“President Biden told the world on Monday, August 16, that he doesn’t regret his decision to withdraw rapidly from Afghanistan, or even the chaotic, incompetent way the withdrawal has been executed. He is determined in retreat, defiant in surrender, and confident in the rightness of consigning the country to jihadist rule.” So did a Wall Street Journal editorial of August 16, 2021 aptly sum up the situation.

With the Taliban’s victorious entry into Kabul in mid-August 2021, the American military intervention in Afghanistan has come full circle. Undertaken to destroy Al Qaeda following its deadly 9/11 attack on American soil, and to remove Afghanistan as a base for global terrorism, it has now, 20 years later, ended up where it began. Instead of building on the significant progress achieved, it is witnessing the triumphant return of those terrorists in a stronger position than ever. President Biden’s assertion that the U.S. “mission” had been accomplished is exposed as the boldface lie it is by the glaring reality of the shameful rout.

“Ululations of orchestrated hysteria went up from the nation’s media,” wrote Gerard Baker, columnist at the Wall Street Journal, decrying the reactions of the mainstream media to Donald Trump’s election to the presidency in 2016. “It was 1933 again. Late Weimar America would succumb to an authoritarian with a distinctive haircut and a penchant for intolerant rhetoric.”[1]  

Fast-forward to September 2020: Former Vice-President Biden, in a television interview, described President Trump as “sort of like” Nazi Germany’s Goebbels, the head of Hitler’s propaganda machine – or, in the first presidential debate, as “the man is a clown…a liar.” Biden again: Trump is “more like Castro than Churchill.”[2]  

The time from Pesach to Shavuot, as we renew our preparation for the receiving of the Torah, is a particularly apt one to reflect on fundamental values. That becomes even more important – and difficult – in what seems to be a truly “upside-down” world, possibly the most worrisome state of affairs in quite some time.

It is consequently appropriate to dissect key ongoing trends to see whether certain patterns can be discerned, and then to see whether one can see the way ahead in some fashion.

It is not only the rapid pace of events but also their hectic tempo that are disturbing and make them hard, if not impossible, to grasp. How can one make sense of these rapid-fire events both here and abroad? Hardly a day goes by in the U.S. without some mass shooting – whether at schools, stores, or malls? Can we possibly explain those other apparent innovations of “Palestinian” terrorists – the random knifing of civilians or the use of vehicles as weapons of mass murder, in Israel, Europe, and now in Canada? Clearly, not all of these have been the work of terrorists. The latest, in Canada, so far seems not to have been. Neither was the horrendous mass shooting in Las Vegas or recent school shootings. Nevertheless, the spread and adoption of the techniques by unbalanced individuals of all stripes is new to the digital age and represents an alarming trend. The types of people who are committing these crimes were always there. They somehow did not tend to act out in this manner. It is as if some psychological barrier has been breeched, as if such behavior is now an acceptable manner to seek attention and vent feelings.

A curious headline appeared online last summer: “Turkey Captures Bird, Accuses It of Spying for Israel.” (The Blaze, July 28, 2013) This headline was not a joke. Rather, it is but one of many bizarre accusations that are daily fare in many parts of the world, and reflect the only-too-real perceptions of its peoples. Nor is it merely a war of words. The headlines are accompanied by increasingly frequent violence against Israel and Jews in general.

As Purim approaches, the Jewish people once again finds itself in the crosshairs of its enemies. Purim also reminds us that attacks on Jews and Israel are nothing new. But, as if to counter the frightening reality of being surrounded by enemies, the Megillah’s hope-inspiring subtext also reveals that those who attempt to destroy the People of Israel are the ones who in the end disappear.