From The Other Side Of The Bench
By David J. Seidemann, Esq.
If only. Can you imagine if the airline had advance warning of the co‑pilot’s history? Of his mental status? The airline surely would not have allowed him to fly that day or any other day.
If only. Can you imagine if the captain had known of his co‑pilot’s intentions? He surely would not have left the cockpit.
If only. Can you imagine if the pilot, having left the cockpit, had been able to break down the cockpit door? We know from the cockpit voice recorder the desperation in his voice as he screamed, “Open the [darn] door!”
If only. Can you imagine if the passengers’ screams, as they knew that in a moment they would be dead, had penetrated the cockpit door and then penetrated the conscience of the co‑pilot enough to avert the horrific tragedy?
If any other people knew of the plan and did nothing to prevent it, they would be as guilty as the co‑pilot Lubitz, the sick man who crashed the plane under his control into the side of a mountain, ending the lives of innocents.
No one reading this article would disagree with me, not even the most liberal Jew, not even the most liberal politician, not an expert in the aviation industry, and not a first-time flyer.
Go ahead and live with your head in the sand because you are too busy making Pesach, making a living, or raising your children. Go ahead and ignore the bells warning that we are losing altitude because of a sick fascination with the Democratic Party or the malaise of liberal Jewish thinking. Go ahead and ignore all the warning signs that Mr. Obama is directing your future into the side of a mountain. All of the warning signs are there, but you are too busy, or too in the tank or too beholden to “the party” to speak out, to scream, to protest, to pound your fists and yell, “Open the door!”
Your blind allegiance to Obama and his vile disrespect for Israel will endanger world Jewry.
Your timid response, if any, will allow him to negotiate your death sentence with Iran, as we will witness a nuclear arms race in the most dangerous neighborhood in the world. And even if the Saudis and the Egyptians won’t race to the arms table (they will), at the very least Iran’s nukes will be within striking distance of Israel. Is there anyone out there besides me who does not trust this president with Israel’s security? Speak up now before the plane leaves the gate.
The four sons from the Haggadah are sizing up the situation. The wise son spoke eloquently from within the halls of our Congress. And I unabashedly identify the wicked son. Because any leader who negotiates away the safety of my life, the lives of my children, and the lives of my people is wicked. There is no other plausible explanation short of deep-rooted psychological issues that are above my pay grade to diagnose. For those of you who have an issue with my labeling the president’s actions as wicked, you may substitute the word weakened for wicked. For the end result is the same. There is no question that Obama and his team are negotiating with Iran from a point of weakness. Instead of walking into negotiations after strengthening sanctions, they loosened the sanctions and then began negotiations. As a lawyer, I can tell you how an adversary handles negotiations after such a blunder. As a political-science graduate, I can tell you how foreign leaders and nations, especially the enemy, view you when you end up ignoring every red line you have laid out.
And I know already which members of this community will stop me on the street and tell me that I am being too harsh, that I am overreacting, that I am out of line. To them I say, you would have said the same thing to me the day before 9/11 and you would have been wrong. To them I say, if Bibi is wrong your children will still live. If Obama is wrong, you can finish the sentence yourself. This is not the time for Jews to play nice and calculate that if we speak nicely and respectfully maybe we can convince this administration to cancel the evil intentions of Haman.
The nerve Obama has to declare to the world that “Netanyahu’s words matter” when Bibi said he can’t envision a Palestinian state under the present conditions! Those words matter, but “death to America,” “death to the Jews,” “death to Israel,” “Jews are apes, monkeys, and dogs,” those words uttered by our enemies don’t matter.
Mr. Obama’s plan is not disguised; it is not hidden like the Afikoman.
But what is hidden and concealed is the reaction of our two New York senators. Suddenly they are sitting around the Seder table like the simple son and the child who can’t even open his (or her) mouth. So it is incumbent upon us to open their mouths for them, as the Haggadah commands us to, and teach them what to say.
We have to scream and yell with our voices, our votes, and our pocketbooks till they move to protect us, our children, and our homeland.
Our elected officials are that flight crew that claim to be acting in our best interests when they need us but are eerily silent now as we head towards the mountain of doom. They should be banging on the cockpit door and screaming, “Open the door!” But they are silent. As I am typing this article, a news brief just flashed on my screen that the nuclear talks have been extended. More time for the Iranians to do what they do best and more time for Obama to be alone in the cockpit. Raise your matzah if you believe that Iran has suspended all activity while these talks continue.
Too many of us—passengers in first class with entrée to politicians, and simple coach passengers like me—are sitting onboard with our headphones on and eyes closed, not oblivious to what is transpiring but too afraid to speak up.
My dear friends, if the day before 9/11 I had told you that tomorrow the world would change forever, you would not have believed me. Well, it is about to change again. And if you don’t start banging on the cockpit door, you will be complicit in flying this plane into a mountain.
The simple senator and the senator who doesn’t know what to say are seated around the table. They have heard the words of the wise son and the “other” son. One of those sons is prepared to hand control of the airplane to a suicidal, homicidal maniac. The other son, the wise son, is screaming, “Open the door!”
Who would you listen to?
David Seidemann is a partner with the law firm of Seidemann and Mermelstein and serves as a professor of business law at Touro College. He can be reached at 718-692-1013 or ds@lawofficesm.com.