A European View: Understanding Wei-Ji

When Israel’s evergreen politician and now president, Shimon Peres, first mentioned the Chinese ideogram for ‘crisis’, it seemed quite novel and exciting to the occidental ear. Since then the phrase wei-ji has been repeated all over cyberspace, and beyond. Nonetheless it bears repeating. Especially after a couple of weeks of emergencies and worries, fears and calamities, for Jews, Israel, and a Britain beset by new terror threats.
 
So here is the ultimate Mandarin paradox: wei means danger, ji, opportunity. Crisis, opine the seers, thus implies that wherever there is danger, there is also, inherently, opportunity to escape danger in the future. And who knows this truism better than the Jewish people, given our history of enduring suffering and persecution, only to emerge somehow reinvigorated on the other side?
 
The clearest such instance was surely the creation of Israel, just three years after the Holocaust threatened to snuff out Jewish existence. But there are other examples: contrast the fears felt in Israel just prior to June 5, 1967, with the relief and victory felt six days later – a memory rekindled in recent 40th year commemorations - even though a large part of the European press chose to see this as the beginning of crisis in which the Middle East is currently engulfed.
 
Last month marked another anniversary, one that equally signals “danger”. I am referring to 25 June 2007, two years since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president of Iran. During the intermittent period he has turned Holocaust denial into a Persian cottage industry, and has threatened to destroy the state of Israel – a calumny he repeated in early June, on the 18th anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini’s death. The pint-sized personage has also meddled worryingly in the affairs of a benighted Iraq; and has raised the spectre of an Iran equipped with nuclear weapons.
 
Yet in the spirit of wei-ji, there may be a silver lining to the storm clouds. Iran’s president was voted in on a surge of anger at mistreatment of the poor. However, since he has been in office disparities of wealth have broadened and unemployment mounted. Furthermore, in a nation that boasts possibly the second largest oil reserves on the planet, Iran faces the ignominy of having to ration petrol. This last disgrace prompted open rebellion in certain quarters a month ago.
 
True, Ahmadinejad has managed to stage Nuremburg-like mass rallies. Yet it seems the hitherto silent but now increasingly vocal Iranian majority is growing sick and tired of his posturing and perilous policies. And as we go to press, reports emerged that Al-Qaida in Iraq threatened to attack Iran unless Teheran removes support from the Shia-dominated government in Baghdad – a welcome case of two groups of Israel-loathing nasties turning on each other?
 
So, can Iranians remove their embarrassing president? And if so, whoever replaces him might be even worse. Well, we have been here before. To paraphrase Winston Churchill on the Soviet Union, the Byzantine world of Iranian politics is like a “riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”.
 
Should we just sit on our hands and hope for the best? Perhaps it is better to obey the motto of Teddy Roosevelt – “speak softly and carry a big stick”. But not too softly: for marking the second anniversary of Ahmadinejad’s ascent to power, a delegation from the Confederation of Spanish Jews protested his statements outside the Iranian embassy in Madrid. (Interestingly, the Egyptian-based Middle East Times gave the protest some prominence).
 
It is also good to know that world Jewry is not entirely alone. The UN openly condemned Ahmadinejad’s odious statements. And on Monday, 9 July, Romano Prodi, visiting Israel for the first time since becoming Italy’s prime minister, chided Iran for refusing to abide by UN Security Council requests and predicted further sanctions. "Iran cannot and should not have a military nuclear capacity," he pronounced.

Prodi, who was president of the European Commission 1999-2004, also acknowledged the ties that bind Italy, and by extension Europe, to the Jewish people. "Italy feels near to the Jew people independently from the political ideas of its government. The Jews have lived very harsh times starting from the tragedy of Shoah and they have the right to live in peace and security with the people near to them.”

He spoke of his "great emotion in coming back to Israel, testimony of the great friendship that links Italy to Israel”. Prodi also described “a common heritage of values” between Europe and Israel; and, visiting bomb-blighted Sderot with Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni, he observed: “It is not possible to live like this”.

The significance of his visit cannot be exaggerated. It speaks from a Europe that is inherently pro-Jewish and one in which European Jewry must continue to play a positive, life-affirming role. ECJC through its new projects to increase communication between communities intends to lead by example.