Day 625 of the October 7 War
The ninth day of the Israel-Iran War
Say thank you to President Donald Trump.
With pleasure! Judaism teaches Hakarat HaTov הַכָּרַת הַטּוֹב — gratitude. Israelis across the political spectrum will agree with me that Donald Trump deserves our everlasting appreciation for bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities. Thank you, Mr. President.
He who grants salvation to kings and dominion to rulers, whose kingdom is a kingdom spanning all eternity, who releases David his servant from the evil sword, who places a road in the sea and a path in the mighty waters, may He bless The President, the Vice President, and all the Constituted Officers of Government of the USA. The King who reigns over Kings in his mercy may he protect them from every trouble, woe, and injury, may he rescue them and put into their hearts and into the hearts of all their councilors compassion to do good with us and with all Israel, our brethren. In their days and in ours, may Judah be saved and may Israel dwell securely, and may the Redeemer come to Zion. So may it be his will and let us say: Amen.
You didn’t think Trump would bomb Iran, did you?
No, I did not. I still need to internalize that Trump’s unpredictability is built into his operating system. However, the nub of my previous blog was that Trump should ask Congress to Declare War on Iran. My thinking was that a divided America led by a divisive president needs to act with one voice on so fateful a decision.
The last thing I want to see is America entangled in a forever war in the Mideast accompanied by mutterings that the Jews pushed Trump into it.
So your fears about an uptick in Jew hatred in America are now abated?
What Trump has shrewdly done is try to have it both ways. He bombed, then messaged, as articulated by Vice President JD Vance, that the US is not at war with Iran, but with its nuclear program. Vance has sagely shown total devotion to Trump while trying to assuage the fears of the Tucker Carlson neo-isolationist wing of Trump’s base. Vance knows he owes his job to Carlson, but that crossing Trump would make his life nasty, brutish, and Pence.
As for antisemitism: If Iran acts rationally and does not insist on continuing the war with the Great Satan (America), instead focusing solely on the Little Satan (Israel), then this latest accelerant of antisemitism is removed from the woke right’s arsenal. But maybe I’m being too optimistic?
Still, I didn’t like the way Trump spun the bombing – echoed by the progressive woke media – that the United States entered Israel’s war against Iran. In facing the Islamist onslaught, Israel is the “canary in a cage” for Western civilization. America acted as much for itself and a morally wobbly Europe as for us.
Will Iran buy the notion that America can be at war with its nuclear program but not with its regime?
A statement issued by the top Iranian general Abdolrahim Mousavi asserted that by bombing Iran, the US had clearly and directly entered the war. The insinuation was that Iran had the right to attack US interests in the Middle East. Time will tell.
But at least the threat of Iran getting the Bomb is removed.
On the strategic level, despite Trump’s bombastic signature talk, it will take a while to assess the damage done by the US bombing. Iran claims it had moved enriched uranium from Fordo before America hit it. Israeli officials have acknowledged this is a real possibility.
Even if the centrifuges in Fordo and Isfahan were destroyed (along with the uranium stored at Natanz), Iran might have managed to squirrel away enriched uranium somewhere else. Incidentally, US submarines demolished the Pickaxe Mountain Facility near Natanz to lessen this prospect. But, as I said, no one can account for all of Iran’s uranium stash.
Plainly, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu would not have ordered further bombing of Fordo (happening as I write now at noon on Monday in Jerusalem) if Israel had bought Trump’s “obliteration,” and “Bullseye!!!” assertions. Let’s just say שקרן בן שקרן מזהה שקרן בן שקרן or you can’t bullshit a bullshitter.
Another thing. I would not discount the possibility that the Islamist generals and mullahs would, if they could, be spurred to save face (and other crucial body parts) by trying to put together a crude nuclear weapon even if a ballistic missile could not deliver it. Such a scenario would be the worst nightmare, not just for Israel.
And I worry that, although it would be economically suicidal and counter-productive, Iran will try to close the Strait of Hormuz global oil route.
Add in the fact that Iran is the Mother of all Terrorist States and could directly, or via its proxies, launch attacks against non-combatant civilians anywhere its reach allows.
And on the bright side?
On the bright side, the despicable Islamist regime in Iran is being pummeled. Its lurch toward a nuclear weapon has been set back. Diplomacy could not have done this because the Iranians were playing a game of deception, working for a Bomb while prolonging negotiations.
Iranians indeed appear to be rallying behind their government because it is under external attack. Still, the winds could shift, and the grip of the Islamist generals and their mullahs could be loosened – regime change could happen, hopefully for the better. Israel’s attack (as I write) on the gates of Evin prison in Tehran is a message meant to encourage Iranian dissidents. At the end of the day, Iranians will have to stand up to the regime, which has been entrenched since 1979.
Remind me again: why is Israel so opposed to an Iranian atomic bomb?
Because Iran is committed to Israel’s destruction. Lots of countries have nuclear weapons — Russia, India, Pakistan, North Korea, the UK, France, and China, to name a few. However, none — except for Iran — have explicitly sought to destroy Israel. None except the Islamic Republic of Iran has declared that Israel is a “lethal cancerous tumor” that “has to be uprooted and… will be uprooted for certain.”
In place of wishes for grace and peace, too many religious services in Iran end with chants of “Death to Israel! Death to Israel!”
Have you heard about the "earthquakes" recorded to have an epicenter in Iran several days ago? Note, that in contrast to other such seismic events there has been no reports of casualties or damage.
Back in the day there were reports of a seismic event in Pakistan of about 5.6 which afterwards turned out to actually have been the seismic signal from their test of a thermonuclear device the same sort of level of seismic activity was recorded in Iran a week or so back. Then all organs of the media stopped mentioning it in any way shape or form
People have asked how could Trump who was elected on a no war platform decided to bomb the nuclear facilities in Iran. If one follows the logic that dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war in the Pacific much earlier than it otherwise would have can spin the actions of trump as a direct method by which to end a possibly disastrous and drawn out war between Israel and Iran and may turn out to have been an action into peacemaking throughout the means