What should be intolerable to the US, Israel, and Europe is the marriage of religious fanaticism with weapons of mass destruction. That is why we cannot let the wounded bear that is Iran recover. Opinion.
Our illustrious Sages often compared Persia to a bear. For example, n the vision of the prophet Daniel (7:5) cited in the Talmud (Kiddushin 75a), “and behold there was a second beast, a bear…” “Rav Yosef taught, these are Persians.” The Gemara continued, “when Rav Ami would see a Persian riding, he would say, ‘this is a bear on the move.’”
There is nothing more dangerous than a wounded bear. Physically injured, the bear’s natural aggression becomes even more intensified and its capacity to strike its enemies is even more enhanced. Such a bear has to be put down, or in Napoleon’s phrase, “If you want to take Vienna, take Vienna!” As such, now is not the time to relax the pressure on Iran or to negotiate. Such will only ensure the survival of an evil, genocidal regime of fanatical Jew-haters, and guarantee that they will immediately ramp up the enrichment of their remaining stocks of uranium to weapons grade levels, weaponize them, and deploy them against us and others. That will be the inevitable price of taking our foot off the accelerator, G-d forbid.
We have to resist the natural inclinations of the world’s diplomats, which is to let evil flourish until it is too late, eschew war at all costs, encourage the signing of agreements despite their toothlessness and lack of enforceability, and, above all, deprive Israel of any semblance of victory and feeling of security.
How did we get here and to where should we go?
It is worthwhile to recall one of the most egregious miscalculations ever made in international diplomacy. In the late 1970’s, US President Jimmy Carter, a self-styled “do-gooder,” turned against the Shah of Iran because of the latter’s human rights abuses. This betrayal occurred notwithstanding that the Shah was an American ally – and an ally of Israel. Carter favored the return to Iran of the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini, who as a “man of faith,” would lead Iran with religious wisdom and moral clarity. It was a dreadful error; if the Shah abused human rights as an act of policy, the Ayatollah, who abused his people with even greater viciousness, did it as an act of faith, the fulfillment of a religious obligation.
Just a few years after seizing power, the Ayatollah launched Iran’s nuclear program, which was temporarily sidetracked by the long-running Iran-Iraq War in the 1980’s, but with the expressed ambition of destroying Israel. And since the Ayatollah seized power in 1979, he and his followers have repeatedly humiliated and attacked the United States, without real consequence or retribution.
-In 1979, the American embassy in Tehran was overrun, dozens of US diplomats taken hostage and held for 444 days. There was no American response.
-The detonation of the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 by Iran-backed terrorists who soon formed Hezbollah killed 241 US service members. There was no American response, except for three civil cases brought in the United States against Iran decades later for this murderous act, and for which Iran was found liable.
-Iran has several times attempted to assassinate American politicians, again with no American response.
Throughout America’s long engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran carried out the deaths of hundreds of US soldiers and the maiming of thousands, to which the American response was mostly limited to the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard.
Instead, several administrations – most notably those of Barack Obama and Joe Biden – sought to coddle Iran, subsidize it, and even acquiesce in Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. Obama fatuously said: “Iran should be a regional power.” (Recall the Obama agreement did not enjoin Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon; it only delayed it for ten years – or 2025.) Even Ronald Reagan was ensnared in a major scandal in his second term by chasing the fantasy of “moderates” in Iran who would be pro-American and providing them with weapons.
This outreach has been met for more than forty years with Iranian cries of “Death to America,” and the labeling of the United States as the “Great Satan.” Such braggadocio is hard to fathom unless we realize that it is rooted in religious doctrine.
For how long can a nation endure repeated degradation, without a response, and retain the credibility due a superpower? We will find out shortly.
Our current war is certainly not over, as the repeated Iranian missile attacks on Israeli civilians demonstrates. For sure, we have achieved tremendous, even miraculous successes, unprecedented in warfare, already legendary, for which we offer gratitude to the Almighty for His kindness, and His gift to His people of ingenuity, resilience, courage, and commitment. (May we continue to be worthy of the Lord’s blessings and compassion!)
What we have achieved to this point has been solely the result of our own efforts, with G-d’s help, and certainly our offensive operations in Iran have been unaided by any nation – even those who also perceive Iran as an enemy. (We should duly note Saudi Arabia’s hypocritical condemnation of Israel – however muted – for the Saudi’s perceive Iran as their greatest enemy and yet do nothing about it. We should remember this duplicity when the calls come for Israel to make concessions to induce Saudi Arabia into the Abraham Accords. Dishonorable mention also goes out to the UAE.)
Fordow, Regime change and America’s interests
There are two remaining objectives, both of which might require assistance from others: the destruction of the underground facility at Fordow and regime change. Whether Israel is capable of destroying a reinforced weapons factory buried under a mountain remains to be seen. There are probably four options, of which the easiest would be American military intervention. By all accounts, the United States possesses the bunker-busting bombs – 30,000 pounds of explosives each- that can penetrate a facility located eighty meters below ground level. But do we Israelis want that, especially considering that President Trump is very transactional and will expect something in return (he already has a new plane) and considering even more the outcry of the isolationist and sometimes anti-Israel crowd that this will provoke – that Israel is dragging the United States into war.
The uproar will occur but the prospect of America at war is quite negligible. After all, Israel has total aerial supremacy in Iran. This strike could take place and be completed successfully in less than several hours. But do we want that?
What should matter more is what is in America’s interest. Does the US have an interest in the wounded bear healing itself and using its Fordow plant to produce a nuclear weapon? Of course not. The US will soon be a target of these weapons, either after Iran develops ICBM capability or through the smuggling of a dirty bomb into the United States. Indeed, the destruction of Fordow would be appropriate retribution from the United States to Iran for the more than four decades of contempt, attacks, and mortification of the US by Iran.
Another advantage is that Iran has linked itself with both Russia and China, both American adversaries. The disappearance of a hostile Iran weakens both those countries, and a muscular American response to the Iranian threat might serve to deter China from invading Taiwan. Those are also American interests, which cannot be advanced by words, threats, or negotiations, but only by forceful and fruitful action.
Rendered impotent with the total loss of its nuclear program, Iran would be ripe for regime change, and this is the touchiest subject of all. This can only come from the Iranian people, who we have been told for many years despise the brutal reign of the Ayatollahs. If Iranian offensive capabilities are neutered – their defensive ones are currently almost non-existent – then the time has come for the opposition forces to present themselves, organize, and foment strife, and overthrow their oppressors. Obviously, this cannot be done from or by Israel and the United States, but both can assist from afar, and ultimately, this is the only path to stability and security in the region.
If Fordow is left intact, then even this grievously injured Iran becomes even more dangerous. If the Ayatollahs and the Islamic Revolution live to maraud another day, then they will, and they will rebuild, faster and deadlier. Regime change will not be simple, for as we have seen, Islamic radicals do not play by the rules of war, the Geneva conventions and the farce of international law mean zilch to them, and they will gladly stoop to barbarity to retain their power. But destruction of their nuclear weapons program and loss of their oil revenue – which should be on the table even now to drive them into submission – will weaken them even more and bolster opposition forces.
What should be intolerable to the US, Israel, and Europe is the marriage of religious fanaticism with weapons of mass destruction. Now is the time to put a death blow to that evil fantasy – and end the suffering of the wounded bear. Can it be done? In truth, democracies have an extremely poor record of anticipating threats and acting to forestall them.
As PM Netanyahu has taken to quoting with some frequency – and much pertinence – Winston Churchill lamented Britain’s feeble response in the 1930’s to the rise of Nazism. In the House of Commons in May 1935, Churchill said:
“When the situation was manageable it was neglected, and now that it is thoroughly out of hand we apply too late the remedies which then might have effected a cure. There is nothing new in the story… It falls into that long, dismal catalogue of the fruitlessness of experience and the confirmed unteachability of mankind. Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong—these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.”
We Jews know best of all the steep price that is paid when genocidal maniacs are allowed to flourish and are challenged by the world’s powers mostly by a torrent of rhetoric, and little else. They think they are thus avoiding war while, in fact, they merely delay war and ensure that the eventual conflict will be far deadlier than it might have been.
US policy towards Iran since 1979 has been marked by naiveté, restraint, strident speech, and ineffectual deeds. President Trump can change that dynamic by acting boldly and decisively, not by urging negotiations that will invariably lead to undesirable outcomes.
We cannot let the wounded bear recover. We have to finish what we started – and if the United States correctly perceives its self-interests, the US will act powerfully but surgically to remove the Iranian threat, midwife regime change along with Iranian dissidents, and spawn a better, more peaceful, and more prosperous world. And without revolutionary Iran, its murderous proxies Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, will in short order – after some reflexive terror – wither and die. Imagine that.
Israel has already done 90% of the work. Let the civilized world – also Iran’s targets – help with the remainder.
Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, Esq. teaches Torah in Modiin, is the Senior Research Associate at the Jerusalem Center for Applied Policy (JCAP.ngo), and the author of six books, including “Road to Redemption” (Kodesh Press).
