Olena Zelenska, the First Lady of Ukraine, visited the U.S. yesterday. At home, her husband is busy dismissing key security officials amid concerns about leaks -- a major problem -- while the battle bogs down in the eastern provinces.
The Wall Street Journal op-ed pages are scolding the West for failing to arm Ukraine, and for allowing Putin to use his "deterrent." Well, that's what nuclear weapons allow you to do. It's also what being unpredictable lets you achieve.
As I've been saying for months, the only way out of this is a negotiated deal. There is no circumstance in which Russia will accept a Western victory -- only a stalemate that can be spun as a Russian win. All other options are bluster.
The Biden administration has already squandered the negotiating leverage the West had when Ukraine had military and diplomatic momentum after repulsing Russian attacks on Kiev. Now that leverage is slipping fast. Time is running out.
If the war is allowed to continue, Russia could achieve gains that allow it to threaten Ukrainian sovereignty again, and the West will have to step in more forcefully, with a much higher risk of escalation, and a cold winter ahead.
The time for negotiations was yesterday. What's happened to Biden? What happened to President "Diplomacy Is Back"? Where's all the diplomacy we were promised? And if the U.S. is trying to pursue "victory," what does that look like?
This week’s portion launches the great story of Abraham, who is told to leave everything of his life behind — except his immediate family — and to leave for “the Land that I shall show you.”
There’s something interesting in the fact that Abraham is told to leave his father’s house, as if breaking away from his father’s life — but his father, in fact, began the journey, moving from Ur to Haran (in last week’s portion). His father set a positive example — why should Abraham leave him?
Some obvious answers suggest themselves — adulthood, needing to make one’s own choices, his father not going far enough, etc.
But I think there is another answer. Abraham (known for the moment as Abram) needs to establish his own household. This is not just about making one’s own choice, but really about choosing one’s own starting point. It’s starting over.
Sometimes we start over in fundamental ways even if much that surrounds us remains the same. Sometimes the journey we have to ...
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
Hi all -- as I noted last month, I'm going to be closing down my Locals page, at least for tips and subscriptions -- I may keep the page up and the posts as well, but I'm no longer going to be accepting any kind of payment.
Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
