One of my teachers at Hasmonean Boys School in the early 1980s was Rabbi Dovid Cooper (of blessed memory). I have vivid memories of him telling us how convinced he was that the events of the Six Day War were miracles, proof of God’s eternal protection of the Jewish people and His support for the state of Israel as the modern day means of our salvation.
I don’t think any of us quite understood then exactly what he was talking about, but his passion, his conviction and his belief penetrated our minds.
The events of recent weeks, and particularly the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, have re-ignited my memories of Rabbi Cooper and his passionate belief in the miracle of Israel. One tiny country founded against the odds, which has survived attempt after attempt by those who were more numerous, better resourced,and better placed to bring about its end.
That’s indeed how it looked during the Six Day War. Egypt and Jordan should have won. The events of the subsequent Yom Kippur War showed both how easy it would be to lose and, again, the miracle of survival.
Yet as the Talmud warns, we should not rely on miracles alone. It was the ingenuity, the creativity, the innovation, the bravery and the grit of Israel, its leaders and its people that allowed us to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in 1973. The tactical brilliance in particular of one Israeli general - Arik Sharon, on the Sinai front. Yet still, as Rabbi Cooper realised, it could so easily have gone the other way. For many of us then and now, this was indeed a modern miracle.
In 2023 and 2024, it seems that providence is with us still. The Hamas pogrom, and the machinations of Iran across seven fronts, seemed to the world to place Israel in a dire situation. For sure, the future is still uncertain. But who can doubt that the astounding events of the last few weeks, culminating in the killing of Nasrallah, equal those astonishing six days in 1967.
We should be astounded by the technical and tactical brilliance of a state and a people that could so rapidly bring Hezbollah to its knees and that could show the world that it is Israel, not Iran and its death cult proxies, that has the courage, the strategic and tactical flair and the command of technology to win. Yes, Israel and its people, the people of the start up nation, have made this miracle on their own terms.
Yet so much could have gone wrong, and so much still could go wrong. I am with Rabbi Cooper in thinking that the Almighty continues to play a role in our salvation. As we say at Chanukah, He has placed the strong in to the hands of the weak, the many in to the hands of the few, and the evil in to the hands of the good.
One further miracle that we are beginning to see across the Middle East in the wake of events in Lebanon is the awakening of voices who are finally able to articulate what they have no doubt felt for a long time: that the future lies with Israel and its commitment to democracy, freedom and modernity. It does not lie with the medieval and cruel philosophy of the Iranian regime.
People in the region can see the bravery of Israel and its people – the audacity and bravery to strike at Hezbollah and its reign of terror within Lebanon and across the world. In this they glimpse a future, one already grasped by a number of governments in the region through the Abraham Accords, where there can be, as Benjamin Netanyahu put it at the UN, “a historic reconciliation between Arab and Jew”. This would be the true miracle of our times, paving the way for peace between Israel and the Palestinians and promoting peace and freedom from the terror and oppression of the likes of Hezbollah across the world.
This would of course mean that leaders of the free world – Biden, Harris, Starmer, Lammy, Macron and the others would need to cease their appeasement of Iran (and appeasing those in their political base who actually support the terrorists) and truly support Israel.
Some might say that would be a miracle too far, even with the Almighty’s help. They may be right. But I reckon that Rabbi Cooper might have had more faith than that in His abilities. I can still see him now, slapping his hand down in to his palm to make a point, filling us up with his faith. Our shared inheritance stretching back over millennia. We need that kind of faith now more than ever.
