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Once again, we hold our breath…. Praying, while holding our breath at the same time…. Once again, we hold our breath, while our souls scream out: “Ad matai r’sha’im, Adonai – How much more can we endure the wicked who seek our destruction, O God?!” (Psalms 94:3). Once again, we hold our breath in fear and solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Israel – believing in the strength of the world’s only Jewish State, while knowing that its citizens – not only Jews, but the full diversity of the Israeli People – Arabs both Muslim and Christian, and many other groups who are part of Israel – are under imminent, existential threat from the Iranian regime.
The second half of that verse from the Psalms feels like an appropriate characterization of the Iranian regime: “Ad matai r’sha’im ya’alozu – How much longer should we allow the wicked to crow?!” Iran has been unapologetically seeking regional domination and intimidation (ask Saudi Arabia), publicly and blood-thirstily calling for the destruction of both Israel (whom it calls the “little Satan”) and America (the “big Satan”). Make no mistake: Though this military operation came from Israel, our two homelands have been inextricably linked as targets of the Iranian regime for a long time. Its proxies, Hamas and Hizballah, have absolute, murderous intent against us. And the range of missiles that the Ayatollah parades and seeks to acquire reaches far beyond the distance from Tehran to Tel Aviv. Any attack on Israel is Iranian practice for an ability to attack the United States and other Western nations.
In this sense, the wicked Iranian regime has been “crowing” and flaunting its destabilizing, destructive goals for some time, taunting multiple US administrations. “Ad matai,” we cry out: How long should we endure this threat, as recent intelligence data and even UN supervisory agencies just reported Iran’s illegal approach to nuclear capability and quick, unstoppable ramp-up of enriching weaponized uranium. Ad matai?!
In this sense, once again, our hearts are in our throats, our hearts are in the East, with our brothers and sisters in Israel, in this fraught time. That is our emotional response, at this moment. Understandably, many in our community also seek to understand the geopolitical “matzav” (situation), and so we will answer that briefly – though our most pressing response is focused as one of anxious prayer for Israel’s safety.
A BRIEF GEOPOLITICAL EXPLANATION:
In some sense, while we could not know the precise timing, this strike was far from a surprise; in many geopolitical conversations, it has felt, sadly, inevitable: The Iranian regime has been flaunting world warnings and sanctions, scoffing and treating US diplomacy efforts going back decades, all the while enriching enough uranium for several nuclear weapons. Two major missile and drone strikes from Iran against Israel, while largely (and thankfully) neutralized, only served to remind anyone who did not willfully blind themselves that the regime intended an attack on Israel, to send a message to the “big Satan, America.” Such combinations of saber-rattling and actual attempted attacks epitomize the quote often attributed to Elie Wiesel: “When someone says they want to kill you, believe them.
Much like in the Six-Day War, Israel promised that any attack would be pre-emptive, in the sense that it would not wait until it was under existential fire to attempt to neutralize Iran’s threat. Israeli tacticians knew that (with the help of Russia and China, largely) Iran would only refortify its ability to fend off destruction of its nuclear and military sites, that Israel had made vulnerable in earlier responses to Iran’s attacks, so this was deemed the moment to take out the persistent, unapologetic, crowing Iranian threat. Unlike too many of the world’s nations, Israel has learned the lesson of the last century: Appeasement does not work when countering regimes bent on evil, hegemonic domination, and death-glorifying destruction; we must cut off the head of the snake before its fangs pierce our skin. Sadly, the lesson of history is that peace often can only come when it is first ensured with deterrent force to neutralize the threat of those who love and laud war.
Much like the 1981 attack on Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor (and just days after the forty-fourth anniversary of that attack), we can expect world-wide public critique, while every peace-loving nation tacitly, quietly thanks Israel for doing the world’s hard work of defanging the world’s criminal regimes. In that pre-emptive, defensive maneuver in 1981, Israel re-directed history: Imagine the Gulf Wars or every conflict since, had Israel not stopped Iraq’s nuclear threat! This is an equivalent effort, a knowledge that we cannot not just hope for peace with those bent on war; we must enforce that peace, and remove the capabilities of those who are stumbling-blocks to that peace.
… AND NOW BACK TO THE RESPONSE OF OUR JEWISH HEARTS:
Naturally, we seek answers and understanding at an impossibly painful and vulnerable time in Jewish and Israeli history, and certainly Israelis will debate the motives and timing of this military mission. As American Jews, we want to know what to say, how to counter (aloud or in our hearts) the vile threats and intimidation that will come online and from other sources, when we Jews have the “chutzpah” (said sarcastically) to defend ourselves from imminent and ongoing attack.
However, now is not time to focus on internal political squabbling: That is a luxury that we should not arrogate ourselves, here in our safe armchairs, at this moment, as our brothers and sisters sit, soon in sealed rooms, holding their breath for the retaliation that Iran has promised, the attack that Iran already levied, starting two Aprils ago. God-willing, with the help of friends and allies who recognize the regional and world-wide danger of a crowing, powerful Iran, the dreaded Israeli casualties will be avoided, or at least limited.
For the first time in almost two millennia, we have an Israel who can answer the desperate question of the Psalmist: “Ad matai r’sha’im ya’alozu – How long must we endure the crowing and saber-rattling, the existential threat of an Iranian regime who seeks the destruction of Israel, of our brothers and sisters, and indeed of Jews and Americans world wide?” The answer, God-willing, is: NO LONGER. NO LONGER must we fear. NO LONGER must we feel vulnerable.
Indeed, this is the meaning of “Am Yisrael Chai” – that the People, the Nation, the State of Israel should live, should affirm life, and should thrive, for all time.
Oseh shalom bimromav, Hu ya’aseh shalom aleinu, v’al kol Yisrael, v’al kol yoshvei teivel: We fervently pray that this military operation enable a longer-term peace for our brothers and sisters in Israel, for the entire region, and the whole world. We are together, praying, while holding our breath at the same time.
May this be a Shabbat Shalom – a Shabbat of peace and wholeness,
Rabbi Eric Yanoff Rabbi Andrew Markowitz
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