Simple Arithmetic
Monday, July 29, 2019
Ambassador Lee Yun-Mai of China called to order the session of the United Nations Security Council and welcomed each of the new members and Alternates on behalf of the whole Council. The position of the Security Council President rotated among the ten regions on a monthly basis, and so regularly fell to each of the Primary members. On occasion, when a Primary was not in attendance, the Alternate from that region would stand in. It was not a particularly cherished position, but in the absence of a Secretary-General it provided the only point of focus for the press. Ambassador Lee was one of the most experienced members of the Council. Now in her seventies and with more than thirty years of diplomatic service, she had served during all but three of the years during which Hansen was Secretary-General. As much as anyone, she hoped to limit the spectacle of the event that was about to unfold, but the election of the first Secretary-General since Jon Hansen would not be without its drama. In much of the world the proceedings were being carried live, with an expected total audience of a half-billion listeners and viewers. Under the circumstances, it was unrealistic to hope for total abstinence from grand-standing by the members.
Italian Ambassador Christopher Goodman sat quietly at the C-shaped table in the place assigned to the European Alternate member of the Security Council. There was little for him to do but watch: as an Alternate he had no power to nominate, second, or even vote on the election of the new Secretary-General. On most matters before the Security Council, he could speak when the floor was opened for debate, but for the election of the Secretary-General there would be no debate, only nominations, seconds, and votes. Despite the magnitude of the matter before them at this moment, the Alternate members would have to be satisfied to be front-row observers.
If Christopher had needed any distraction, there were many other pressing matters to think about. Secretary Milner's projections about India had been right on target. Nikhil Gandhi, the former Indian prime minister, had won the seat as Primary member of the Security Council from India, and, as expected, Rajiv Advani was now in India seeking to replace Gandhi as prime minister. Even more pressing was the famine in Pakistan and Northern India. With Hansen's death the work to provide an appropriate level of relief had come to a virtual standstill. Christopher's replacement at FAO, along with ECOSOC's Executive Director Louis Colleta, were doing all they could with the resources available, but the matter was now stalled, awaiting debate by the Security Council. Even if it did finally come to the floor for a vote, without the driving force of Hansen to guide it through, there was little hope that sufficient relief from the food-producing regions would be approved.
Christopher was in no position to help. As the Alternate from Europe, Christopher had replaced Moore as Chairman of the World Peace Organization (WPO). While Christopher's experience would have better suited him to work with Executive Director Louis Colleta as the Alternate in charge of ECOSOC, that position had been held for the last two years by the ambassador from Australia. Under current world conditions, ECOSOC offered far greater visibility and hence the Australian ambassador had no interest in giving it up just because someone else was better qualified for the position.
With no sign of relief and the Pakistani refugee camps growing ever more crowded, those who had the strength were attempting to cross the border into India. Many were intercepted and returned to Pakistan by the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), which had monitored the border between the two countries since 1949. But with sixteen hundred miles of border, half of which were traversable (the other half lying in the Great Indian Desert), the number of refugees pouring across into India was far more than the U.N. forces could handle.
The Indian government, while expressing sympathy for the plight of the refugees, responded to the attempted migration by sending its military forces to protect its borders against 'invasion.' India had its own problems with famine and had no interest in allowing any additional mouths at its meager table. So far the Indian military had shown restraint, choosing in most cases to simply escort refugees back across the border with a stern warning. There were a few dozen shootings and beatings, but these were the exceptions. Whether the policy of restraint would continue under a government led by Rajiv Advani remained to be seen. Despite the efforts to stop the migration, UNMOGIP estimated that hundreds of refugees eluded capture on a daily basis, and there was no telling how long the Indian government would allow this to go on before resorting to unrestrained military force.
Once in India, refugees who made it through soon found their efforts to be futile. Although food was not as scarce as in Pakistan, it was impossible to purchase and nearly impossible to beg or steal. Even when the refugees had money, the Hindu merchants chose to sell what little they had to their own people, unless a sufficient premium could be paid to convince them to do otherwise. Added to the refugees' problems were the cultural and religious differences between Pakistanis, who are nearly all Muslims, and Indians, who are predominantly Hindu.
At the FAO, Christopher might have been in a position to do something to help. As the Chairman of the World Peace Organization, his job had the wholly different focus of keeping the refugees from pouring into another region and minimizing the chance of a major outbreak of violence. At the Pakistani/Indian border more than just countries and cultures met. It was also the demarcation between the U.N. regions of India and the Middle East, and between Muslims and Hindus. Adding one more element to the amalgam was a third region, China, which shares a border with both India and Pakistan. For decades, even with the easing of tensions that had occurred under Hansen, the Indian government had provided covert support to the Tibetan Buddhist followers of the Dali Lama who sought the separation of Tibet from China. China, meanwhile, maintained a very strong relationship with Pakistan.
Were this not enough to distract Christopher from the Security Council proceedings, there was another matter as well. Christopher's predecessor at WPO, Albert Moore, had left numerous unfinished matters. Prominent among them was a U.N. treaty with Israel to formally extend expired diplomatic agreements, ensure the exchange and safe delivery of diplomatic packets, and provide diplomatic immunity for visiting officials. The treaty had very little to do with military issues, but after being shuffled around the other agencies for two and a half years because no one could convince the Israelis that it was in their interest to sign it, someone decided that it should go to WPO because one of the more obscure provisions was a mutual agreement of non-aggression. It was ironic that such a treaty was even necessary, but Israel – which had become a nation as a result of a vote by the United Nations General Assembly – had later resigned its membership because of the reorganization of the Security Council, and was now the only country in the world that refused membership in that body.
As far as the Israelis were concerned, the old agreements with the U.N. could stand just the way they were. They saw no reason to renegotiate and were reluctant to open themselves up to new demands. The Israeli resignation from the United Nations originally had been viewed by her Arab neighbors as an opportunity to isolate Israel from the rest of the world. They had sought a complete and immediate halt of all trade with Israel, but that attempt was doomed from the start. Ultimately, a non-binding resolution and statement of principles was adopted by the General Assembly which prohibited sales of advanced weapons to Israel, but the resolution had exactly the opposite effect than was hoped for by Israel's opponents. For the first seven years after their war with the Arab states and then with the Russian Federation, Israel's defensive arsenal consisted primarily of the huge weapons caches left behind by the Russians. Most of the Russian weapons were inferior to those Israel possessed prior to the war, but with modifications they were made workable. Since that time, while most countries' military budgets were being cut back, Israel had maintained a constantly increasing defense budget. The upshot was, that while her Muslim neighbors grumbled loudly, there was no real possibility that they'd attack Israel again anytime in the foreseeable future. Israel could afford to be a little smug.
Albert Moore, who had never expended much effort on his responsibilities as Chairman of WPO, had not even tried to get the new treaty with Israel signed. There was evidence that he had let slide or mismanaged a number of other duties as well. The one thing he did seem to do well was to appoint his friends to positions in WPO's administration.
With the formalities behind them, Ambassador Lee opened the floor to nominations for the position of Secretary-General. One of the perhaps less democratic holdovers from the days before the reorganization of the Security Council was the manner in which the Secretary-General was elected. The dominance which the 'Big Five' demanded when they established the United Nations in 1945 included the assurance that the choice of the Secretary-General would be someone who met with the approval of all five. Since no one with ties to any of the five permanent members of the Security Council would be considered unbiased by the other four members, it was agreed that the Secretary-General would be from a country that was not aligned with any of the members of the Security Council. The decision was made, therefore, that the Security Council would select a candidate who was mutually acceptable to all parties, and would then offer that candidate to the General Assembly for approval.
During the years of Secretary-General Hansen, this procedure had not been an issue. Hansen had proven during his first five-year term that he placed no region over any other, not even his own. At the conclusion of each of his first two terms Hansen was renominated by the Security Council and re-approved by the General Assembly. It was assumed by most that the same would be true at the end of his third term. With the death of Hansen, the Security Council was faced with the sticky problem of finding a candidate who was satisfactory to all ten Primary members. The disapproval of any one of the members would, in effect, veto the nomination. And it was no longer possible to select a Secretary-General from a non-aligned country: with the reorganization of the Security Council on a regional basis, every country became aligned.
The net result for this meeting was that everyone knew from the outset that this day would see no consensus on the selection of a candidate. Perhaps the days of cooperation among regions which had existed under Hansen's rule would return in time under the new Secretary-General. For now, however, there was far too much at stake to allow such hopes to overrule cautious reason. It was not that there was unwillingness to compromise, but no one wanted to risk voting for a candidate who might someday allow the interest of his own region to take precedence over theirs.
First to be recognized by the chair was Ambassador Yuri Kruszkegin of the Republic of Khakassia, representing Northern Asia. Following the devastation of the Russian Federation, Kruszkegin had left the United Nations to help form the new government of his home province of Khakassia, but had returned to the U.N. five years later. His election to represent Northern Asia on the Security Council had been unanimous by the members of that region. Kruszkegin rose and nominated Ambassador Tanaka of Japan, the Security Council member representing the Pacific Basin region. Japan had been very supportive of the countries of Northern Asia in their efforts to rebuild after the war with Israel. Even before the United Nations voted to eliminate trade barriers, Japan dropped many of the trade impediments between itself and the nations of Northern Asia. These steps had been very important to the reconstruction of that region and Kruszkegin was repaying the debt. The nomination was seconded by Ambassador Albert Moore of France, representing Europe. Moore's reasons for seconding the nomination were far from clear. There was no reason Ambassador Tanaka should have been unacceptable to Europe, but neither was it believed that Europe had any clear reason to second the nomination. The best guess of most observers was that Moore was hoping for something in return.
The chair opened the floor for additional nominations and recognized the ambassador from Ecuador representing South America, who nominated Jackson Clark, the ambassador from the United States. The nomination was seconded by American-educated Ambassador Nikhil Gandhi of India. Most observers expected the American to be nominated, but weren't sure how it would play out. Ambassador Clark had only recently resigned as the U.S. President in order to replace Ambassador Walter Bishop, who had died in the crash along with Hansen. Clark also succeeded Bishop as an Alternate member of the Security Council and was, therefore, present at the meeting, sitting two seats to the right of Christopher. The nomination made it clear just what Clark had in mind when he resigned the U.S. presidency: he wanted to be Secretary-General. The Primary member from North America, Canadian Ambassador Howell – still in poor health but delaying his resignation – was expected to provide a third vote for his southern neighbor.
Again the floor was opened for nominations, and the chair recognized Ambassador Ngordon of Chad, representing West Africa. Ambassador Ngordon nominated Ambassador Fahd of Saudi Arabia, who represented the Middle East. The nomination was seconded by the ambassador from Tanzania, representing East Africa. The basis for this final coalition was easily recognizable as one of common religion and proximity.
The vote was as split as it possibly could be. Since no one could be nominated without the support of at least two regions, and no region could nominate or second anyone from their own region, the maximum number of nominations possible was three. Only China had abstained; all other votes were committed. Whoever would eventually be chosen would need the approval of all ten regions and that appeared to be a long way off. For now there was nothing to do but to go on to other business.
Tuesday, July 30,2019 – The Temple Mount, Jerusalem
Scott Rosen was lost in thought as he walked out across the crowded outer courtyard which surrounded the newly reconstructed Jewish Temple. As it had been in ancient days, this nearly square courtyard, called the Court of the Gentiles, was as close to the holy places of the Temple as non-Jews were allowed to come. The mood here had much more the air of carnival than of worship or of reverence. Nowhere was this more inescapable than in the column-lined covered portico encircling the perimeter of the Court of the Gentiles. Here, housed in haphazardly misarranged booths and stalls, temple money changers dickered rates of exchange with worshipers to convert various currencies into Tyrian shekels – the only currency acceptable for temple offerings – and nearby traders offered pigeons, doves, lambs, rams, and bulls for purchase as sacrifices.
Scott paid no attention to the cacophony. His mind kept going back to a conversation he had the day before. It had started out as a perfect day. The weather had been beautiful, the traffic was light. A meeting he wanted to avoid and for which he hadn't prepared was indefinitely postponed. The extra time allowed him to tackle some interesting and important work and within two hours he had come up with a way to solve a major problem that had seemed unsolvable to everyone else who had looked at it. An overdue rent check for the house that had belonged to his parents arrived in the morning mail. Sol, the proprietor at the kosher deli he frequented had added an extra scoop of tuna to his sandwich and had given him the biggest dill pickle Scott had ever seen. That's when the day began to sour.
Sol came over to talk with Scott while he ate and Scott invited him to sit down. It had started innocently enough: they talked about politics and rising prices and discussed the latest gossip from around the Temple and religious issues: all topics they had discussed before, and upon which they almost always agreed. Then Sol mentioned that he had been reading his Bible in the ninth chapter of the book of Daniel and said that the prophecy at the end of the chapter said that the messiah – or 'King Messiah' as he is called by religious Jews – was supposed to come before the second temple was destroyed. Since the second temple was destroyed in 70 A.D., Sol said, the messiah must have already come. Scott tried to tell him how crazy that was: that if King Messiah had come they would surely have known; but Sol just kept on talking. He said that according to Daniel's prophecy, the messiah would come 483 years after the decree to rebuild the city of Jerusalem after it had been destroyed by the Babylonians. According to Ezra chapter 7,45 that decree was issued in 457 B.C.E. and when you take into account that there was no year zero, that would mean that the messiah had come in the year 27 C.E. Sol pulled out a calculator to show Scott how it all worked out but Scott stopped him. "Sol, what you are doing is very serious. It is forbidden by the Talmud."
"What?" asked Sol in surprise.
"Calculating the time of King Messiah's coming based on the ninth chapter of Daniel," Scott answered authoritatively. "But… "
"In the Talmud, Rabbi Jonathan put a curse on anyone who calculates the time of the Messiah based on Daniel's prophecies," Scott declared.
Sol mulled this over for a moment. Scott, confident he had settled the question, took another bite of his sandwich. Taking advantage of Scott's full mouth, Sol rejoined the exchange. "But that can't be right," he said, to Scott's sandwich-strained chagrin. "Why would the Talmud not want us to know when Daniel said King Messiah would come?"
Scott forced down his food. "Sol, prophecy is hard to understand. You can't just pull out a calculator and figure out what a prophecy means."
"Why not? That's what Daniel did to interpret the prophecy of the prophet Jeremiah. And that's in the ninth chapter of Daniel, too – the same chapter as the prophecy of when King Messiah would come. Of course Daniel didn't have a calculator, but it's still simple arithmetic."
"Look, Sol, you're dealing with things you don't understand."
But Sol wasn't ready to quit. "Don't you see, Scott? If the Messiah came in 27 A.D., then we did not recognize him. Don't you get it? 27 A.D. There's only one person who fits the description."
"Stop it, Sol! I don't know what's gotten into you, but this is wrong, and I won't listen to it. If you fear HaShem, you'll be at the Temple tomorrow with your sin offering asking forgiveness." Scott used the orthodox method of referring to God as 'HaShem,' meaning 'the name,' rather than saying Yahweh or even 'God,' in order to avoid any possibility of blasphemy.
Sol didn't say any more but it was clear that he felt no guilt which would warrant an offering at the Temple. Scott grabbed the rest of his sandwich and pickle and left. Sol just didn 't realize what he was saying, Scott thought. If he does that sort of thing with his other customers, he won't have any business left.
Outside the Temple on the broad steps leading down to the street, Scott was distracted from his recollections by someone calling his name. The voice had come from the direction of a large group of tourists, recognizable by their cameras and paper yarmulkes, so he assumed the call had been for some other Scott.
"Scott," came the call again, but this time he spotted its source coming toward him at a brisk pace.
"Joel," he called back to his friend and professional colleague of many years. Joel Felsberg had been a part of the team with Scott fifteen years before, during the Russian invasion. "What brings you to the temple?"
Unlike Scott Rosen, Joel Felsberg had never spent much time on matters of religion. The only times he came to the Temple were with relatives or friends who were visiting from the United States. "Scott," he said again, out of breath and ignoring Scott's question. "I've found him! I mean he's found me."
"Slow down, Joel," Scott said. "Who have you found? What are you talking about?"
Joel, who was of average build and just under five feet seven inches tall, leaned close to the much larger Scott Rosen and whispered, "the Messiah."
Scott Rosen looked around quickly to see if anyone else had heard, and then grabbed Joel's arm and walked quickly down the Temple Mount through another crowd of tourists. The smaller Felsberg, who was easily eighty pounds lighter than Rosen, had no choice but to accompany him. "I've found him," Felsberg said again, as he tried desperately to keep up.
"Be quiet!" Scott warned as he pulled Joel along.
When they reached the parking lot some hundred and fifty yards away, they stopped next to Scott's van. He looked around to be sure no one was within earshot and finally spoke, "Are you crazy?! That's nothing to joke about. And of all places: right on the steps of the Temple! Maybe you don't take your religion or your heritage seriously but some of us do. If anyone had heard you… "
"No, Scott. I'm not joking. I've seen the Messiah. I've seen him," Joel interrupted.
"Shut up, Joel! You didn't see anybody. So just shut up!"
"But… "
"Shut up!" Scott said again, this time grabbing Joel's shirt and shaking his fist in his face. Joel fell silent but the maelstrom was still in Scott's eyes. Scott dropped his fist and began to release his grip. "Is the whole world going mad?" he asked. "First Sol and now you!"
"But… " Joel said again. Scott took hold of Joel's shirt with both hands now, lifting him onto his tiptoes, and brought his face within inches of his own until they were eye to eye.
"If you say one more word," he said through his teeth, "I swear by the Temple of HaShem that I will… " Scott caught himself. Swearing by the temple was serious business; next to swearing by God himself, there was no more powerful and binding an oath. It was not to be made in anger or haste. Scott released his grip and pushed Joel, who stumbled back into the side of a car. "Just get away from me until you've come to your senses."
Joel picked himself up and looked into Scott's eyes with a sincerity that even Scott could not doubt. "I really have seen him," Joel insisted.
There was nothing else to do. Scott couldn't bring himself to actually hit his old friend. They had been through too much together. They had fought side by side to save Israel those fifteen years ago, there in that bunker beneath the streets of Tel Aviv. They had been heroes together. There was nothing left for Scott to do but ask the obvious question. "Where?! Where have you seen him?" he asked, finally resigning himself to having this conversation.
"In a dream."
For a moment Scott just stared, dumbfounded. From the beginning, Joel had known how weak that answer was going to sound but it was the only one he had, and to his mind, that was what God had given him to say. "And he's coming to establish his kingdom," he added finally.
Suddenly Scott's anger changed to concern. He had been wrong to be so brutal. Joel was obviously delusional. Scott had dreams from time to time that felt so real they seemed real even in the waking world. Apparently, Joel couldn't separate dream from reality. "Joel," he said sympathetically, "It was just a dream."
"But it wasn't just a dream."
"I know, Joel," Scott said in the most consoling tone he could muster. "It must have seemed very real to you. But it was just a dream."
"No, Scott. Don't you see? I've been wrong all these years. And so have you."
The conversation was taking an unexpected turn. "What do you mean?" Scott asked.
"We've been wrong all this time. My sister Rhoda and her rabbi have been right all along. Don't you see, Scott? Yeshua really is the Messiah!" And then just to be sure Scott fully understood what he had said, Joel used the English version of the name, "Jesus is the Messiah!"
That was the last straw. Scott Rosen's eyes filled with rage. He didn't care whether Joel was delusional or not; this was too much. He grabbed Joel by the shoulders and shook him. "You and that damned rabbi, you're both meshummadim!" he said, using the Hebrew word for traitors. Scott violently threw him to the ground. Joel's left wrist and forefinger snapped as he tried to break his fall. "I don't know you!" Scott screamed. "I never knew you! You're dead! You never existed! If you ever talk to me again, I'll kill you!"
Scott got in his van and drove off, leaving Joel to nurse his wounds.