60 Minutes and Anti-Israel Bias

Scott Pelley - late of 60 Minutes (WSJ)

Scott Pelley seems like a truly nice guy. An honest reporter who doesn’t seem to inject his personal biases into his reporting. Biases that, I’m sure, tend heavily toward the left. I am sorry to see him go.

Yesterday, the mainstream media reported that he was fired from his job at the mega-popular TV news magazine, 60 Minutes.

What precipitated his departure was a heated confrontation at a staff meeting with 60 Minutes’ newly installed executive producer, Nick Bilton.

Apparently, Pelley came into that meeting with ‘both guns blazing’! Upset about the departures of the show’s previous producer, Tanya Simon, and two of its regular correspondents, Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega.

The issue at hand is the accusation that CBS’s new management has tried to interfere with the journalistic integrity and freedom of expression of its reporters by forcing them to insert “lies” into their reports. Pelley argued that their stories should be left exactly as they reported them in their supposedly pristine objectivity.

I had to laugh when I read those comments, which were made by both Pelley and Vega. If I had to guess, I would say that Pelley was parroting what Vega had claimed, reflecting her own bias. A bias that became overtly obvious about a year ago in a 60 Minutes segment that was so slanted against Israel that even a child would have noticed it.

This is what I said about it at the time:

Vega interviewed some disgruntled State Department employees who had resigned over what they claimed was the U.S. government’s mishandling of the “atrocities” being committed by the Netanyahu government in its war with Hamas. The report made it seem as though these individuals possessed inside information and irrefutable evidence of Israeli atrocities, which they described in considerable detail.

None of this was verified by independent sources. And it was certainly far from established fact. Yet, as is often 60 Minutes’ habit, the report made it sound as though its version of events was the only truth. They had absolutely no problem ignoring Israel’s side of the story—which, in my view, was probably much closer to reality than what 60 Minutes was peddling.

This is what they consider balanced reporting.

What could be less balanced than that hit piece? This is the kind of reporting that Vega doesn’t want any ‘lies’ inserted into. By ‘lies’ she means facts and perspectives that challenge her preconceived notion of the truth.

To show that this wasn’t an isolated incident of anti-Israel bias, there was the harsh rebuke by the then CBS new director of reporter Tony Dokoupil who - during an interview - dared to challenge the author of an anti-Israel book by asking why he reported only the Palestinian perspective while ignoring the Israeli one. That rebuke generated honest pushback from some of CBS’s own correspondents—an unusual event given the sensitivity surrounding job security in network news.

At about that same time, a politically conservative, pro-Israel news executive, Bari Weiss, was brought in to help reshape the news division. She has since elevated Dokoupil to the nightly news anchor and has been involved in broader efforts to overhaul the network’s news operation and change its leftward tilt.

I never thought I would see the day when 60 Minutes would face serious internal challenges to its leftist editorial culture and attempt to become a more politically balanced news magazine.

I, for one, am more than happy to see Vega go. I don’t know much about Alfonsi’s views, but I can guess based on criticism she received over one of her own anti-Trump segments.

I wish I could say, ‘Problem solved’. All will be well, and future broadcasts will be more balanced - if not more favorable to Israel. Sadly, that will very likely not be the case…

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A Righteous War that Must be Fought

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

Iran’s attack against Kuwait this morning made me angry - and more convinced than ever that the United States and Israel should resume full-scale military action against Iran.

I don’t know what the president is waiting for. What will it take for him to finish off a regime that has proven itself to be one of the most radical and dangerous states of the modern era? A regime whose primary target is the very country he swore to protect and defend from enemies, foreign and domestic. A regime whose co-primary target is Israel, currently America’s most important ally in the region if not the world.

The fact that Iran has brutally repressed and killed tens of thousands of its own people for the “crime” of seeking freedom is reason enough to resume the war. Equally compelling is Iran’s openly declared goal of ‘restoring’ Islamic rule to the Holy Land, even if that means exterminating its over 7 million Jewish inhabitants.

Another compelling reason is Iran’s determination to dominate the Middle East through a pan-Islamic vision led by its Shiite ideology. In pursuit of that goal, it has shown a willingness to attack neighboring Muslim countries. Today’s ballistic missile strike that reportedly hit an airport terminal in Kuwait is only the latest example. The regime appears to have little regard for the lives of fellow Muslims when they stand in the way of its ambitions.

Iran has also demonstrated a willingness to sacrifice its own supporters if doing so advances its cause. The regime glorifies martyrdom, whether voluntary or not, whenever it serves its ideological objectives.

Yet another reason for resuming the war is Iran’s relentless drive to acquire the means to achieve these goals. By now, the entire world knows of its determination to become a nuclear power. Not to mention its efforts to develop increasingly sophisticated ballistic missile systems capable of reaching targets as far as the US. Iran has already demonstrated missile capabilities that can reach Europe. And its missile arsenal appears far larger than previously believed. Those missiles could eventually serve as delivery systems for nuclear warheads.

Nor should it be lost on the president that virtually every Iranian expatriate who fled the regime understands exactly what it is and has urged the United States and its ally Israel to finish the job.

I am not a military strategist. But this much seems clear: Iran’s military has suffered devastating losses, and its command structure has been severely weakened. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is little more that another terrorist group similar to Hamas and Hezbollah. Only much larger. And seems to be operating independently of any leadership. Driven by a level of religious fervor that makes them almost impossible to defeat without reducing them to an underground terrorist cell.

Iran’s new supreme leader has yet to make an appearance. Whether he remains fully capable of exercising authority is an open question. Despite their claims to the contrary.

It does not help that many Democrats and their allies in the media continue repeating Iran’s claims that it has somehow won the war and that America and its allies are worse off now than before the conflict began. Some even argue that remaining in the Obama-era nuclear agreement (JCPOA) would have produced a better outcome.

I disagree…

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Charedim, Violent Protests, and a Boycott

Dozens of Charedim break into a Beit Shemesh police station (TOI)

Sorry. I’m just not buying it.

I do not for a moment believe that what happened a couple of days ago in Bet Shemesh is in any way representative of the Charedi world as a whole. The following was reported in the Times of Israel:

A large group of Haredi protesters broke into a police station compound in Beit Shemesh, rioting and clashing with police officers overnight Sunday, following the arrest of an ultra-Orthodox draft evader in the city.

The rioters threw stones, attempted to block a main highway, and set fire to nearby brush, as footage shared on social media showed a crowd of jeering ultra-Orthodox men hurling debris at the police station as others forced open the gate, allowing them to push their way in.

I truly believe that most mainstream Charedim are as appalled by what these people did as the rest of Israel is. These young men are not representative of the typical Charedi. They belong to the Jerusalem faction. Which has a history of reacting violently to things they oppose. Something I doubt most mainstream Charedi leaders approve of.

That said, what these misguided young Charedim were reacting to was something their leadership has often reacted to in similarly harsh terms, albeit only verbally. These young people simply put their leaders’ words into action. I am quite sure, however, that was not the intent of those leaders’ strident rhetoric, harsh though it may have been.

What happened is that one of their fellow yeshiva students had been arrested for refusing to register for the draft, a legal requirement imposed on all Israeli citizens from whom inductees are drawn. It is no secret that Charedi leadership is deeply upset about this requirement after decades long total exemption.

As unfair and upsetting as many Israelis found that arrangement, the nation had largely become accustomed to it, and the IDF seemed able to function without Charedi participation. And while there were a few meager attempts by the government to change that situation, they continued to allocate substantial funding to yeshivos with relatively little oversight. Although much of mainstream Israeli society resented the arrangement, it became part of the status quo.

Then came October 7, 2023.

That changed everything...

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Is Israel Worse than Hamas?

Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres

How many people know that the Jewish people of the State of Israel are among the lowest forms of humanity there is? The UN has now effectively placed Israel among the world’s moral outcasts, and as we all know, the UN’s credentials are beyond reproach. If the UN says so, it must be true.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres recently included Israeli entities on a UN blacklist related to conflict-linked sexual violence.

The problem is that the allegations underlying that decision are hardly verified. To date, no publicly available evidence has emerged that conclusively establishes the horrific accusations made against Israeli personnel. Yet those accusations continue to circulate as though they have already been proven.

One of the most prominent figures to amplify these allegations was Nicholas Kristof. In a lengthy New York Times opinion piece, Kristof recounted allegations of sexual abuse against Palestinian detainees, including some claims that many observers viewed as highly implausible if not impossible.

And yet, Kristof appeared far more willing to accept these allegations than to rigorously test them. Instead, he relied heavily on anonymous sources and has abandoned traditional journalistic standards used to distinguish fact from fiction.

I have addressed Kristof’s column before. But no one has done a better job of exposing its weaknesses than Jonathan Rosenblum.

As Jonathan notes, many of these allegations initially gained little traction when they first surfaced because they were considered difficult to believe and lacked corroborating evidence. But once Kristof devoted a major New York Times opinion piece to them, they received worldwide attention.

According to Jonathan:

“Only when New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof, a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, published a 4,000-word opinion piece in which he recirculated Euro-Med’s most astounding charge about the degrading abuse of Palestinian prisoners did that claim gain widespread attention. It shouldn’t have.”

Jonathan argues that Kristof departed from basic journalistic safeguards. The allegations relied heavily on anonymous testimony, often lacking specific dates, locations, or other details that would allow independent verification.

Moreover, the issue of motive cannot be ignored. Hamas has devoted enormous resources - including blatant lies - toward winning the propaganda war against Israel.

This would hardly be the first time that dramatic accusations against Israel have received widespread media attention before later being disproven. Numerous claims made during the Gaza war have become subjects of intense controversy - later shown to be false. And yet continued to be reported with great certainty by the media.

I am reminded of an interview not long ago conducted by PBS NewsHour host Geoff Bennett with Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon. Bennett cited accusations that Israel had deliberately targeted and killed journalists in Gaza. Danon denied the allegation, while acknowledging that journalists had at times been inadvertently killed in combat zones where Hamas operatives were being targeted. And that some of those journalists were actually Hamas operatives. Bennett rejected Dannon’s response. Doubling down on the accusation that the innocent Palestinian journalists in Gaza were deliberately killed by order of the IDF.

Fact is that accusations against Israel are frequently treated as established fact by the media long before the evidence has been fully examined.

It has also proven to be true that the world media is predisposed to accept Palestinian claims at face value while applying a far more skeptical standard to Israeli responses. Whether intentional or not, the obvious result is a distorted picture of events.

Jonathan cites numerous examples in which sensational accusations were widely reported by respected media organizations only to collapse and proven false under scrutiny. Yet the corrections rarely receive the same attention as the original allegations.

What makes the timing of Kristof’s column particularly ugly…

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The Trauma of War and Drafting Charedim

Charedim protesting the draft and blocking traffic (Matzav)

Mission accomplished. The Charedi yeshiva world successfully averted the arrest of a student for refusing to register for the draft. As noted on Matzav:

“A dramatic confrontation unfolded shortly after midnight on Highway 1 leading to Yerushalayim when police attempted to detain a yeshiva bochur and transfer him to military authorities. The arrest was ultimately prevented after dozens of protesters rushed to the scene and blocked the roadway...

“After a lengthy standoff and a heated demonstration, police reportedly withdrew from the area and released the yeshiva student.”

As disgusting as this protest was, it is unfortunately not surprising coming from the “Jerusalem Faction,” a segment of the Charedi yeshiva world that vehemently opposes any compromise with the Israeli government that does not completely exempt every single Yeshiva student from serving in the IDF in any capacity.

While the Charedi world once had a more moderate faction whose leadership agreed to some form of compromise whereby students would at least register for the draft, it now seems that the mindset of the Jerusalem Faction has taken hold among their current leadership.

And then October 7^th happened.

Israel went to war against its enemies with a determination last seen during the 6 day war. That required maximum participation of its citizen-soldiers. Much of Israel’s military strength comes from reserve officers and soldiers who were called up for extended service as the nation mobilized for war.

That’s when things really started to fall apart.

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The numbers simply do not add up. There are not enough soldiers to fight the enormous enemy bulwark dedicated to Israel’s destruction. A bulwark consisting of Iranian proxies armed and financed by a regime whose 47-year mantra of “Death to Israel” was more than a slogan. It was a declaration of war by proxy against the Jewish state!

Israel has gone to war without a sufficient number of troops that would provide any meaningful respite from the fatigue of war. IDF soldiers have been required to serve extraordinarily long tours of duty. This has taken a severe psychological toll. Many soldiers have lost jobs and suffered family disruptions that may never fully heal. And this doesn’t even begin to address the many who have already sacrificed life and limb in defense of their people. A danger every combat soldier faces daily.

The only realistic way to lessen this burden would be for the only segment of able-bodied young men left that is large enough to do that. But which is currently exempt from sharing that responsibility - Charedi yeshiva students.

Yet the Charedi leadership adamantly rejects any army service at all for their students. Insisting that their dedication to Torah study supersedes any military obligation. Their leaders often argue that it is Torah study that keeps the Jewish people safe, not soldiers fighting Israel’s enemies on multiple fronts. They also maintain that military service would expose students to an environment incompatible with their religious sensitivities and, in some cases violate Halacha.

I understand their reservations. Nor do I question their commitment and dedication to Torah study. On the contrary, I admire it.

But at this moment, I am far more sympathetic to those who are doing the fighting - for what should be obvious reasons.

Unfortunately, those reasons do not seem nearly as obvious to much of the Charedi world. Which is why I was so angered by what I saw yesterday in Mishpacha Magazine.

It appeared in the form of a short paragraph placed between two columns: one by managing editor Shoshana Friedman and an “Open Mic” column by Danny Louis.

The message was that it is appalling that Israel’s police force has been asked to assist the military in locating and arresting Charedi draft evaders. While acknowledging that the draft, the army’s needs, and its character are very complex:

Vey that in a Jewish country, the official organs of law enforcement have been asked to arrest young men who choose to spend their days and nights learning Torah… it it is not overly dramatic to shudder at the repercussions of this initiative at a time when this country so desperately needs spiritual merit.

To say that this statement outraged me would be a gross understatement.

No one who understands the value of Torah study would deny its importance to the very survival of our people. But to insinuate that the spiritual merit provided by those who both study and fight - as do students in Hesder yeshivos - is somehow of lesser value is insulting in the extreme…

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Are Orthodox Jews at a Financial Breaking Point?

An Orthodox Jewish couple walking in the streets of Lakewood (TOI)

I’ve been wondering about this for quite some time: How on earth can a typical Orthodox Jewish family survive on a middle-class income today?

When I got married and raised four children on what was then considered a middle-income salary, I never felt the kind of crushing financial pressure Orthodox families face now. We managed to buy a home, replace our car every few years, take modest family vacations, and cover the usual expenses — mortgage, utilities, insurance, and healthcare.

At the same time, we also handled the added costs that come with Orthodox Jewish life: Jewish education for four children, including a gap year in Israel, kosher food, Yom Tov expenses, and lifecycle events like bar mitzvahs and weddings. We even managed to save for retirement, which - together with Social Security and Medicare - allows us to maintain a relatively comfortable standard of living today.

Now, however, even families earning well into six figures are struggling. A recent article in The Times of Israel described a religious New Jersey couple earning over $150,000 a year who still “can’t make it work.” The article noted that even families making $400,000 can feel financial strain.

What happened?

The biggest reason is obvious: tuition. When my children were young, day school tuition was relatively affordable. When our children started it was under $1,000 per child, eventually rising to about $5,000 by the end of elementary school. Today, tuition in many Orthodox schools can reach $25,000 per child per year.

For a family with four children, that can mean $100,000 annually before taxes. Add kosher food, housing, insurance, and every other normal family expense, and it becomes easy to see why even a $150,000 income is not enough.

Why did tuition rise so dramatically? Mostly because schools had no choice.

Modern religious schools provide far more services than they once did, but the biggest expense is teacher salaries. In my day, many teachers earned very little and supplemented their income with summer jobs or afternoon work. Eventually schools realized that if they wanted qualified educators, they had to offer livable salaries. That significantly increased school budgets, which in turn drove up tuition exponentially.

Schools also build tuition assistance into their budgets because most middle-class families now require help. Even after a $10,000 scholarship, parents will owe $15,000 per child. For four children, that’s still $60,000 a year in pre-tax income. And many families have more than four children.

Meanwhile, all the other costs of Orthodox life remain — especially housing in religious neighborhoods, which has become increasingly unaffordable. Well beyond the means of most young couples.

This creates an almost impossible situation...

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From Eckstein to Huckabee

Ambassador Mike Huckabee and YU president, Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman (YU News)

It’s nice to see the Orthodox Jewish world finally catching up to my friend, the late Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein. Who realized decades ago that Evangelical Christians are truly great friends of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. Especially those of us who are Orthodox and tend to share many of the same values.

Sadly, Yechiel’s formation of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, created to foster better relations between the two communities, brought condemnation from many Orthodox Jewish leaders. Which in turn caused a number of them to boycott him institutionally. That caused Yechiel much grief, but it didn’t stop him from continuing to cultivate relationships so strong that he was able to raise many millions of dollars for the State of Israel - no strings attached.

And yet, he was still considered persona non grata in most mainstream Orthodox institutions. He passed away a few years ago still carrying the emotional pain of what felt like a de facto excommunication.

His organization lives on and is now led by his daughter.

First, the disclaimer. I did not approve of all of Yechiel’s policies with respect to cultivating that relationship. Some of them, I believe, may have crossed some Halachic lines. But overall, I believe he got a bum deal for doing some truly great work for Klal Yisroel.

What was troubling his detractors was understandable. Centuries of persecution by Christianity in all of its forms had led to pogroms, expulsions, and even death. Culminating with the Holocaust. No less understandable was the well-founded suspicion that any supposed ‘good will’ on the part of Christian ministers was solely for the purpose of ‘saving our souls’ by convincing us that without believing in the divine nature of their founder, we would inherit eternal damnation.

That was certainly more the case in the past, and still is in certain cases. But what Yechiel came to realize after decades-long personal relationships with numerous Christian ministers was that their love for Israel was truly genuine. As was their view of the Jewish people. And for the most part had nothing to do with a desire that we convert. Or their end-times theology.

Even though they do believe in that theology, and of course, they would like us to see their ‘truth’. But that was clearly not what motivates them. Preacher after preacher urges their flock to listen to the ‘Old’ Testament promises that those who bless the Jewish people will themselves be blessed. And that the Land of Israel truly belongs to the Jewish people as promised by God multiple times in scripture.

Gone, for the most part, is the old ‘replacement theology’ that held the Jews lost their standing as the ‘Chosen People’ and were replaced by Christians. Although there are still some radical right wing Christians that still cling to that theology, it is clearly not mainstream among Evangelical preachers and their flock.

We do have to be careful, though. There still are some who do try to convert us as the reason of their newfound friendship with us. But most no longer see it that way.

This is not just my opinion. Nor is it based solely on what Yechiel told me. My own observations of sermons delivered by a number of tele-evangelists (which predated Yechiel’s involvement) have corroborated these views

And it isn’t just me. Or just Yechiel. Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, in his role as Director of Interfaith Affairs, for the Simon Wiesenthal Center came to the same conclusion.

This new Christian approach toward the Jewish people took on even more significance in 2006 when Pastor John Hagee founded CUFI (Christians United for Israel) - the largest pro-Israel organization in the United States.

The decades-long friendship Hagee and Orthodox Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg of Congregation Rodfei Sholom in San Antonio served as the foundational bedrock for modern Christian Zionism in America.

I’ve listened to some of his fiery pro-Israel and pro-Jewish sermons, and they clearly had nothing to do with trying to convert us. In the meantime, Hagee has raised millions of dollars solely from Christians - for Israel. No strings attached.

All of which brings me to what is happening later today. Yeshiva University…

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The Kotel Law

I did not vote for Eretz HaKodesh in the WZO election. I voted for Mizrachi. But it’s hard to argue with the position taken by Eretz HaKodesh’s Rabbi Nechemiah Malinowitz. YWN reports of his impassioned plea before the Knesset Constitution Committee in favor of the proposed ‘Kotel Law’. Which would give exclusive jurisdiction over the Kotel to the Chief Rabbinate.

That law is strongly objected to by heterodox rabbis demanding equal jurisdiction and are pushing very hard against it. Claiming Israel will lose the support of Diaspora Jewry if they don’t get their way.

If this is about changing the character of the Kotel as it has stood since its recapture in 1967, then I disagree with heterodox designs. If these rabbis want to implement egalitarian rule over the Kotel, I would agree with Rabbi Malinowitz in opposing that effort.

Even though the Kotel is technically not a Beis HaKnesses — a shul — which is the only place that requires a separation of the sexes for purposes of communal prayer, since shuls have in essence been established there since that time, those areas now qualify as shuls and therefore require gender separation.

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Heterodoxy long ago abandoned that requirement in favor of the modern cultural value of egalitarianism, which does not recognize traditional gender distinctions. But that does not change what the Jewish people observed for centuries until the 19^th century, when the relatively ‘new’ Reform movement decided to abandon it — an abandonment that became widespread in early 20th-century America.

In Israel, however, this was not the case. Heterodoxy was practically non-existent. The vast majority of even non-observant secular Israelis understood that the Judaism they did NOT observe was Orthodox Judaism. Although heterodoxy has made some inroads into Israeli society, those numbers are still relatively small compared to what the rest of the country sees as authentic Judaism. Heterodoxy, of course, wants to change all that.

That said, for the sake of peaceful relations, combined with the fact that a shul was never established in the portion of the Kotel designated for mixed-gender use (a location known as Robinson’s Arch, which was already agreed to by the religious parties in the Knesset) I would not oppose their using that location as they see fit...

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Spitting at Charedim

Charedim enlisting in the IDF (Matzav)

There was a very disturbing incident involving a young Charedi recruit to the IDF. It is described here:

A yeshiva bochur who recently enlisted in the IDF described a painful and humiliating confrontation he says he experienced at a train station in Haifa, where a woman allegedly screamed at him for not serving in the military — and then spit in his face after he showed her proof that he had just signed his enlistment papers.

One of the biggest issues plaguing Israel right now is the conflict between the Charedi world and the rest of Israel with respect to the draft. Charedi leadership will simply not hear of mandatory enlistment. They are willing to ‘starve’ rather than serve. To that end, they have been collecting funds to prevent the ‘starvation’ of their young men who do not serve – The leadership opposes all attempts to get them to serve voluntarily.

Just last week the Charedi leadership — in both Israel and the United States joined forces in yet another huge fundraising campaign. This time in South America appealing for funds to replace generous funds the government now refuses to restore to the Charedi world unless their young are subjected to the draft.

What these leaders found was huge crowds of enthusiastic supporters. These leaders need to duplicate last year’s successful fundraising goal of $100 million in donations. There appears to be great deal of wealth in the Charedi world there right now.

How long they will be able to maintain this massive effort is hard to predict. But I just can’t see even wealthy Charedim coming up with that kind of money year after year for what they call the “Olam HaTorah” — as though they have a monopoly on Torah to the exclusion of everyone else.

The thing is, as I’ve said many times, I actually agree with them about the importance and primacy of Torah study. I admire and support those who dedicate most of their waking hours to mastering it. What I do not support are the vast numbers of people in that “Olam” who are nowhere near achieving it — whether because of personal limitations in their abilities or because their talents lie in other fields. Not everyone is cut out for that kind of lifestyle. And should not automatically be a part of it.

Their insistence that all choose this lifestyle — whether capable or not — be compensated for it, and that they be exempted from serving in the IDF, is a gross misuse of the dictum of VeHagisa Bo Yomam VaLayla— the Torah’s requirement to study Torah day and night. Upon which they base their lives. This does not mean that every Jew must sit in the study hall all day and all night and do nothing else. If one sets aside short regular times for learning during both the day and the night, they satisfy that dictum.

My objection is not to the values they espouse, but to how broadly they apply them. And to the cost of that policy to the welfare of the entire population of the State of Israel.

That there are occasional cases of Charedi enlistment is very laudable. But these Charedim are often sneered at by their own people for bucking the system. I have yet to hear any leader speak positively about these Charedim. It is almost as if they do not exist. Well, they do — although their numbers are comparatively minuscule as of yet.

As far as I am concerned, Charedim like the above-mentioned enlistee are heroes. They actually have a conscience. They realize that others doing the fighting and dying while they do nothing is the height of irresponsibility. And they understand that taking pride in draft evasion is the height of arrogance. Especially when so many of those who serve in dangerous combat units are as devoutly religious as the Charedim themselves. And yet, for the vast majority, there seems to be no guilt about dodging the draft…

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Peace in Our Time?

47 years of the same message from Iran

Last night the president announced that peace may now be at hand. The U.S. and Iran have reportedly agreed on a basic memorandum of understanding for a peace deal between them. One that would immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restore the free flow of oil that Iran has blocked since the beginning of the war. That blockade is why fuel prices have risen to near unprecedented levels and continue to climb, along with the price of food.

The war against Iran is highly unpopular among the American people, mostly because of how negatively it has affected their pocketbooks. I can’t say I blame them. Except that most Americans seem oblivious to the fact that a nuclear-armed Iran is a mortal danger to the entire free world.

When a fanatical religious regime has been screaming “Death to America” from its very inception, the U.S. would certainly be in its crosshairs sooner or later. Once they have nuclear weapons, preventing a nuclear catastrophe would become infinitely more difficult. And when religious fanatics have their hands on the nuclear button, they will surely have no compunction about using it.

And this doesn’t even address the mortal danger a nuclear-equipped Iran would pose to one of America’s most important allies: Israel.

Sadly, politics have played a nefarious role in the rhetoric surrounding the war against Iran. Supporters of the 2015 JCPOA (Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran) argue that a deal was already in place that would have prevented exactly that - a nuclear-armed Iran. They say that the president’s decision to tear up the deal is why Iran came so close to acquiring a nuclear weapon in the first place.

What they don’t say is that the deal had a ten-year expiration date, that Iran was discovered to be cheating on it anyway, and that the agreement did not include stopping Iran’s ballistic missile program or preventing it from arming terrorist proxies throughout the Middle East, most of whom were aimed at Israel. That support is what enabled Hamas to carry out the October 7^th attack, which precipitated the chain of events leading to where we are now.

The president’s stated goals are to ensure that Iran never acquires nuclear capability, halts its ballistic missile production, and stops spreading terror through its proxies. Those goals are supported by America’s ally, Israel, which is why the war effort against Iran became a joint effort with Israel.

Sadly, isolationists on the right and Democrats on the left in Congress share the belief that the president was dragged into the war by Israel’s prime minister — a narrative that smacks of antisemitism and one they continue repeating despite denials from both Israel and the United States.

So here we are now, with a deal apparently at hand, the details of which we know next to nothing about.

A number of media pundits who tend to agree with the president’s critics are already saying the deal will probably resemble Obama’s JCPOA agreement. The obvious message being that had Trump not withdrawn from the deal in the first place, we could have avoided the war, preserved the economy, and spared countless lives. They argue that the regime is now even more hardline than before, making this a net loss for both the United States and world security.

I always find it remarkable when people who know virtually nothing about the details of an agreement - one that is far from being finalized - somehow already know exactly what it entails and how it should be judged.

We do not yet know what this deal says… 

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