by Rabbi Eliezer Shenvald, translated by Hillel Fendel.
The
Patriarch Abraham had the right idea in purchasing the Machpelah Cave and not
accepting it as a gift. This is an important lesson for the State of Israel to
relearn today.
Strategic
alliances with other countries are an important component of any nation's overall
national security. They are very necessary especially in today's era of
globalization, with the frequent formation and collapse of international coalitions,
and when even distant enemies must be faced and dealt with.
In
the current war, Israel's alliances have certainly proved themselves. Our
friendship with the United States saved us from the mistakes we made in allowing
our supplies of armaments, weapons and combat equipment to dwindle. We were
also helped by quiet arrangements with our neighbors, such as Jordan, to intercept
the ballistic missiles and UAV aircraft/drones fired at Israel from Iran.
On
the other hand, as is known, the U.S. embrace of Israel was actually a type of
bear hug. It created a measure of Israeli dependency on the U.S. that actually
left us vulnerable to demands that we not fulfill our military and strategic
objectives along the way to defeating Hamas and returning our hostages.
There
is a well-known principle that "countries don't have friends, only
interests." Of late, there was most definitely a conflict of some of these
interests between Israel and the U.S., particularly the then-upcoming
elections. As a result, America threatened, more than once, to withhold arms
shipments to Israel critical for the continuation of its campaign [to destroy,
or at least subdue, terrorism in the Middle East]. This was a repeat of what
happened 50 years earlier during the Yom Kippur War, when the Americans
prevented us from preemptively attacking the Syrians and Egyptians; the ensuing
war ultimately cost us over 2,650 soldiers' lives.
We
must always remember the great difference between an alliance of friendship and
goodwill, on the one hand, and a relationship that leads to one party's dependence
on the other, rendering it a type of protectorate. For Israel, this is of
course undesirable and undermines our sovereignty.
One
of the fundamental principles in the security philosophy outlined by Ben-Gurion
in the early days of the State was that Israel must always retain its
independence in everything having to do with military strategy and armaments.
"It is incumbent upon us to know and recognize," he said in 1951,
"that when it comes to our security, we must always rely only on
ourselves." We must ensure that given the tremendous threats upon us, we
will always have the wherewithal to respond effectively and sufficiently without
the need to resort to others' help.
We must
always be able to make sure that the IDF has the weapons it needs, with production
lines that can increase their output in times of emergency. The IDF must always
have sufficient manpower for a number of highly-trained and battle-ready
attack-force divisions that are prepared for every eventuality. It must also maintain
supplies and spare parts that will last it for the duration of whatever battles
are on the horizon, and beyond.
To
our great sorrow, this was not at all the picture when the current war started.
For many years, we enabled ourselves to develop a dependency on American
defense aid money [which must, by the terms of the agreement with the
Americans, be spent in the U.S.], leading to a degeneration of some of our own
local defense industries. This of course creates the harmful dependency of
which we are speaking. According to various reports, we permitted ourselves to
reduce our supplies of equipment essential for an extended war, relying on our
American friends to supply us when needed, as indeed they finally did – almost
too late – in the Yom Kippur War.
Reports
are that immediate steps are being taken to change our thinking in this regard
and ensure that we will not be caught short-handed again. Still and all, if we ever
again need weapons and armaments, we must know that it is better to purchase
them than to receive them as "gifts."
It has
been reported that on Trump's "Day One," right after his inauguration
on Jan. 20, he has promised to remove all restrictions on the supply of
military equipment and ammunition to Israel. This is certainly good news, but
it must not cause us to revert to our dependency on the United States in areas
of military goals and weapons. The Trump Administration will be a good test
case to see if we have truly internalized the lessons of the current war in
terms of relying on the goodwill of others.
Let
us note that our Patriarch Abraham was a great strategist, with long-term
vision. He forged a strategic alliance in Be'er Sheva with King Avimelekh for
generations to come (see Genesis 21, 22-31), with the goal of ensuring their
secure and lasting stronghold in the Land of Israel.
It
was for this reason that Abraham, as we read in this week's Torah portion,
refused to accept the Machpelah Cave and the field of Hebron as a gift from
Ephron the Hittite. He insisted on paying full price, for various reasons
according to the Medrash – and one of them was that when one receives a favor
or gift from another, the former becomes a form of debtor to his benefactor.
"How much more so is this true,"
explained a venerable sage of the previous generation known as the Steipler
Rov, "that one must not allow himself to enter into an unlimited agreement
of subservience… and especially if the other is a wicked person…"
King Solomon writes in Proverbs, "One
who hates gifts will live" (15,27). This is because he has not
allowed himself to develop a dependency upon others. "There are no free
lunches," the popular saying goes.
Hebron and the Machpelah Cave were Avraham's first acquisitions in the Land to which G-d instructed him to go. Thus, these places ,are strategically critical for Jewish sovereignty here forever. Not for naught did all three Patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – establish their residence in Hebron, which was also the first destination of the Twelve Spies dispatched by Moses to the Land. It was also in Hebron that King David founded the Dynasty of Israel. All of this explains why Abraham made sure to buy it and not receive it as a gift. Only in this way would it belong exclusively to the People of Israel, with no chance for the Hittites, or anyone else, to retain any claims to it in the future.