War, Peace, And Trump

By Larry Gordon

If this is a war with Israel, you might be interested in knowing when exactly it all began. The accurate answer is that these wars with countries like Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen have no real beginning. But the hope now is that these endless wars and attacks might finally end.

Now, less than 48 hours after the U.S. military obliterated Iran’s nuclear program, we have a ceasefire.

The U.S. military attack on Iran is one that will be etched in our minds forever, right up there with events like the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War, 9/11, and October 7, 2023.

With last weekend’s strike, we were cut off from the action of the previous ten days that came to an apex on Shabbos. Once we recited Havdalah and switched on our cellphones, there was an unmistakable euphoria, complete with joyous hooting and hollering, as President Trump came through with his previous indication that he may take out the Iranian nuclear-weapon sites scattered across the country.

Iran has been a problem for the world for a long time. It’s been 46 years since the shah of Iran was overthrown and sent into exile with the arrival of Ayatollah Khomeini. Life has been downhill ever since for the Iranian people. The implementation of Sharia law along with the corrosive nature of the regime has evolved into a singular stated objective: the destruction of the State of Israel. The national mantra of the Iranians for decades has been: “Death to America. Death to Israel.” Maybe, just maybe, that might change now.

Now that President Trump decided to utilize some military might to hopefully bring down the regime, we are presented with the opportunity to look back and try to understand what we as Jews and supporters of a microscopic piece of real estate at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea have done, other than just exist, to incur the wrath of the now quivering, afraid-for-his-life Ayatollah.

The world now has a chance to enter a new phase of “peace through strength.” The good news for the world and the bad news for the Ayatollah is that there is no one left in Iran that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei trusts. The elimination of his military leadership as well as his nuclear scientists was the first order of business, with most of them taken out in the first few hours of the current conflict by drones that were either smuggled into or built by the Mossad in and around Tehran. The Iranian brain trust was quickly eliminated, leaving the Iranian military shattered and leaderless.

For Israel’s detractors, Iran was their greatest hope in this anti-Jewish, anti-Israel “Axis of Resistance,” in that they provided the money, resources, and coordination to all the proxies in the region in their ongoing wars against Israel. On these and other matters, the news changes so quickly that the written word simply cannot keep pace.

An illustration of this was my essay of two weeks ago when I attempted to preview a ten-day stint we were hoping to spend in Israel. That plan fell under the heading of the Yiddish aphorism, “A mensch tracht un G-tt lacht,” which essentially means that a person makes plans, but G-d just laughs them away. So, as these words are being written, the world is trying to figure out the next move of what is left of the Iranian regime. There is no question that since the U.S. military deconstruction of the Iranian nuclear infrastructure, the quantity of missiles fired into Israeli population centers has diminished.

Last Sunday night, sirens sounded throughout the country, with the alarm canceled shortly thereafter when it was discovered that Iran had fired a single missile that landed in a remote, unpopulated area of the north of Israel. The sirens still sent about a million people scampering into safe rooms and shelters, which adds another form of terror for Israelis, this one thankfully without injuries or much damage.

One of the most hard-to-comprehend attacks by the terror merchants was against Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva. Fortunately, with Divine intervention, the part of the hospital that was hit the hardest had been evacuated the day before the assault, thereby sparing numerous lives.

After the October 7th murderous assault by Hamas on Southern Israel, the fake news quickly spread that Israel had bombed a hospital in Gaza, killing 500 people. The New York Times and other legacy media quickly spread the claim, which was quickly proven false. In fact, on the Gaza hospital story, it turns out that it was caused by a Hamas missile that misfired and landed on that same hospital in Rafah.

But somehow, last week, when one of Israel’s largest and busiest hospitals was hit by an actual ballistic missile fired by Iran, the news passed with minimal mention in the media. Let’s consider the corruption of the national media here in the U.S., the BBC in England, and other outlets simply reporting the news with a lopsided tilt against Israel.

A terrorist bomb misfires in Gaza and actually badly wounds people nearby. The fake news media instantly spins the story to make it look as if Israel fired a missile at civilians, killing 500 people (women and children included, of course), at the brutal hands of the IDF. But wait—it only takes an hour or so to repudiate the entire story when the IDF produces proof that demonstrates this falsehood, the proof including the trajectory of the homemade missile coming from the direction of a Hamas-controlled area. But the “story” of the 500 dead civilians caused by Israel does not disappear. In fact, it can still be found online and is even cited by noteworthy Islamic scholars. The only thing is that they are not noteworthy, not Islamic, and certainly not scholars.

And then, as this so-called serious war goes on, we are glued to our news programs as we hear that U.S. Air Force bases in Qatar, Kuwait, and the Emirates are under attack, with Iranian missiles headed their way.

The only thing about this Iranian attack is that it was more like an episode of The Three Stooges than an actual military assault or revenge for the U.S. destroying the Iranian nuclear reactors under construction for the last two decades. Reports from the Middle East are that the Americans and Israelis were advised beforehand that Iran would mount this attack on U.S. forces in the Gulf, but the intention was not to do any damage or harm anyone.

Iran has already absorbed enough punishment with still more to come from both the U.S. and Israel. Their so-called bombing of U.S. facilities was for internal consumption in Iran, where the government-controlled media reported that hundreds of Americans were killed and thousands of Israelis have already been killed by Iranian missiles.

Iran is teetering on the brink of collapse, and that is good for the Iranian people and the region. At the same time, President Trump issued a statement on Monday thanking Iran for alerting the U.S. of the missile fire in advance so that anyone in harm’s way could be evacuated. We didn’t know at the time, but that was a prelude to the ceasefire that would be announced a few hours later. Certainly Mr. Trump has not forgotten the hostages.

This is war fought 2025 Trump style. The president says that now that Iran has gotten revenge out of their system, we can move on to a new era of peace and prosperity. This is a unique opportunity for Iran and an opportunity for the Middle East to return to normal. Let’s hope the Iranians come to their senses and that peace holds and that there are good days ahead for us all. nRead more of Larry Gordon’s articles at 5TJT.com. Follow 5 Towns Jewish Times on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and live videos. Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome at 5TJT.com and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter