The Necessity of Total Victory

Not ruling out taking out Khamenei (ABC)

Winston Churchill often emphasized the necessity of total victory and unyielding resolve in the face of adversity. Famously saying, ‘Never give in, never, never, never’. If I had to describe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s resolve during this time of war, it would be to compare him to Churchill.

I have always been a fan of Prime Minister Netanyahu. And no, I’m not blind to his shortcomings. Many of the allegations made against him are probably true. He does have an oversized ego - surpassed only by our own president, Donald J. Trump. He may very well be technically guilty of accepting illegal gifts, like expensive champagne or Cuban cigars, while in office.

He is also a power-hungry politician who will double-cross his own supporters if it helps him remain in power. He has indeed alienated many former allies and doesn’t hesitate to align himself with unpopular causes to secure his power. Such as supporting Charedi demands for permanent draft exemptions for their yeshiva students. He is despised by the political left and even by some on the political right.

But Netanyahu is nonetheless a great leader. And he is about to prove it with one of the boldest military operations in Israel’s 77-year history. An operation that appears well on its way to a successful conclusion.

He approved the military intelligence operation that set Iran up for what now appears to be complete defeat. After Mossad agents strategically planted drones in the homes of Iran’s top military and scientific leaders, Israel was able to assassinate them remotely. Israeli intelligence identified all of Iran’s nuclear facilities, and - except for the one at Fordow- they have all been bombed into oblivion. And Fordow may soon experience its own demise. (That may very well be why Trump is meeting with his NSA staff in the situation room today.) Many of Iran’s military bases have been destroyed, along with over a third of its missile launchers and key oil depositories. More recently, newly appointed generals have been assassinated, and Iran’s state broadcasting center has been bombed. Israel now controls Iranian airspace, and Iran apparently has no functioning air force.

Tehran’s 10 million residents have been warned by the U.S. to evacuate - suggesting that Israel’s biggest move may still be on the horizon. And it seems many Iranians are indeed evacuating. In short, aside from their ballistic missile arsenal, Iran has been rendered virtually impotent.

Netanyahu has not ruled out the possibility of assassinating the Ayatollah himself, his possible successors, and political leaders. That may be the reason for the U.S. warning to evacuate Tehran, where they all reside. I suspect this may be Israel’s next big move, and it may very well succeed, just as it did in Lebanon with Nasrallah and his successors.

Meanwhile, the president has moved the USS Nimitz - a massive aircraft carrier - into the Red Sea  accompanied by several destroyers. He issued a stern warning to Iran that if a single hair on the head of an American soldier is harmed, Iran will pay a heavy price.

Consider for a moment the fear expressed in the past by American military experts whenever the idea of a war with Iran was discussed. There was near-universal agreement that the cost in blood and treasure would be far too high. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard was believed to be far better trained and more ideologically driven than Saddam Hussein’s army in Iraq. Those same experts concluded that a war with Iran would make the Iraq War look like a walk in the park. Thus, the U.S. never seriously considered military action against Iran. Even though its military is vastly superior and would surely win.

The same thinking applied to Israel. If the U.S. feared a war with Iran, how much more so should Israel, a much smaller nation, be wary of the consequences?

But guess what happened? We don’t have to guess. Iran is in tatters, and things are about to get much worse for them.

If Israel pulls this off - and at this point it’s reasonable to assume it will - then under Netanyahu’s leadership, it will have achieved a military victory unlike anything since the 1967 Six-Day War. Could anyone have imagined this just one week ago? And yet, it’s happening.

Great leaders do not have to be perfect human beings. Netanyahu is far from perfect. But he is a great leader who approved a bold and brilliant plan to defeat Israel’s mortal enemy. And if, as I expect, he succeeds, he will have spared the world from the dangers of a nuclear-armed, fanatical Islamic regime determined to carry out genocidal threats against Israel and as well determined to spread their version of the ‘word of God’ under the threat of nuclear blackmail.

Will the left leaning world thank Israel for that? Probably not. Israel will continue to be villfied.

There is, however, a terrible downside to this upcoming victory. Tragically, there have already been dozens of Israeli casualties from the few Iranian missiles that managed to get through Israel’s Iron Dome. Thousands of Israelis have been displaced due to the damage those missiles caused to their homes.

Wouldn’t it be a noble gesture if some of the 75 million dollars being collected by Charedi Roshei Yeshiva were used to help house these displaced Jews until their homes can be restored? Perhaps they should take a cue from Yeshivat Har Etzion founder, Rav Yehuda Amital. He believed that Jews are not only holy - but human. Rav Amital was fond of making this point with the following story:

The founder of Chabad, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, known as the Ba'al Ha-Tanya, was studying Torah in the end room of a railroad flat.  Two rooms away there was a baby sleeping.  In the middle room, his grandson, the Tzemach Tzedek, was learning.  Suddenly, the Ba'al Ha-tanya, heard the baby cry.  The elder rebbe rose from his studying, passed through the room where his grandson was studying, and went to the next room to soothe the baby to sleep.  Meanwhile, his grandson was too involved in his studies to notice the baby crying.  On returning to his room, the Ba’al Ha-Tanya told his grandson to stop learning.  He proclaimed, “If someone is studying Torah and fails to hear a baby’s cry, there is something very wrong with his learning.”  He explained that this was a founding principle of the yeshiva – we would learn Torah but still hear the baby’s cry.

It would be nice if the Roshei Yeshiva who are on their current mission to ‘save their Yeshivos’ heard the cries of the broader Jewish community. And not just those immersed in their Torah studies. And then did something about it.