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January 12, 2023
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What was the famous red-red stuff that Esau asked his Jewish twin to give him,

not feeling famished, as translators claim mistakenly, but feeling tired?

Tired of competing for the birthright, hoping Jacob would forgive him

for occupying first the birth canal—- no obstetrician had been hired.

 

Esau fearing that Jacob had against peace offers drawn a line whose color was

deep red, was telling Jacob that if he would cross his red, red line he would be willing

to make peace with him and give up his birthright.  Asked to forgive him, Jacob did, because

he trusted Esau, but by crossing his red line did not prevent much future killing

 

of Jews by Edomites, whose hearts  religion caused to harden,

obeying their religious orders with cruel acts it is impossible to pardon.

Zelensky too may feel compelled to cross a red line in order to deliver

to Putin peace, but can’t rush in to be the Russian former Red’s forgiver.


Gen. 25: 24-26 state:

כד  וַיִּמְלְאוּ יָמֶיהָ, לָלֶדֶת; וְהִנֵּה תוֹמִם, בְּבִטְנָהּ.       24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.

כה  וַיֵּצֵא הָרִאשׁוֹן אַדְמוֹנִי, כֻּלּוֹ כְּאַדֶּרֶת שֵׂעָר; וַיִּקְרְאוּ שְׁמוֹ, עֵשָׂו.        25 And the first came forth ruddy, all over like a hairy mantle; and they called his name Esau.

כו  וְאַחֲרֵי-כֵן יָצָא אָחִיו, וְיָדוֹ אֹחֶזֶת בַּעֲקֵב עֵשָׂו, וַיִּקְרָא שְׁמוֹ, יַעֲקֹב; וְיִצְחָק בֶּן-שִׁשִּׁים שָׁנָה, בְּלֶדֶת אֹתָם.    26 And after that came forth his brother, and his hand had hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob. And Isaac was threescore years old when she bore them.

Inspired by “Putin Has No Red Lines,” by Nigel Gould-Davies, senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, NYT, 1/5/22:

“What are Putin’s red lines?”

This question, asked with growing urgency as Russia loses its war in Ukraine but does not relent in its aggressions, is intended to offer analytical clarity and to guide policy. In reality, it is the wrong question, because “red line” is a bad metaphor. Red lines are red herrings. There are better ways to think about strategy.

“Red lines” implies there are defined limits to the actions that a state — in this case, Russia — is prepared to accept from others. If the West transgresses these limits, Russia will respond in new and more dangerous ways. A red line is a tripwire for escalation. Western diplomacy must seek to understand and respect Russia’s red lines by avoiding actions that would cross them. Russia’s red lines thus impose limits on Western actions.

There are three flaws to this reasoning. First, it assumes that red lines are fixed features of a state’s foreign policy. This is almost never the case. What states say, and even believe, that they would not accept can change radically and quickly. In 2012 President Barack Obama said that Syrian use of chemical weapons was a “red line” that would invite “enormous consequences.” Yet when Syria killed hundreds of civilians with the nerve agent sarin the following year, as numerous watchdog groups reported, the U.S. response was muted. The Taliban’s return to Kabul in August 2021 — an outcome the West had spent two decades and trillions of dollars preventing — was the brightest of red lines, until, in the face of changing priorities and a different view of costs and benefits, it suddenly wasn’t.


Gershon Hepner is a poet who has written over 25,000 poems on subjects ranging from music to literature, politics to Torah. He grew up in England and moved to Los Angeles in 1976. Using his varied interests and experiences, he has authored dozens of papers in medical and academic journals, and authored “Legal Friction: Law, Narrative, and Identity Politics in Biblical Israel.” He can be reached at gershonhepner@gmail.com.

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