Israel has no option but to destroy Iran's capability to attack it again.
The first missile attack, in April (which I was in Israel to experience), crossed a new threshold. Israel's defenses, miraculously, held up, but the Biden administration restrained Israel from a full-scale response. Also, Israel may have worried about potential retaliation from Hezbollah, which could have launched tend of thousands of rockets and missiles at Israeli cities, overwhelming the Iron Dome.
Israel did respond, but in a limited way that simply demonstrated the limits of the Iranian air defense system. Evidently, that was not enough to deter Iran from firing again -- probably because Iran believes Biden will rein Israel in again.
But the rules of the game have changed. Israel has acted independently of the U.S. -- in Rafah, and in Lebanon -- and it has taken out Hezbollah's ability to fire in coordinated fashion. There is no Iranian deterrent anymore.
Iran has provided Israel with the perfect provocation to act. But also, it has provided Israel with a threat that it cannot allow again. This second attack was more frightening than the first, because Israel is already at war on 4 fronts.
Israel cannot take the risk that an Iranian missile might be tipped with a chemical or even nuclear warhead. Plus, the war is damaging the Israeli economy, which suffered a major investment downgrade a few days ago.
Therefore I believe today's missile attack will be the last. Israel will attack: Iran's missile launchers; its oil and gas industry; its ports; its nuclear sites; its government; or all of the above. Israel could use airstrikes, or internal sabotage.
There is a reason Netanyahu delivered a speech this week -- not to the Lebanese people, whom he addressed last week, but to the Iranian people. He intends to create the conditions for the regime to be overthrown. Watch.
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This week's Torah portion includes several laws about conduct in civic and personal life, the common theme of which is boundaries -- setting bounds to what one may do at home, at work, and even in the battlefield.
One noteworthy passage concerns Amalek, the evil nation that attacked the Children of Israel as they made their Exodus from slavery to freedom. Deuteronomy 25:17-19 commands Jews to obliterate Amalek's memory.
The South African government accused Israel of genocide on the basis of a story about Amalek in the Book of Samuel, in which King Saul was commanded to wipe out the entire evil Amalekite nation.
Because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quoted this week's portion -- "Remember what Amalek did to you" (25:17), the South African government claimed he was commanding soldiers to commit genocide.
It was an absurd and malevolent misreading of the Bible and of Jewish tradition. The commandment, as observed by Jews today, is to remember the evil of Amalek and fight ...