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MembersWhen Leaders Stop Choosing – From Pharaoh to Tehran

There are moments in history when power no longer acts rationally. Moments when leaders no longer weigh their options, but simply press forward, even when the path leads directly into the abyss.

Leaders
Propaganda poster in Tehran: Pictured are the now-deceased terror leaders (l. to r.) Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qasem Soleimani, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Photo: EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH

Why does an empire march into a parted sea? Why does a regime keep fighting even though it has long since lost? The answer is uncomfortable and highly relevant today: at some point, systems do not lose their strength — they lose their ability to choose.

 How is it that the most advanced military power of antiquity, the army of Egypt, the greatest empire of its time, consciously marched into a parted sea and perished? One must bear in mind what had happened before: ten plagues had systematically shaken Egyptian civilization. The Nile turned to blood. The harvests were destroyed. The livestock died. And just days before that final march, death had reached every house in Egypt — the firstborn, from the Pharaoh’s palace to the humblest servant. Egypt lay in ruins. And yet the Pharaoh’s army stormed into the parted waters. Voluntarily. With full force. Where was free will? Where was the most elemental human instinct — the will to survive?

BIBLICAL ANSWER

The biblical answer is not mystical. It is structural. And it...

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About the author

Patrick Callahan

This is an example of author bio/description. Beard fashion axe trust fund, post-ironic listicle scenester. Uniquely mesh maintainable users rather than plug-and-play testing procedures.

One response to “When Leaders Stop Choosing – From Pharaoh to Tehran”

  1. Johanel Rosenbaum says:

    I do understand Rabbi Chaim Rosenberg very well. And he is totally right.
    But there ist a little big question: If the army of the Pharao was destroyed by the sea. If the political structure of Japan had been destroyed by the US-nuke. How can Iran come to destruction?

    Two years ago I wrote, Israel has to destroy Iran from inside through these many very different people in Iran. Trump had the chance, but missed it. So – what can Israel do now?

    Waiting for JHWH? Unlikely! As a psychologist, Chaim Goldberg knows that HE is within us and acts through us. Trump acts like a mafia boss who makes offers that cannot be refused. But we see that Iran is rejecting them, in an ideological death wish.
    My question: Which actors, which ethnic groups can Israel find to whom it can make offers they do not WANT to refuse?

    The Arab emirs, sheikhs, kings—even the Sunni warlords—do not fear Israel. They fear Iran’s political system… and their own ideologically incited people. They want the Abraham Accords, but they cannot; they must maneuver.

    Here one should think of Proverbs (Mishle) 11:24–25: “There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, and there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in want. The generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered.”
    What is Solomon trying to tell us? Give the Arabs fat (prosperity) and they will love Israel and no longer hate it?

    I am no rabbi, but one should think about this. Even if it means completely destroying the political structures of the Arabs who (still) hate us.

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