Cloud Wars
Adrenalin raced through the Chief of Staff’s veins. He knew that “Red Eagle” would be the last thing that Achmedinejad and Iran would expect...
The following is a scenario that could happen according to decision makers who fail to include emuna in their situation assessments:
The red crisis phone on the Chief of Staff’s desk rings. Only one of two people can be on the other end of the line – the Prime Minister or the Defense Minister. The Chief of Staff immediately recognizes the PM’s voice.
“Gabi,” says the PM to the Chief of Staff, “Put the Air Force on purple alert. I want you to be ready to implement “Crimson Eagle” within 6 hours. I’ve called an emergency meeting of cabinet, and I hope to have a green light for you within 90 minutes.”
Adrenalin raced through the Chief of Staff’s veins. He knew that “Red Eagle” would be the last thing that Achmedinejad and Iran would expect at this point in time, especially since the USA refused to grant Israel’s request for the one-ton bunker-buster bombs so necessary to penetrate the concrete defenses of the nuclear reactor southeast of Tehran. A million details raced through the Chief of Staff’s brain, but he was ready. The Air Force had been practicing for months and had reached a razor-sharp edge of preparedness. He smiled to himself: “If we didn’t hit Iran during the Bush administration, no one will expect the surprise we have for them now that Obama is president.”
The cabinet unanimously approved the mission. The Defense Minister summoned the IDF General Staff to the war room in the basement of the central military compound in Tel Aviv. The Head of “Aman” – Military Intelligence – shared a few secretive words with the Chief of Staff and then said to the heads of Israel’s defense forces: “Crimson Eagle goes into effect in zero-five-hundred hours. Our method of attack, armaments, and flight sequences all remain the same. The only change is our target…”
Israel’s military leaders looked at each other in bewilderment. “Crimson Eagle” was the plan to eliminate the nuclear reactor in Iran. What could be an alternate target that would require the massive air and fire power of “Crimson Eagle”?
Rather than spreading satellite land maps on the long oval table, The Head Military Intelligence displayed satellite maps of the sky over Israel. The horizon was mostly clear blue, except for one ominous dark-grey cumulonimbus cloud. With a pointer in hand, the Head of Military Intelligence drew imaginary circles around the cloud, that for the moment was still fifty kilometers off shore, heading at a rate of ten kilometers per hour toward the coast of southern Israel between Ashkelon and Ashdod. “This is the enemy,” he said flatly.
The Commander of the Air Force asked in amazement, “What, we attack the clouds?”
The Minister of Defense chimed in: “Let me clarify the situation. The enemy is very elusive. The skies have been blue all winter long. Occasionally, a random stratus or cirrus cloud has penetrated our air space, but they don’t carry rain anyway. We need to blow the cumulonimbus clouds apart at the seams, because they carry the rain. We’ve barely seen any this year, and the drought is the worst in the last hundred years. When a rain cloud finally appears, it leaves us dry and moves eastward to Jordan. The clouds have become hostile to us and they leave us no choice, for they refuse to give us rain. We shall therefore capture the coming cumulonimbus cloud, and when it calls its reinforcements, we’ll ambush them too with our aerial firepower. We must have the rain…”
End of scenario.
The above scenario sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Who would think that we could “capture” the rain by bombarding the clouds? But, if this makes no sense, neither does anything else make any sense.
Who thinks they can stop missile fire from Gaza by destroying the Hamas? Hamas is a national movement based on a religious ideology. Even if all the current terrorists would be liquidated, there are coming generations of many new terrorists and suicide bombers in various stages of childhood and adolescence waiting to carry on the torch of war and suicide combat.
We have been forced to fight against the Hamas in Gaza because our sages require that if an enemy rises to kill us, we must kill the enemy first (see Sanhedrin 62a). We fight because our sages tell us to fight in order to ward off the immediate threat to our homeland and to our people.
Yet, as Jews and as Breslever Chassidim, emuna is the first and foremost consideration in our decision-making process. We know that everything comes from Hashem, for the very best, and for a good reason. The Hamas and the drought are both wake-up calls from Hashem so that we’ll improve our ways and return to Hashem. We are not so inane to think for a moment that any ceasefire agreement or even total annihilation of Hamas will solve our problems any more than bombarding the clouds will bring rain. Let’s put aside all the fantasy ideologies and return to Hashem. Then, we’ll have peace, rain, and everything we hope for, amen.
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