Sometimes I feel like I am Switzerland and am being accused of being aggressive and war mongering while I am just sitting quietly amongst the mountains. I am not stockpiling weapons, testing a nuclear arsenal, or even having troops engage in training maneuvers near the borders. I maintain an armed forces solely for defense of my country, and the majority of the time the troops are not even in uniform or even at their bases.
People cannot see what I do over the tall mountains and they rarely visit so they do not know who I truly am. At times when there is communication it is friendly but superficial. Later these conversations are spun in such a way to make it appear that what I am doing is offensive to them. Yet, this is hardly case.
There is a cold peace. At times when tensions escalate, I am always labeled as the aggressor.
And now, I am just sick and tired of it.
I summoned the ambassador of the country making these accusations to an off-site location. Over an ice cream cone and a cup of coffee I looked the ambassador in the eyes, made my case firmly, and made the counter claim that it was indeed his country who had the problem; it was his country who was being closed-minded and intolerant. This ambassador could not make any counter-claims when presented with the facts. I logically took apart any argument he attempted to raise. At the end of our meeting, he could only reply that he would take a report of this meeting back with him to his country along with the recommendation to his country’s rulers to re-establish friendly ties with my country.
He will attempt to explain to them that they need to understand and accept that the peaceful nation of Switzerland sometimes just does things differently.
In the end, I guess it all comes back to this for me.
Reposted from this entry on A Simple Jew’s blog.
Nice to see this posting is getting more coverage!!
Also, be sure to see some of the comments on the original posting starting here:
http://asimplejew.blogspot.com/2007/05/warmongering-switzerland.html#c5644851376205593344
Thanks, Bob! I just ordered a used copy on your recommendation.
Here is an outstanding book on the real Switzerland. They are armed to the teeth and you’d never know it unless you looked closely, as this author did. Some aspects of the Israeli military system may have been taken from the Swiss example.
http://www.amazon.com/Place-Concorde-Suisse-John-McPhee/dp/0374519323
I am happy to report that there has been a reconciliation between the two countries since the time that I originally posted this posting on my blog.
Recently, I saw a quote from Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller that I felt summed up the situation nicely:
“The ultimate definition of peace lies in retaining boundries and at the same time including and respecting all the pieces of the world’s puzzle.”
It’s telling that Simple Jew used Switzerland for this analogy. As we now know, that while Switzerland my have been neutral during WWII, they certainly weren’t innocent or moral.
Living in a ghetto country surrounded by mountains one develops a very egocentric view of the world and loses the ability to gauge their own moral behavior.
We know from Ramban’s pshat on Kedoshim Tihiyu that one can observe all the mitzvos of the Torah and still get it wrong. An isolated group may start to think that their way is the only way, that others who don’t think as they do have nothing to offer.
Interestingly I read a different report of the meeting between the two countries mentioned above. Apparently the ambassador from the “other” country was able to enlighten the ambassador from Switzerland as well. The Swiss apparently didn’t realize how their “closed” country appeared to others. How it made them feel inferior. How insulted the other countries were when there were no Swiss representatives at world gatherings even though they made special efforts to accommodate the unique Swiss needs. The ambassador pointed out that there were groups of Swiss people, who seemed just as committed to Swiss ideals, living among the other nations who seemed get along just fine.
In the end, in addition to what was reported above, the Swiss Ambassador agreed to go back to his people and explain to them how some of the problems between the countries was caused by their behavior. How they were making it very hard for others to see the wonder and beauty of their country.