Leaders Fiddle While Israel burns
By Rabbi Berel Wein

(December 14) One of the famous legends about ancient Rome is 
that the Emperor Nero fiddled on his lyre while the city went 
up in flames. 

In fact, part of the legend is that Nero himself was the 
pyromaniac. Thus was born the phrase and metaphor about 
"fiddling while Rome burns." 

Our country is in the midst of violence that has yet to show 
signs of abating. Every day there are more deaths and more 
expressions of hatred against our existence. 

The day after bereaved parents visited Palestinian Authority 
Chairman Yasser Arafat in Gaza and heard him promise peace, 
a number of Israelis were killed by Arab gunmen. 

WE HAVE become accustomed to this pattern of behavior. In fact, 
we are beginning to accept Arab violence as part of our daily 
lives, much as the doleful statistics regarding our road 
fatalities. 

And in so doing, in carrying on with our "normal" lives, we run 
the risk of being guilty of fiddling while Israel burns. 

There has been a great deal of comment on the necessity of 
forming an emergency government here in Israel. I am not 
certain that this gambit will prove successful, given our 
current political leadership. But I do believe that we need to 
create a sense of emergency in our national public and private 
lives. 

This is not the time for the petty political and partisan 
maneuvering that we are currently witnessing. It is not the 
time for a new point of divisiveness and bitterness to be 
opened between the haredi public and the secularist ideologues. 
It is not the time for the repetition of the worn-out mantras 
about "peace" and the "poor Palestinians." 

We have heard all of that and already done all of that. 

It is not a time for obfuscating the reality of our situation. 

The 1948 War of Independence is in full bloom now and we cannot 
afford to fiddle while the fire rages. We must focus all of our 
attention on extinguishing or at least controlling that blaze. 

In short, we should stop the nonsense that is the usual fare of 
Israeli public life. In the 1930s, just before the Holocaust 
destroyed it, Eastern European Jewry fiddled while its house 
was about to be set on fire. Political and ideological battles 
were waged bitterly among the different Jewish groups and 
political parties. Disputes regarding rabbinic posts and 
authority abounded. An enormous sense of reckless vitality 
permeated the Jewish street, and yet there was no Jewish 
leadership that concentrated on the conflagration that was 
about to engulf the Jewish world. 

I do not wish to make comparisons or draw analogies, but I am 
uneasy about our attitudes here in Israel now. Too many of our 
leaders - political, religious and academic - have apparently 
chosen this time to take up the violin. 

Instead they should all be learning how to be firefighters. 
(By the way, was that strike settled yet?) 

Is this really the time for the kinds of issues that are 
currently the centerpieces of the Israeli public agenda? 
The revival of the issue of the drafting of yeshiva students, 
(I know that the Supreme Court mandated it, etc. but come on now), 
the shameful jockeying for political advantage, the unabashed 
pursuit of personal power and honor by political leaders, the 
constant behind-the-back negotiations with our enemies (always 
officially denied, as was Oslo itself), are all dismal examples 
of fiddling while our city burns. 

Where is the voice of calm inspiration and determination, of the 
defense and explanation of our righteous position, the call for 
and example of sacrifice and national patriotism? 

Enough of the shrill arrogance and the self-righteous posturing. 
The silence of our moral leaders in this hard time is deafening, 
and to me it is inexplicable. 

There must be some higher value in life than merely holding on to 
mandates in the Knesset.