Some convergences are more harmonic than others. To wit, Purim arrives this year just as America says it may be open to talks with the regime in Iran. And just as we Jews celebrate our victory over ancient Persia, we also anxiously wonder how America, Israel and the West will fare against a nuclear-armed, modern-day Persia.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrapped up her first Middle East mission this week, during which she reportedly discussed American diplomatic overtures to Iran. Such signals would make good on President Barak Obama’s promise to pursue talks wherever possible, even with sworn enemies.
But before any such overtures could be launched, Clinton sounded a pessimistic note, saying it was “very doubtful” Iran would ever back away from its nuclear ambitions.
Score one for America’s diplomatic chess game. According to the logic, a world holding steady against a nuclear Iran, along with the United States pursuing talks, pressures Iran to cave, ultimately dropping its pursuit of nuclear weapons. We win, they lose.
But, as the Purim story teaches us, things don’t always go according to plan, and evil doesn’t necessarily respond to diplomatic pressure.
In the Purimshpiel, we recount the familiar story of Queen Esther, her cousin Mordechai and the Jews’ ultimate triumph over evil. To offer up our own interpretation of the Megillah, it is through “diplomatic overtures” that Esther convinces King Ahasuerus of Haman’s wicked ways, and thus the king dispatches the Jew-hating villain to the gallows.
Yet, even with that successful use of diplomacy, even with Haman’s execution, Shushan’s war against the Jews went on. We still had to fight a bloody war. Prayer and fasting may have prepared the Jews of Shushan for the fight. It did not prevent it.
We do not suggest Israel or the West is on an inevitable collision course with Tehran’s new Hamans. That megillah has yet to be written. With the stakes so high –– to the point of Israel facing an existential threat from Iran –– we certainly hope the coolest of heads prevail.
But we know from history that new Hamans always arise, threatening the Jewish people with extinction. We also know that every time, ultimately, the Hamans pass from the scene while the Jews manage to survive.
As Jews, as Americans, as friends of Israel, we must keep an ever-watchful eye on Tehran. At the same time, we will celebrate Purim with abandon. The cacophony, the costumes, the merriment, all serve to remind us: Am Yisrael chai. The Jewish people live.