Even Bitter Enemies Can One Day Become Allies

Psalm 30 tells us that although we may find ourselves crying through the nighttime, the morning will bring us joy, relief from our sorrow and suffering. This doesn’t always occur, but it may. The Jewish people have always believed that with Divine help the future will be better. We have to believe it.

We might think that war itself, and worries about impending war, will never end. But history is full of surprises, and relations between nations can change, and dramatically at that. England went to war against Spain and France several times over the centuries. Spain and France also fought each other. How about now? Any Frenchman who is worried about a British invasion today would be considered a crazy person.

I feel safe in opining publicly that Spain and France will never again take up arms against each other. Britain also fought the Dutch Republic for supremacy on the seas over three centuries ago. It would be absurd to imagine the United Kingdom and the Netherlands fighting now.

France and Germany went to war three times: 1870, 1914, 1939. Since 1945, with the defeat of Hitler, the European economic and then political drive towards union has been to make sure that war between France and Germany never happens again.

As a baby boomer, my entire childhood and youth were spent in the Cold War. At best, we hoped that the U.S. and U.S.S.R. would sort of grow used to each other, and the constant threat of nuclear war, with the specter of complete annihilation, would fade with time. My generation grew up with apocalyptic movies like, “On the Beach,” and “Panic in the Year Zero,” which explored the results of what atomic warfare with the U.S.S.R. might mean, not to mention the very real Cuban Missile Crisis of that time period. About 20 years later, a made-for-TV movie, “The Day After,” examined the same terrible theme of nuclear conflict; the movie became an important cultural event at the time.

Only a few years later, Michael Gorbachev started to meet with Presidents Reagan and then Bush yearly, and by the end of the decade, the Cold War was effectively over. This chain of events, which we now take for granted, would have been totally unbelievable not only in the 1960s and 70s, but even in the 1980s until nearly the end of the decade. That is how fast things can change, even on a global scale.

As a Jewish baby boomer, I had grown up assuming that Egypt and Israel would always be enemies. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser often called for Israel’s destruction. By the time I graduated high school, Israel had fought three wars against Egypt (1956, 1967, 1973). When Anwar Sadat visited Jerusalem in 1977, the world seemed to shift. The Camp David Accords resulted soon after, and the resulting peace treaty between Israel and Egypt brokered by President Carter still stands nearly four decades later.

More recently, Israel had normalized relations with Jordan in the mid-1990s. In 2020, the Abraham Accords were signed between Israel and various states: UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. The Middle East was quickly transformed again, this time as a result of American diplomacy under the Trump administration.

Of course, it is also true that things can go in the opposite direction: Iran before the 1978-79 revolution was a friend to both the U.S. and Israel, and afterwards, a very bitter enemy.

For Jews, this is indeed a fraught time. It has been so since Oct. 7, 2023. Israel has endured a terrible attack but has made progress against its enemies. Israel is safer now than before the war with Iran – more secure now that Assad is gone from Syria, and that Hezbollah has been defeated. The war in Gaza against Hamas remains unfinished and very difficult. But the present situation will not be forever.

Peace with the Arab nations, with the Palestinians, even with the Iranians, one day may be possible, perhaps even soon. Yesterday’s foes may become today’s allies. Today’s enemies may be tomorrow’s partners. Israel’s national anthem is, “Hatikvah: The Hope.” Despite everything that has happened in Israel and to Jews around the world since Oct. 7, 2023, we should not lose hope.

B’erev yalin bechi, v’laboker rina! In the evening one may lie down crying, but in the morning – songs of joy! Psalm 30, verse 5. (my translation)

For Israel and for us all, may those songs of joy be sung very soon. Ken yihi ratzon. May it be the will of G-d.