Shortly before launching the Bolshevik Revolution, Vladimir Lenin is rumored to have uttered the words, “There are decades where nothing happens and there are weeks where decades happen.”
Last week very much felt like the latter – a week of major events that have the power to drastically shift global paradigms, with repercussions for years to come.
The first groundbreaking event was Israel’s attack on the Hamas leadership in Qatar. While the operation appears to have failed in its objectives, the geopolitical implications go far beyond the survival of any of the targets.
First, it marks a shift in Israel’s war effort.
After a year of fighting Iranian proxies in Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen before striking the head of the snake, Israel is now demonstrating its readiness to challenge threats from Sunni actors aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood.
This attack was not just an attack on Hamas, but a signal to Turkey, Qatar, and the other Gulf states that, with the Shiite Axis weakened, Sunni states can no longer rely on the Iranian boogey-man to paper over their anti-Israel incitement and antagonism. These states need to understand that longstanding normalization and cooperation with Israel needs to be on the basis of real partnership and shared interests, and not as a surface-level measure despite ongoing support for Hamas in Gaza or the HTS-led government in Syria.
Israel’s Doha strike was also a signal to the United States.
While Israel still needs to make considerable progress in developing our own supply chain for necessary munitions and weapons systems, Israel’s leadership is making the most of US policy in West Asia by attacking American allies independently while maintaining Washington’s plausible deniability.
As long as the Qataris aren’t willing to shoot themselves in the foot by overreacting against US interests in their country, both Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump know that the repercussions for the president and his Qatar-allied supporters will be negligible.
And internally, when we have to sell the story of Israel acting independently of US interests to the world, we strengthen our own resolve, as the Israeli public begins to see that we’re not just America’s regional sidekick, and that we’re willing to take decisive action, even in the face of American objections.
Another groundbreaking event was the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the American conservative influencer and founder of Turning Point USA.
The delicate fabric of American social cohesion hasn’t seemed so close to being torn asunder since pro-Trump protestors stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
For many conservatives, Kirk’s murder is understood to be the nail in the coffin of passionate political discourse, harking back to one of Kirk’s own quotes, “When people stop talking, bad things happen.”
And when Americans see “bad things” on the horizon, you can bet that a good number of them are arming and training to put up a fight.
Right-wing tempers were already running hot as a video of Decarlos Brown murdering Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina spread like wildfire on the internet, with the conversation turning rapidly to race relations and the US justice system – both issues that Kirk discussed regularly with his audiences.
Zarutska’s murder took place the same week as the shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, which received far more media coverage when it happened, and which Kirk discussed in the minutes before he was shot.
These high-profile killings – which many on the American far right have interpreted as violent assaults on “White America” – are likely only the opening salvo in a surge of violent attacks and counterattacks that fuel a narrative of race war and culture war on the streets of US cities.
It should go without saying that in such a scenario, Jewish communities and visibly Jewish individuals could become convenient targets for both the left and the right.
The third groundbreaking event of the week received far less press, beyond a brief mention in an Israeli podcast.
Sandwiched between the other two events, Rav Ouri Cherki and his Brit Olam organization – of which Vision is a part – hosted a gala dinner in Jerusalem to bring together students and supporters of Rav Cherki’s work, bridging gaps within Israeli society, developing the next generation of Israeli leaders, and even connecting to Noaḥides around the world,.
With speeches from leading Israeli bio-medical engineer Professor Ḥaim Azhari and former ambassador to Italy Dror Eydar, video-messages from Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Ḥotoveli, and President Yitzḥak Herzog (and entertainment from popular singer-songwriter Natan Goshen), the room was a who’s who of current and future movers and shakers in Israeli society.
But what made this gathering unique was that all of the guests and speakers, despite coming from a diverse spectrum of Israeli society, have one thing in common. They all share Rav Cherki’s vision for Israel to step out of the shadow of exile and power-patronage, and to begin sharing our people’s civilizational message with the world. Speakers repeatedly emphasized the importance of moving away from reactionary hasbara and towards sharing the unique message that Israel returned to history in order to spread to the world.
And the timing of this gala couldn’t have been more apt. In the immediate aftermath of the daring attack in Qatar, the importance of Israel’s military and diplomatic exploits carrying with them a clear moral message for humanity came into much greater focus. And when Charlie Kirk was murdered as pledge cards from the gala were still coming in the next day, those who had been present understood how urgently the West and the entire world need a shining example of what it means to live a life of commitment to advancing the world towards a brighter “progressive” future, while drawing strength from the eternal words of our prophets, the root of so much of “conservative” thought.
This message was encapsulated in the gala’s title, “Back to the Future,” because that uniquely Hebrew synthesis of past and future, tradition and progress, is the central pillar of Rav Cherki’s revolutionary teachings.
At the gala, our Israeli supporters generously pledged 100,000 Shekels (roughly $30,000 USD) to the Vision movement’s programming for North American student and young professional activities, in the hope that we can begin the new year with a strong push to continue training young passionate Jews to become active participants in this groundbreaking chapter of history.
We’re asking you to join us, and to help match our Israeli donors, by starting the year off with $30,000, in order to help us realize our dream of launching a pilot with a full-time regional coordinator, who will focus on university campuses and training future Jewish leaders.
You can support our work by becoming a regular supporter on Patreon, or through a one-time or recurring donation on Paypal.
