We are waiting for the events in Ukraine to unfold. Either
the Ukrainian special forces will indeed try to tackle Putin’s
extra-terrestrials ( i.e. Russian special forces with no insignia) or they will do nothing. If the Ukrainians go
ahead they will give Putin a pretext to invade Ukraine. If they do nothing they
will have ensured the partition of Ukraine in the future. Quite a difficult decision.
But how does it affect us? To quote Neville Chamberlain ‘ How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that
we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks here because of a quarrel
in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing”
The situation in Ukraine
is bad and it will probably get worse. But what it means for Israel is: What is happening
this very minute in Ukraine is the consequence of the incompetent foreign
policies of the Obama administration. Alarm
bells should be ringing in Jerusalem regarding Iran, despite the preparations
for the Seder tonight.
As for tense situations, here is one from 100 years ago:
The discussion had reached its
inconclusive end, and the Cabinet was about to separate, when the quiet grave
tones of Sir Edward Grey's voice were heard reading a document which had just
been brought to him from the Foreign Office. It
was the Austrian note to Serbia. He
had being reading or speaking for several minutes before I could disengage my
mind from the tedious and bewildering debate which had just closed. We were all
very tired, but gradually as the phrases and sentences followed one another
impressions of a wholly different character began to form in my mind. This note was clearly an ultimatum;
but it was an ultimatum such as had never been penned in modern times. As the
reading proceeded it seemed absolutely impossible that any State in the world
could accept it, or that any acceptance, however abject, would satisfy the
aggressor. The parishes of
Fermanagh and Tyrone faded back into the mists and squalls of Ireland, and a
strange light began immediately, but by perceptible graduations, to fall and
grow upon the map of Europe.
I always
take the greatest interest in reading accounts of how the war came upon
different people; where they were, and what they were doing, when the first
impression broke on their mind, and they first began to feel this overwhelming
event laying its fingers on their lives. I never tire of the smallest detail,
and I believe that so long as they are true and unstudied they will have a
definite value and an enduring interest for posterity...
The above quote is from Winston S. Churchill "The
World Crisis", Volume I, pages 204, 205, Charles Schribner's
Sons, New York 1923, renewed in 1951.
