Real Talk

Children Of Israel Are Never Alone

Hey, beloved tribe.

I swore I wouldn’t do this again.

When Trump took the Oval Office for the second time, I swore I wouldn’t become the person I was in his first term: sleepless, pacing, crazed, enraged, sweating through multiple shirts every day.

I swore that this time, I would stay sane and focus above all on being effective. Focus on the work, not drown in the emotions.

And yet here I am. Wide-eyed, tossing and turning until 4 am most nights. Clutching my head in agony. Spending much of the day steeped in cold dread.

I wake up in the morning and I feel afraid. I feel the bodily symptoms of fear from the moment I open my eyes. Black squid ink squirting all over my insides. Heart pounding. The urge to curl into a fetal position and not move.

About an hour ago, I wrote this post on Facebook:

If Trump takes out all the bridges and power plants in Iran, he will be hurting the Iranian citizens as much as, if not more than, the regime.

There will be widespread starvation, disease and death and his contemptible supporters will no longer be able to pretend he’s in this to “free the people of Iran.”

Israel is fighting a just and necessary war. I don’t trust the US as a partner with Trump at the helm, to put it very mildly.

I have deeply and viscerally feared and loathed Trump for more than a decade at this point. I have never been more afraid than now.

Of course, pushback came from several different quarters.

A few people said Israel was not justified in fighting this war either.

To which I said:

Hard disagree. Iran has been the chief financier, architect and exporter of anti-Israel terror for decades. It was behind October 7. If it was allowed to build a nuke, it would nuke Israel just as Hamas would if it had the capability, even if it took all of Gaza out too. Apocalyptic jihadists are not rational or self-preserving. They can't be negotiated with; they can only be disabled.

A few others said there was no credible evidence that Iran was near having nuclear weapons.

I don’t believe this either. As I asked one woman: if Iran wasn't close to having nukes, why did Obama exchange HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS for their ostensible agreement to stop producing them?

And I said to another:

It's not true that it wasn't anybody's credible assessment [that Iran was close to having nuclear weapons], and Israel's long-standing policy per the Begin Doctrine is to pre-emptively prevent her mortal enemies from having them. She destroyed the nuclear capabilities in Iraq and Syria. A nation that tiny -- in a neighborhood as huge and lethal as all the surrounding countries that have tried to wipe her out -- has not survived all these decades because they don't know what they're doing.

I believe this is the right war fought by the wrong people in the wrong ways for the wrong reasons.

By the wrong ways for the wrong reasons, I essentially mean the US’s part.

I don’t trust Trump to care about Iranian civilians.

I don’t trust Trump to care about the consequences for America or the rest of the West.

I think that if Trump were a Russian asset, he would behave no differently than he is behaving now.

I don’t trust Trump to make wise and measured decisions.

I don’t trust Trump to speak or act with credibility or consistency.

I don’t trust Trump to listen to expert assessments.

I’m repulsed by his unhinged tweets.

I’m repulsed by his threats to hit Kharg Island several more times “just for fun”.

I’m repulsed by his bullying and blustering.

I’m repulsed by his self-reversals hour to hour.

I’m beside myself over the fact that Israel is forced to partner with him and trust him.

I’m afraid for the Iranian people, for Israelis and for us.

Even as I type all this, I’m telling myself it’s not productive or helpful but I literally have nothing else I can say at this moment. These are my all-consuming thoughts right now.

On a more dispassionate note, our favorite military analyst Lynette Nusbacher lays out a very persuasive case in our MAZL podcast that not only is World War III underway, but that this has been true for several years now.

She sees these Middle Eastern wars as tied directly to the ones in Eastern Europe and the Pacific theater.

She sees North Korea, Russia and Iran as a triangular alliance of autocratic countries waging perpetual ideological war on the West. She sees this triangle as aligned with China.

On the other side are the democracies of Israel, the US, Canada and the European Union.

You can listen to it HERE and I hope you’ll consider subscribing to MAZL (it’s free!) if you haven’t already, to Lynette’s own excellent substack General Offensive! General Uprising! (which includes much more content than just the episodes she creates for us) or to both.

I shudder to think of all the utterly needless ways Trump has disparaged, insulted and alienated our allies in Europe and Canada. He has showed them monstrous disrespect and contempt for absolutely no reason (and in fact he has shown much more deference and regard to Kim Jong Un and Putin), to the point where neither Europe nor Canada is inclined to stand with us now.

And I shudder to think of the looming reality of World War III. Millions die in world wars and afterward, the world is remade according to the vision of the victors.

I know we all cling to the distant dream of the Middle East being remade in a way that leaves Israel with normalized relationships with many more countries, and the Iranian regime ousted, her people free.

And yet I’m not naive about the odds of that happening, nor the cost.

Maybe something can still avert an apocalypse unleashed tomorrow evening. I devoutly hope so. I plan to fast tomorrow, starting at sundown tonight (however uselessly), as the Jews did in the Purim story before Esther approached the King.

I am genuinely sorry to write such a fraught and frightened newsletter. But it’s always meant the world to me that this community holds space for me when I experience days like these.

I’ll be back with you on Wednesday whatever happens.

May the moral arc of this moment somehow bend toward justice.

Am Yisrael Chai.