It seems like a lifetime ago, but this past Thursday was the one year anniversary of the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
It was one year ago, on the Jewish holiday of Shmini Atzeret, a holiday that is normally full of joy, full of dancing and singing, when the Hamas butchers and their complicit comrades from the Palestinian population of Gaza, invaded the peaceful kibbutzim abutting the strip and murdered, raped, mutilated and defiled, 1200 Israelis.
They swept another 250 people, not only Israeli Jews mind you, but also people from other nationalities and religions, women and men, young and old, babies, the sick, the innocent, the ones who sought peaceful coexistence with their Arab neighbors, into captivity, into hell.
One year ago on Shmini Atzeret, my heart was in pieces. I did not dance.
One year has passed and Israel has defanged Hamas and Hezbollah.
One year later and Israel has punished Iran for its attacks on the Jewish state and for all it’s done to allow its proxies to hold a dagger at Israel’s throat.
From early accounts, on early Saturday morning, Israel inflicted a heavy blow on Iran’s air defenses and missile production capabilities.
One year later and it’s crystal clear that Israel is not only fighting for its own survival, but it is also fighting for the survival of western values.
Hamas’ Sinwar and Haniya, Hezbollah’s Nasrallah and Shukr, not only sought the destruction of Israel and the slaughter of its seven million Jews, they wished the same fate for all infidels whether they be in the Middle East, Europe or North America.
But the administration of President Joe Biden, has thrown so many obstacles in Israel’s way to crush the nucleus of worldwide terrorism, Iran.
For sure, Israel has been helped immensely by the United States, militarily and for the most part, diplomatically. Israel could not have succeeded as much as it has in the past year without America standing with it and supplying it with most of the weapons it needs.
But the president and his advisers know full well that when the terror pimps of Tehran break out with a nuclear weapon, Israel and all the American allies in the region will be facing an unimaginable threat from a country that seeks to build its Islamic hegemony in the Middle East and beyond.
Now was the time, with Iran’s proxies being decimated, for Israel, with US help, to castrate the mullahs and to destroy their dreams of holding a nuclear sword of Damocles over the heads of the western- aligned nations of the Middle East.
But Biden made it clear that Iran’s nuclear facilities were off-limits to the Israelis, so were its oil installations. He said Israel’s response to the Iranian ballistic missile attack should be “in proportion.”
Iran launched almost two hundred ballistic missiles at Israel, a country about the size of New Jersey. So what’s the proportionate response? What would be the “proportionate response” by the United States be if two hundred ballistic missiles were launched at us?
And the next time, if Iran launches a nuclear tipped missile at Israel, or a germ warfare missile at Israel, what should Israel’s proportionate response be?
Biden keeps pressing Bibi Netanyahu about the so-called end game in Gaza, but how does the president envision the end game with Iran?
The stated policy of the United States is to oppose a nuclear Iran. We tried to achieve that by diplomacy, and that didn’t work. We tried to achieve that by sanctions, and that didn’t work. Israel tried to deter Iran by assassinating its scientists and that may have delayed them, but here we are on the threshold of a nuclear armed Iran.
In the past year, Israel has done much to thwart its enemies and to reestablish its military superiority and deterrence, but there are still 100 hostages in Gaza and tens of thousands of Israelis displaced from their homes in the north of the country.
So, one year later, my heart is still not whole. I danced, but not with full joy.
I’m also praying, because Michael Oren, Israel’s former ambassador to the United States said it best. “The Iranian nuclear threat still looms existentially over our heads and the Ayatollahs continue to vow daily to annihilate us.” Oren said, “For Israel, the hope is that the overnight operation will send them an unequivocal message: ‘If we can do this now, just imagine what else we can do in the future.’ If that message is received, the operation may prove to be, if not a game-ender, a game-changer.”
I hope that’s true, so next year at this time, the hostages will home, the displaced Israelis will be home and Israel will be safe.
Then, my heart will no longer be heavy and I will dance with full joy and gladness.
NEXT WEEK…
The FriendWithoutBenefits.substack.com presidential election preview. It’s a neck and neck race and who’s going to get my crucial endorsement (or non-endorsement) that could swing the election? You’ll have to wait till next Sunday.