Page 40 - Jewish News_November-2020

40A November 2020 COMMENTARY

Participating in the making of history

By David Chaifetz
n Saturday afternoon, Septem- of Presidents CEO; William Daroff, were in these countries four years ago, make these agreements successful. An
ber 12, I went into my office to Incoming Conference of Presidents the very definite statement from lead- interesting point from the text of the
Ocheck my email. In the inbox CEO; Pastor John Hagee, Founder ers was that the Saudis had to bless UAE Agreement noted by Middle East
was an email from “The White House and Chairman of Christians United for any move toward peace with Israel. pundit David Makovsky is the state-
Social Office.” I called to my wife Edith Second, the opening of Saudi airspace ment that Arabs and Jews “stem from
to come quickly. When she arrived, to Israeli overflight was a major sym- the same ancestor, Abraham” and both
I opened the email to see the words: bolic vote of confidence for this deal. are indigenous to the Middle East. This
“The President requests the pleasure of Third, with the U.S. trying to reduce its statement refutes previous Arab allega-
your company at the Abraham Accords footprint in the Middle East, the Sau- tions that Jews are alien in the region.
Signing Ceremony.” In a nanosecond, dis need Israel more than ever to help Finally, the leaders of Israel, UAE
we both said “we are going!” offset the danger of Iran, and it would and Bahrain all agreed that these peace
We arrived at the White House on be much easier if the relationship is in agreements would not have occurred
Tuesday, September 15 at about 10:30 the open. Fourth, when the Palestinians without the involvement of President
a.m., and quickly went through securi- demanded that the Arab League con- Donald Trump and his team. It hap-
ty. We were directed to follow the path demn the UAE for entering this treaty, pened because President Trump was
to the south lawn. Along the path, we the demand was rejected. The Saudis willing to challenge the 50-year-old
saw young men and women from the are the major force in that organization conventional wisdom of the so-called
various military services in their beau- and most likely were the drivers of that experts that peace must start with a
tiful dress uniforms greeting us, say- outcome. Palestinian agreement, after which
ing, “Welcome to the White House. We We watched the four leaders in- the Arab countries would make peace.
hope you enjoy your visit. If there is teract. They seemed comfortable Since the Palestinians have been in-
anything you need, please let us know.” with, respectful of, and actually liked transigent, President Trump rejected
When we reached the south lawn, each other. This relationship contrasts that approach and started with the Arab
there were numerous people already with an earlier one, 27 years ago on states. Hopefully, when the Palestin-
present. The seating was arranged in Edie and David Chaifetz at the White House the signing of the Oslo Agreement ians see that their erstwhile allies are
two sections. The first six or seven Israel; and our good friend from Con- on the White House south lawn when enjoying peace and prosperity with
rows were for VIPs, Cabinet members, necticut, Senator Joe Lieberman. We Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat were Israel, they will join the process.
Senior Administration staff, diplomats, talked to rabbis, political operatives the principals. Rabin despised Arafat David Chaifetz is a board member of
members of Congress, and groups and representatives of various NGOs. and had to be coaxed by President Bill The Jewish Federation of Sarasota-
from Israel, the United Arab Emirates If I were to choose one word to Clinton to shake his hand. The rela- Manatee.
(UAE) and Bahrain. Behind those rows describe the atmosphere at the White tionship among these principals will
were about 20 rows for all other invi- House it would be “euphoric.” Re-
tees. Those seats were assigned on a gardless of whom we talked to, the Are you a voter?
first-come basis. We were about eight sense was that this was the beginning
rows back in that section. of something big and important. That
The program was scheduled to belief was reinforced as each of the one simple mitzvah accomplish? Can it
start at noon, but it started 30 minutes speakers remarked that other Arab and truly change the trajectory of our rela-
late. During the two hours from arrival Muslim countries were sure to join in From tionship with G-d?
to start, we wandered around the lawn, making peace with Israel. the Does G-d really care if we put a
meeting and talking to people. The au- Is it reasonable to believe that oth- penny in the charity box? Does it mat-
dience was very diverse. Among oth- er countries will take the plunge? Yes, Bimah ter if we light Shabbat candles before
ers, we talked to AIPAC staff and lay absolutely. The 900-pound gorilla that sunset? How about tefillin? Does it re-
leadership including Howard Kohr, was physically absent from the signing ally matter if we put them on? Do our
AIPAC CEO; David Harris, AJC CEO; was Saudi Arabia. In my opinion, the mitzvahs count?
Jason Isaacson, AJC Chief Policy and Saudis were there, but behind the cur- Rabbi Mendy Bukiet Well, it is quite similar to how we
Political Officer; Eric Fingerhut, The tain. First, neither the UAE nor Bah- Chabad of Bradenton vote. Our votes are counted even if
Jewish Federations of North America rain would have done this if the Saudis & Lakewood Ranch we did not vote with the correct intent
CEO; Malcolm Honelein, Conference were opposed to it. When Edith and I or even if we are not a seasoned and
e are in the midst of a histor- knowledgeable voter. On the contrary,
Opinions printed in The Jewish News of Sarasota- ic election with heightened as long as we vote, our vote is import-
Manatee do not necessarily reflect those of Wemotions, a divided nation ant and counted.
The Talmud, in Tractate Kiddush-
and worried voters. While it is certain-
The Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee, ly not my place to advise anyone who in, states that “Ha’maaseh Hu Ha’ikar”
its Board of Directors or staff. to vote for, I do believe that there are (the action is the main thing). Our ac-
important lessons to be gleaned from tions and mitzvahs are counted wheth-
this highly charged election. er observed with the proper feeling or
The Baal Shem Tov, famed found- not, whether we understand what we
ADULTS er of Chasidic philosophy, taught that are doing or not. As long as we do the
mitzvah, it counts. It matters.
everything we see and that occurs in
CULTURE our lives needs to be taken to heart as a Yes, our mitzvahs matter! Even
CHARITY lesson in our service to G-d. the “little ones” add up to millions of
The election has certainly been mitzvahs and tip the scales for positive
KIDS seen and felt in all of our lives! Such energy, goodness and G-dliness in the
JEWISH a leading story begs us to search for world. Each mitzvah causes a ripple ef-
CALENDAR lessons learned. How can this election fect. The cumulative energy of all our

OF EVENTS Your Hub teach us to enhance our connection with individual mitzvahs together create a
IN SARASOTA for Jewish Events G-d and humanity? How can we be- win for the world.
AND MANATEE come better people from this election? But when it comes to a relation-
What is a vote and how important ship with G-d, He wants the mitzvahs
is your vote? For a candidate to win an on His terms – with unity, together-
election, he or she needs to win mil- ness, brotherhood. He yearns for His
lions of votes. Yet even though many children to behave in a way that their
LEARN votes are needed, without each individ- actions bring them closer together.
ual voter, the candidate cannot win the
So while the American election may
FAMILY election. be highly charged and, unfortunately,
We can potentially compare the divisive, let us ensure that our cumu-
seeming insignificance of one vote in lative mitzvahs, unlike the votes, are
an election to one mitzvah in our re- accomplished in harmony with each
JFEDSRQ.org/JewishEvents lationship with G-d. Just as we may other, all of us working together to-
ward the same goal of bringing peace
wonder how much our one vote can
accomplish, we wonder what can our and goodness to the world.