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A Time to Lead

By Donniel Hartman

It's beginning to feel the same. Instead of enabling newfound normalcy as Herzl had hoped, the reality of Israel seems to fit the same old pattern to which we have become so accustomed throughout our exile - us and them, alienation, aloneness, and danger.

True, the players have changed, and some of those who were our greatest enemies are now our friends. But a new generation has arisen that is more than willing to take their place - Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic terrorists, and now even the Turkish government and some of the popular voices emanating out of Turkey and Egypt are fitting into a pattern which we know so well.

In some of our circles sadness is coupled with the relief of at least returning to familiar turf, accompanied at times by, "I told you so." We know this world and this reality and at least we can stop pretending that it is different, stop pretending that we can do anything to change this reality, which seems to be a major part of our peoples' destiny.
 
It is through these same lenses that many of us are viewing the unilateral Palestinian bid for statehood at the UN. From the birthplace of Jewish sovereignty and the international authority that recognized the rights and legitimacy of a homeland for the Jewish people, the UN now provides a permanent consensus united against Israel's interests, and even legitimacy.
 
The fundamental challenge we face today as a people is how to respond, how to live within this existential reality which we know so well. Because it is so akin to our exilic past do we respond as a people in exile or as a people with sovereignty? And if it is the latter, how do we give expression to our sovereignty and power?