Zalenski now equals Moses

quote:

---

A Putin Passover

This week is the start of Passover, the Jewish holiday celebrating the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt 3500 years ago. Every year Jews around the world retell the event, a wonderful story popularized in books and movies. The protagonists are the Jews, an oppressed people, the Egyptians, the oppressors, and God, a higher power. Some argue the story is just a foundation myth. It isn’t but no matter. The story has meaning. It has wisdom. It is universal. Strip away the Jews, the Egyptians, and even God, and the story is about the yearning of man to be free.

Ukraine 2022. Same story, different players. Ukrainians instead of Jews. Russians for Egyptians. A power greater than the belligerents - Western Civilization. Whether Western Civilization is a manifestation of God’s or man’s design can be left to individual preference. Consider the elements of the story and how closely they track the original – oppressed and oppressor, heroes and villains, outside powers, miracles and plagues.

We have a new pharaoh in the person of Putin, who wields unchecked powers. He is an autocrat living in a bubble of his own making without a true understanding of the world.
We have a Moses in the person of Zelensky, who emerges from obscurity to become the leader of Ukraine. Like Moses’, his is an unlikely rise to power, with a background devoid of political or military experience. He is also Jewish, though what part if any that plays in the story is unclear. Perhaps that he is steeped in the tradition of the Passover story. When the U.S. offers to extricate him, he replies “The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride”. A leader is born.

There are miracles. In the biblical story, Moses turns his staff into a snake. In the Ukrainian story the Russians invade with a huge host, expecting victory in a matter of days. The U.S. anticipates the same result. Six weeks later, the Ukrainians are still holding and even winning back territory. Depending on your definition of the term, a miracle. A quiescent world rushes to help, even wrong-headed Germany whose aid to Ukraine in the run up to war had been limited to army helmets (yes really, wrongheadedness of biblical proportion). But almost overnight Germany recanted a dozen years of bad policies that left it militarily weak and economically dependent on Russian energy. Turning a sleeping giant around is the stuff of miracles.

And there are the plagues. In the biblical story, the Egyptians suffer God-sent plagues of frogs, lice, flies, hail and others. Nine plagues, warnings of approaching doom, fail to convince Pharaoh. Then God unleashes the tenth and most terrible plague, destruction raining down on Egypt in biblical proportions. In the on-going Ukrainian story, we have already seen a multiple of plagues:

-Javelins, anti-tank missiles which have stopped Russia’s armored chariots
-Stingers, anti-aircraft missiles which have kept Russian warplanes from controlling the skies
-The flight of foreign companies, humiliating Russia and stripping it of Western goods and services
-Sanctions against Russian banks, making financial transfers difficult and interfering with trade and investment
-Sanctions against complicit individuals and companies, punishing the ruling elite and state enterprises
-Trade embargoes, cutting off sources of income and denying it needed goods and expertise

If the story continues along biblical lines, more plagues will follow which Putin may shrug off, unable to fathom the nature of the power against him and the impending doom. A “tenth plague” would complete the economic isolation of Russia, with access denied to financial settlements mechanisms, credit, investment, foreign trade income, foreign goods and services, technology, even spare parts to keep its industry working. It would include secondary sanctions against any entity or country which tried to help Russia, whether for political or opportunistic advantage. The result would be economic strangulation and if upheld long enough, ultimate collapse.

The Ukrainian story does have one new wrinkle, though. In the biblical story God acts according to His will. In Ukraine, Western Civilization will need to pull together. It has often failed in the past and it can’t let that happen again. The lessons of history must not be forgotten. It is the reason why Jews believe the Passover story must be passed on from generation to generation. It is a religious obligation.

For Jews the retelling of the Passover story takes place among family and friends in an annual ritual known as a seder. Putin likely will not be attending one, which is a missed opportunity. It might spare him, Russia and the rest of the world a lot of pain.

The Ukrainian story must end with the triumph of Western Civilization and be celebrated by the return of the Ukrainian refugees forced out by the war. A seder concludes with the hopeful words “Next year in Jerusalem”. This time around I will add the words “Next year in Kiev”.

---