Iran

The IRGC, the regime, and the long shadow.

Purim in a War

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I am so torn between understanding the role Khameini’s regime and the IRGC, directly and via the proxy armies they fund, train, and direct, have played in not just oppressing and killing their own citizens but in repeatedly threatening my life, my wife’s life, my daughters’ lives, the lives of my friends and neighbors, Israeli and Palestinian alike, to this very day (three times in the bomb shelter during our Purim meal, yes we brought the wine each time 🥂💪✡️) –

– and I understand that there is not always a diplomatic solution to every problem of this ancient sort –

– and understanding:
how dangerous fascism is,
how incompetent and corrupt fascist governments are,
how fragile and tenuous the survival of Jewish communities is when fascism begins taking hold of the nation that hosts them,
how dangerous premillenial dominionism is for Jewish people,
how much of a warning sign it is when the fascist religious mythos evolves to the point where a war with an Islamic country is being fought to trigger Armageddon.

The only truth I can rely on in such a Purim world is the truth of ונהפוך הוא, of dramatic (and comic) reversal, of the ultimate unity of opposites, of the significance of opposing interpretations of the same data points.

And in the end,

“For the Jewish people it was light and happiness, rejoicing and honor.”

כן תהיה לנו

Happy (Shoshan) Purim 🤷 🍷

Morning Questions

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Morning Questions

I’m sitting on the bus wondering:

Did the combined Israeli-American strikes (particularly on Fordow) decimate Khameini’s nuclear program?

Or is it still intact?

Were these decisive moves or political posturing?

How many times will we go through this dance?

Your Best Friend Israel Ever Had

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Allow me to parse this for you.

POTUS is ambivalent on Iran. His real issue was with Obama. He had been listening to the isolationists in MAGA telling him to stay out of Iran, but then saw the Israeli attack “winning” and wanted some of the attention for himself. “No nukes for Iran!” is an easy slogan to get behind, and POTUS thinks in slogans.

So after publicly dithering for a few days, he unilaterally decided to drop 420,000 pounds of explosives on Iranian nuclear sites and then declare a ceasefire between Iran and Israel, to both sides’ surprise on both counts.

Bibi quickly fell in line with POTUS. Khameini said he would but then fired missiles anyway.

Now POTUS still has his cake after eating it too: He got his part in the “win” and thrilled the Evangelicals AND he can appease the isolationists by disengaging from the war and even criticizing Israel’s continued response to Khameini’s attacks.

This is your America First president.

This is your Best Friend Israel ever had.

This is your Hero.

On the Fordow Strike

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Reportedly, the Fordow mountain nuclear enrichment site has been hit with 12 bunker buster bombs, each weighing 15 tons. It may be too early to tell, but by all indications Khameini’s nuclear program has been essentially closed.

That is the good part of the story.

The bad:

– POTUS authorized this action without seeking let alone receiving any kind of Congressional approval, as is required by the US Constitution to preserve the balance of power in the US government (and specifically, to make sure it is really the people’s will to go war). This action is the latest in an unimaginably long line of offenses against the US Constitution committed by POTUS and it does not bode well for the special relationship between the USA and Israel. Israel needs an ally governed by a sane, competent leader who respects the US Constitution as the source document that truly made America great.

– Bibi is showing no signs of ending the war now that the Iranian nuclear program has been closed. Ever since October 7, Bibi has used and abused the public’s trust in the Israeli government’s commitment to our security, to create a seemingly endless wartime scenario – the only scenario in which his fragile coalition of corrupt populists tenuously continues to exist, investigations and elections are continuously postponed for “after the war,” and he himself stays out of jail. Furthermore, while the reasons for action in both Gaza and Iran may be justified – Hamas needs to be neutralized, the ayatollah can not get nukes – we sit in our bomb shelters and bunkers without any guarantees or confidence that the actions themselves are carried out in a strategic, effective, or moral manner.

.

War is primitive sht that goes back millions of years in our history as a species. I appreciate the necessity of sometimes needing to kill before being killed, in this primitive world in which we choose to live, but I do not celebrate it.

I pray for peace, for myself, my family, my community, my city, my nation, my region, my species, all sentient beings.

May we all continue evolving towards the stars.

May none of us need to go back into a bomb shelter today.

When Somebody Tells You Who They Are

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It amazes me that there are people who consider Israel the aggressor against Iran in this or any war.

The missile barrages did not start with the IAF’s bombing of nuclear and military sites, which itself did not occur in a vacuum.

The “pushy” “aggressive” Jew is a stereotype created by people who are uncomfortable with our noncompliance, our self-assertion, our unwillingness to accept the fate others have in store for us.

Now we have an air force and those same kinds of people are outraged that we have the temerity to take Khameini’s death threats at face value and accept the evidence of our eyes and ears.

“When somebody tells you who they are, believe them the first time” – Maya Angelou

So Frum

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I’m so frum that whenever an ayatollah fires a hypersonic missile barrage, I put on my shoes left foot first

Hypersonic Missiles Overhead

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I’m sitting in the stairwell with window rattling booms and thunderous rumbles overhead, chatting with ChatGPT about these hypersonic missiles that Khomeini is firing at me, and the whole concept of shooting and intercepting missiles beyond the atmosphere is fascinating.

Emboldened by POTUS

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Is it just me or have Houthi missile attacks increased in frequency since the new regime came to power in the USA? And especially since Witikoff started traipsing around the Middle East….?

Seems the Ayatollahs and their proxies feel rather emboldened by the POTUS….

Just a Vessel

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Loose lips sink ships so I’m not publicly going to go into detail on my iss lest Iranian govt passes the intel along to the Houthis, but today’s non-interception was problematic from several angles.

Really drives home how much we depend on Hashem for our protection. A missile-defense system is just a vessel, and does not work of its own accord.

Shameful Company

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To Joe’s summary below, I will only add that this is shameful company in which to find ourselves, on an issue that should be a no-brainer. Our national security on the Syrian front (Russia could invade our airspace at any time and bomb Jerusalem if they wanted) can not be tied to appeasing the imperialism of Putin – you know, the staunch ally of Israel’s enemies, the Ayatollahs and their proxies, and the common enemy of Israel, Ukraine, and democratic Europe.

I can only hope that by the next time such a resolution comes to vote, Israel will have new political leadership that is capable of securing our borders and our airspace without throwing our natural allies under the bus.

Слава Україні

“On today, the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a fresh resolution urging an end to the conflict, supporting Ukrainian sovereignty, adherence tot the principles of the U.N. charter, and calling for Russia to withdraw its troops.

There was a separate vote to add the language calling for Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine. It passed 93-18. Voting no:
Belarus
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Central African Republic
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Haiti
Hungary
Israel
Mali
Marshall Islands
Nicaragua
Niger
Palau
Russia
Sudan
United States”