note: it is in english
"Everyone knows that I am the one who for decades blocked the establishment of a Palestinian state,":Netanyahu
https://jppi.org.il/en/its-morning-in-jerusalem-after-israel-strikes-iran/It’s Morning in Jerusalem After Israel Strikes Iran
Headlines call the attack ‘pre-emptive.’ It was anything but.
To jog or not to jog? That was the question I woke up with in Jerusalem Friday morning after a night interrupted by sirens. Israel had finally answered its two-decade-old “to be or not to be” question by attacking Iran.
The threat against Israel—and the West—had been getting worse in recent months. Beyond Iran’s rush to go nuclear, there were rumors of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps coordinating a multiborder invasion, which would include first deposing the Egyptian and Jordanian regimes to encircle Israel in a “ring of fire.” At 3:18 a.m. Friday, my wife and I were awakened in our home in Jerusalem and took shelter downstairs in our safe room. There, we tracked Israel’s well-planned attack through headlines on our phones—and canceled our plans, which included attending a wedding Friday morning.
Headlines call this a “pre-emptive strike” by Israel against Iran, but there is nothing pre-emptive about it. Iran has repeatedly threatened Israel with destruction, unleashed lethal proxies against the Jewish state, and launched at least 500 missiles at Israel in the past 14 months. Anyone who doesn’t understand why such aggression requires a devastating response doesn’t understand jihadism, the fight against dictatorships, American history, international law or just-war theory.
How things will end is unclear, but we know how they began: with the Islamist takeover that ruined Iran. Iran is a country of more than 90 million people some 1,400 miles from Israel, which has 9.5 million people. About 1.8 million Muslims live in Israel, and the country contains many major Muslim holy sites that Islamists should protect, not threaten. There is no historic enmity between Persians and Jews. Iran recognized Israel as a legitimate state in 1950. Under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, there were robust economic and cultural ties, as well as many secret military exchanges.
The Iranian revolution of 1979 changed everything. Iran severed ties with Israel shortly after the mullahs seized power. The Islamic Republic of Iran’s first dictator, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, deemed Israel an “enemy of Islam.” In Khomeini’s eschatological hierarchy of hatred, the Jewish state was the “Little Satan,” the atheistic Soviet Union was “the Lesser Satan,” and the U.S. was—and still is—the “Great Satan.”
Over the decades, the threats against Israel by Khomeini’s successor, Ayatollah Ali Khameini, “that God willing, its obliteration is certain,” escalated, along with Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Some in the West began noticing the mullahocracy’s genocidal intent and thirst for weaponry during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, from 2005 to 2013. On his X account, Mr. Ahmadinejad today describes himself as “Husband, Dad, Grandfather, University Professor, President, Mayor, Governor, Soccer Player, Proud Iranian.” He is, in fact, a Holocaust-denying, Jew-hating demagogue who has repeatedly threatened to “finish” Israel “once and for all.” He called Israel a “false regime” and a “stinking corpse,” led by “bloodthirsty barbarians” that should be “wiped off the map.”
Irwin Cotler, a human-rights lawyer who served as Canada’s justice minister and attorney general from 2003 to 2006, has spent decades reminding the international community that incitement to genocide is punishable under the Geneva Conventions. Recalling the venomous rhetoric that spurred Hutus to kill 800,000 fellow Rwandans in 1994, Mr. Cotler warned: “The Hutus were equipped with machetes, Iran is equipped ostensibly with atomic weapons.”
“This is the only instance of state-sanctioned genocide that is foretold—waiting to happen,” Mr. Cotler said in 2009 at Columbia Law School. “And this is where the duty to prevent kicks in.”
Iran is a nuclear threshold state. In its obsessive desire to eliminate “the Zionist regime,” it has menaced its citizens and bankrolled mayhem worldwide, arming the Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, Iran has crossed even more red lines. On April 13, 2024, it launched 170 drones, more than 30 cruise missiles and more than 120 ballistic missiles against Israel. On Oct. 1, 2024, it launched another 200 ballistic missiles in two waves.
Israel has long avoided this day, trusting diplomacy, the international community and its own efforts to contain the threat. But as Iran galloped toward atomic power and defied American pressure, Israel felt compelled to act.
Since Oct. 7, three of my four children have served in the nation’s reserves. Young people across the nation are mobilized. The safe rooms in Israelis’ homes are stocked and ready. And our people are proud that we are making the world safer, because we’re willing to do the West’s dirty work.
Israel is now eerily quiet. On Friday I ventured out and to my surprise, I wasn’t the only one jogging or shopping. The café near me was full—never stand between Israelis and their Friday coffee. Despite everything, the wedding took place, 4½ hours late, in the couple’s front yard, with dozens of us—some on Zoom—celebrating and crying.
