{"id":122535,"date":"2025-07-14T17:00:35","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T15:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=122535"},"modified":"2025-07-13T07:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T05:16:09","slug":"14-00-112","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=122535","title":{"rendered":"We Don\u2019t Always Need to Be in the Room to Make a Difference"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>We Don\u2019t Always Need to Be in the Room to Make a Difference<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Pini Dunner<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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A Torah scroll. Photo: RabbiSacks.org.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This week, I listened to a riveting episode of\u00a0The Rest is History<\/i><\/a>, the ever-excellent podcast hosted by Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland. This one was about the infamous Munich Conference of September 1938, which allowed Nazi Germany to annex the Sudetenland so that they wouldn\u2019t go to war with Czechoslovakia, which would inevitably have drawn in France, and then Great Britain.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve spent any time dabbling in 20th-century history, you\u2019ll know that the Munich Conference has become the gold standard for the failure of the diplomatic policy known as \u201cappeasement.\u201d British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain \u2014 umbrella in hand, and full of patrician optimism \u2014 famously emerged from negotiations with Adolf Hitler waving a piece of paper signed by the Nazi dictator and promising \u201cpeace for our time.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Less than a year later, Hitler invaded Poland, and the world was plunged into one of the most devastating wars in all of history. Chamberlain\u2019s name has been synonymous with diplomatic na\u00efvet\u00e9 ever since.<\/span><\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the kicker: what most people forget \u2014 or probably never knew to begin with \u2014 is that the country being discussed at Munich \u2014 Czechoslovakia \u2014 wasn\u2019t even at the table.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Britain, France, Germany, and Italy hashed out the fate of a sovereign nation without even bothering to invite any representatives from Czechoslovakia to participate. As Sandbrook and Holland dryly observed, it was a negotiation\u00a0about\u00a0<\/i>Czechoslovakia, conducted\u00a0without<\/i>\u00a0Czechoslovakia.<\/span><\/p>\n

Czechoslovak President Edvard Bene\u0161 was famously informed of what had happened at Munich while he was taking a bath. According to multiple historical accounts, he received the news from his aides or possibly a British envoy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

His initial response, as reported in various memoirs and diplomatic recollections, was short and bitter: \u201cWe have been betrayed.\u201d He later added, \u201cWe have been deceived by our friends and left at the mercy of our enemies.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And if you think that sort of thing doesn\u2019t happen anymore, well, think again. Jump forward to 2015. The JCPOA, otherwise known as Obama\u2019s Iran Nuclear Deal, was signed by Iran and the so-called P5+1 powers \u2014 China, France, Russia, the UK, the US, and Germany.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Notably absent from the table was Israel. You know \u2014 the country Iran regularly threatens to wipe off the map. The country most likely to be targeted by an Iranian nuclear weapon if, heaven forbid, one were ever developed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Michael Oren, Israel\u2019s former ambassador to the United States, recounts in his book\u00a0Ally<\/i><\/a>\u00a0that President Obama consistently gave the impression \u2014 through word and deed \u2014 that he believed he knew what was best for Israel better than its own democratically elected leaders did. As Oren writes, it was a startling form of paternalism. And it\u2019s hard not to hear echoes of Munich.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which is why recent developments in the Middle East feel nothing short of miraculous. Conversations about the future of the region are taking place \u2014 often behind closed doors, sometimes without direct Israeli input, but increasingly with it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Just this week, there was direct contact between Israel and Lebanon. Lebanon, Syria, and Saudi Arabia are reportedly engaged in serious discussions with the US \u2014 and with Israel \u2014 about expanding the Abraham Accords.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the surface, it might appear that Israel is still being sidelined. But in reality, the playing field has shifted dramatically. This time, instead of the United States arrogantly assuming it knows what\u2019s best for Israel, something remarkable has happened: God intervened.<\/span><\/p>\n

Somehow, against all odds, Israel\u2019s enemies have been stymied. Iranian nuclear sites \u2014 long the subject of breathless speculation and veiled threats \u2014 were bombed into oblivion. Strategic alliances are forming that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. And much of it has happened without direct Israeli involvement. Which brings us to\u00a0Parshat Balak<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you blink, you might miss it \u2014 but Parshat Balak is one of the most astonishing episodes in the entire Torah. Not because of what the Jewish people\u00a0do<\/i>, but because of what they\u00a0don\u2019t<\/i>\u00a0do. In fact, they do nothing at all. They are completely marginal to the main narrative.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the Israelites are camped peacefully in the wilderness, a drama of international intrigue is unfolding just beyond their line of sight. Balak, king of Moav, is in a panic. The Israelites have emerged from Egypt, miraculously survived forty years in the desert, and now threaten his kingdom by sheer proximity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Balak knows he can\u2019t beat them militarily. After all, they had already obliterated the warrior nation of Amalek on the battlefield. Balak didn\u2019t want Moav to suffer the same fate. So instead, he turns to spiritual warfare. Balak engages the enigmatic prophet-for-hire, Bilaam, to curse the Jewish people. He wants them destroyed \u2014 not through force of arms, but through words.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like so many Torah narratives, this isn\u2019t merely the tale of some ancient tribal conflict. It\u2019s a blueprint for what antisemitism has often looked like throughout history: plots hatched in smoke-filled rooms by people with power, aiming to sabotage the Jewish future from afar.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And just like at Munich, or in the JCPOA negotiations, or at any number of international diplomatic settings \u2014 there isn\u2019t a single Jew in the room. And yet, everything turns out okay. Scratch that. It turns out better than okay.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bilaam opens his mouth to curse the Israelites \u2014 and instead, out come blessings. God turns his words inside out. Every attempt at sabotage is divinely inverted. Which is why the verse (Num. 24:5<\/a>) \u2014 \u201cHow goodly are your tents, Jacob\u201d \u2014 has become a permanent fixture in Jewish liturgy. Balak\u2019s scheme collapses in divine irony. The entire threat \u2014 real, sophisticated, and well-financed \u2014 evaporates without the Israelites ever knowing what was happening as it unfolded.<\/span><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the lesson. Sometimes the most incredible miracles are the ones we don\u2019t even know have happened until after they\u2019ve happened. Sometimes the most profound divine interventions take place in a room where no one representing the Jewish people has a seat \u2014 because God Himself takes the seat on our behalf.<\/span><\/p>\n

When we look at recent events through that lens, we stop being passive observers of history and begin to sense the Divine choreography at work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Iran, once untouchable, suddenly suffers catastrophic setbacks. Arab leaders, who once wouldn\u2019t even acknowledge Israel\u2019s existence, are now quietly exploring peace and cooperation. And America is doing what\u2019s in Israel\u2019s best interests \u2014 despite the noise from woke troublemakers and social media agitators.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not because Israel was in the room. It\u2019s because God was, just like in Parshat Balak.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, the next time someone points out how Israel is being left out of this or that negotiation, or how Jewish interests are being ignored in high-level diplomatic conversations, take a breath.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Remember Balak. Remember Bilaam. Remember the destruction of Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities by the United States. And remember this: we don\u2019t always have to be in the room \u2014 so long as God is.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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We Don\u2019t Always Need to Be in the Room to Make a Difference Pini Dunner A Torah scroll. Photo: RabbiSacks.org. This week, I listened to a riveting episode of\u00a0The Rest is History, the ever-excellent podcast hosted by Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland. This one was about the infamous Munich Conference of September 1938, which allowed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122535"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=122535"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122586,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122535\/revisions\/122586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=122535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=122535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=122535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}