The Roar Of The Rising Lion

Children Of Israel Are Never Alone

Oh, my beloved tribe.

Here we are again.

Hours into the October 7th massacre, someone in my news feed, I’ll never remember who, wrote a one-line post: Brothers and sisters, we are at war.

I felt that same sense of a momentous shift when nearly every Israeli site I follow broke the news of Israel’s strike on Iran at the same time. I will admit I was grateful for this long-awaited action. Everything I’ve read during the past several years pointed to the necessity and inevitability of taking out Iran’s nuclear capabilities. The only question was when.

And then there was a mounting sense of frustration as so many trusted pundits were agonizing over the same worry: that Israel would never, ever have a better time to strike and Trump’s continual equivocations were in danger of causing that opportunity to be squandered.

So I was relieved when Israel finally struck, with or without Trump’s blessing (I’m well aware that Trump is saying he knew the plan, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he’s just saving face by saying that).

Trump & Co. initially sought to distance itself from the strikes as much as they could. Marco Rubio was all “Israel took unilateral action” and “We are not involved” and “Leave U.S. interests and personnel out of this.”

And now, in light of Israel’s stunning success, Trump is, as usual, trying to take credit and have it both ways, telling reporters: “We knew everything,” pronouncing Operation Rising Lion “excellent” and adding that, “the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the world, BY FAR, and Israel has a lot of it.”

Of course, all this inspires high anxiety and uncertainty about what’s to come, especially as Iranian missiles hit residential areas in Tel Aviv in retaliation.

But before we get to that, let’s devote a long moment to the sheer and surreal strategic genius that the Jewish nation has demonstrated yet again.

In a stunning display of 4D-chess-level intelligence, Israel managed to decimate not only Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and air defenses, but they also took out the top echelon of military command and Iran’s leading nuclear scientists, while inflicting heavy damage to the crown jewel of its nuclear facilities, Natanz, among dozens of other sites.

The top brass eliminated by Israel in this attack include:

• Major General Mohammad Bagheri, the Chief of Staff of Iran’s armed forces;

• Major General Hossein Salami, Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps;

• Major General Gholam Ali Rashid, head of the Khatam-al Anniya Central Headquarters;

• Ayatollah Khamenei’s top aide Ali Shamkhani;

• Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC air force;

• Twenty other senior officers within the Aerospace Force.

As with the pager operation, it's impossible not to be slack-jawed with awe and pride over Israel’s ingenuity. After all Iran has done to fund and train genocidal terrorists across the Middle East in an effort to slaughter Israelis by proxy — a list that includes Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Shia forces in Iraq and Syria, and of course the IRGC — it is simply astonishing to witness the tiny yet fierce and brilliant Israel slicing off every head of the hydra by itself.

Per The Times of Israel, the Jewish nation spent years if not decades readying this effort. In an astonishing triumph of intelligence, these preparations included a drone base built by the Mossad inside Iran, and precision weapons systems and commandos smuggled into the country as well.

As usual, my response to the breaking news last night was to read every scrap of information I could find, from a range of perspectives. I read the pearl-clutchers and the hand-wringers, the cautious optimists and the swaggering blowhards. Across this full spectrum of opinions, I was happy to see a striking consensus around one issue: the necessity of this move. Even the opposition parties in Israel most antagonistic to Netanyahu fully endorse and support these strikes. For instance, Yair Lapid wrote in the Times of Israel:

Israel’s overnight strike in Iran was a necessity. A regime that repeatedly declares its strategic goal to be the “total annihilation of Israel” cannot be allowed to possess the nuclear capability with which to acheive that goal.

Another heartening show of support has come from countless Iranian citizens, who loathe their own draconian regime. One prominent voice within this group is that of Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American author, journalist and feminist, who posted on X that she’d received innumerable messages from Irainians celebrating the death of Amir Ali Jahizadeh, Ali Shamkhani and Hossein Bagheri. She added that:

My heart bleeds for our people, not for a regime built on bloood…

Removing a terrorist is not a tragedy, it is a step toward justice for all the innocent lives they destroyed.

One final shred of uplifting news: after nearly two full years of hearing how isolated Israel is on the world stage, what a pariah nation it’s becoming, it’s gratifying to note that not only the U.S. but even Jordan helped to intercept Iranian missiles flying toward Israel in the wake of the latter’s strike. And German Chancellor Merz and French President Macron both issued statements in support of Operation Rising Lion.

In any event, I know I was far from the only one up all night last night. The Jewish nation was sleepless throughout the diaspora as well as the homeland. As always, there was comfort in that.

There was comfort, too, in realizing that Israel chose to strike on 6/13, just as I often schedule articles I’ve completed in advance to be sent out at 6:13 am. I love these coded practices we all understand, though they mean nothing to anyone else. I love every version of the secret Jewish handshake, wherever and whenever it happens.

Even with so much to feel good about, there’s no doubt that the tension already so prevalent within our lives has just been ratcheted up exponentially. War is harrowing and frightening no matter how justified it is or how well-defended we are. My heart is with Am Yisrael every hour, and with everything I have, I hope the miracle of the last round of fighting with Iran will repeat itself, and our people will remain essentially unscathed in the face of the regime’s retaliation.

I’m wishing you the most peaceful Sabbath that can be managed under the circumstances. I’ll be back with you next week. In the meantime, I’m sending all of you heartfelt love and hope.

Shabbat shalom.

Am Yisrael Chai.