of his arrival, they would make sure his beer was cold upon his arrival. And so the problem was solved.
Years later, the factory was turned into a museum. Not long ago, an elderly woman, a Holocaust survivor named Penina, visited the museum. At the conclusion of the tour, she broke down in tears. As a young girl, she was forced into labor in Germany, making–you guessed it–bullets, which she always believed were used by the Nazi war machine to kill her own people.
Daily, her tormentors would tell her that there were no more Jews left in the world except for her and her three friends working with her. When she was eventually liberated, the first question she asked the soldiers was, “Are there any other Jews left in the world?”
She was led to believe all those years that there was no one left, and if there were Jews left, they surely were not in the position to help Jews defend themselves. And so she dissolved into tears on that tour when she learned for the first time that while she was making bullets to be used to kill Jews, somewhere, thousands of miles away, belowground, a group of heroic Jews were making bullets to save Jews.
Penina was one of the few people in life fortunate and blessed enough to see the darkest of times give birth to light, to witness a correction in history.
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We are days away from a historic moment. We hope for the best and trust that if somehow the “best” is diverted, it will be but a momentary detour, and that we too will bear witness to the correction of history. v
David Seidemann is a partner with the law firm of Seidemann and Mermelstein and serves as a professor of business law at Touro College. He can be reached at 718-692-1013 or ds@lawofficesm.com.
