by Rabbi Dov Fischer in The American Spectator

I have been hospitalized for three more weeks. I entered for surgery on an esophageal hernia repair, was told to expect a stayover of one night but to pack for two nights “just in case.” “Just in case” of what? That’s the part of the next three weeks. It felt less that they were repairing my esophagus than that they preparing my sarcophagus.

I left my laptop at home. However, the news would not let me desist from writing. So Denise traveled 90 minutes back home to retrieve the laptop, 90 minutes back to drop it off with me, and now I write.

I could have been a major league baseball player. I was that good and was passionate about the sport. The only thing that stood in my way was Shabbat. I also could have been a world-class chess grandmaster. The only thing that stood in my way for that was chess. But I know the rules and a bit about the game.

Imagine that I take the other guy’s queen, then one of his bishops, then the other, and also a rook (castle), and he gets so bemused that he retaliates by capturing five of my pawns. From my experience, I basically have won. I just have to close the deal.  That is what happened this weekend with Israel and Iran.

Israel knocked off a slew of mega terror commanders in Iran’s upper echelon, including the guy with Qassem Soleimani-level standing — in all, two superpower IRGC generals and five officers. The airstrike in Syria killed Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who led the elite Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria until 2016, according to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. It also killed Zahedi’s deputy, Gen Mohammad Hadi Hajriahimi, and five other officers. Israel also obliterated Iran’s consulate there. (They should have moved it to Jerusalem.) And some other Syrian non-Zionists.

In retaliation, Iran and her proxies in Syria, Iraq, and the Houthis of Yemen went ballistic, launching more than 300 armed drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles at Israel. Here is what they accomplished:

1. They forced America to outright participate, for the first time ever, in defending Israel.
2. They took the wind out of Biden’s criticizing Israel for the unfortunate fog-of-war bombing of the seven humanitarian food people.
3. They forced Biden to stop pressing for a Gaza ceasefire and instead to beg for a retaliation ceasefire.
4. They forced Jordan to outright participate, for the first time ever, in defending Israel, albeit by defending their own Jordanian air space.
5. They took the wind out of England’s David Cameron’s criticizing Israel for the unfortunate fog-of-war bombing of the seven humanitarian food people.
6. They forced Cameron to stop pressing for a Gaza ceasefire and instead to beg for a retaliation ceasefire.
7. They put Israel’s Iron Dome, Arrow II, and David’s Sling systems to their first-ever true battle tests when the chips are on the table.
8. They demonstrated to Israel, America, Arabs, and the world that those systems are pretty, pretty, pretty good.
9. They provided Israel with an advertising and marketing opportunity more valuable than buying a minute on the Super Bowl to line up customers throughout the world to buy Israeli-made air-defense systems because they now are proven, beyond bluster and hype, to actually work during warfare.
10. They showed the Sunni Muslim Arab world what awaits them if the Shiite Muslim Iranians ever succeed against Israel, forcing those Sunnis to consider joining the Abraham Accords to protect their own necks because they each know that, if Iran shot 300 things at them, their oil fields would be gone, and so would they, except for a surviving keffiyeh or two.
11. American Democrats (other than the insane Squad of Marxist Jew-haters) now are forced to recognize that Israel is not a basket case standing in line for charity but is a critical partner in protecting American interests in the Middle East. That is why, although Israel almost always takes heat from the American State Department, she is a favorite of the Defense Department. Secretaries of state (except Alexander Haig, George Shultz, and Mike Pompeo) hate Israel. But defense secretaries (except for Jewish apostate Caspar Weinberger) love or, at least, like Israel.

So what should Israel do now? Like the guy who takes all those high-value chess pieces in exchange for a few pawns, Israel can legitimately “call it a day,” saying that she will take the win, and even would invite similar exchanges forever. Or she could try to emulate the exchange by picking another Iranian embassy or consulate to bomb along with the next guy or two on the IRGC list, and then await another 300 drones, cruise, and ballistic missiles. Or she could use this as an excuse to invade Rafiach (Rafah).

Often, when I awake to a crazy news story, I say to myself: “Today — right now — those idiots finally should annex Judea and Samaria.” Like on 9-11. Who can care about Israeli annexation as the Twin Towers go down? Or the day that Michael Jackson died or Kobe Bryant’s helicopter went down. Or the day of the Jan. 6 tumult. So this is one of those moments — if not to annex Judea and Samaria, then at least to go into Rafah and get the darned war into its final critical phase.

I don’t know whether Israel’s defense establishment believes it has the tools and skills to take out Iranian nuclear reactors, but, if it does, this is the time to strike. Or take out some missile factories. Or take out Iran’s electric grid. Or their water purification system. Let the Iranians rebuild those things with the great technological minds of the Houthis.

The point is that, under normal circumstances, such attacks would inflame Israel’s “allies,” who would condemn and withhold arms shipments, and pass hateful resolutions in the Security Council. But right now, at this moment, Israel could get away with it if she has the capability to go it alone. Congress would support it. There are plenty more than 51 votes in the Senate if Schumer gets out of the way.

Americans have no taste for Muslim madmen in turbans running the world through murderous proxies. If Trump gets elected, the spigot gets turned off for at least four years and maybe eight or twelve. And to any fool contemplating voting for Biden, I have one word:

Don’t.

Originally published in The American Spectator

Photo Credit: zeevveez on Wikimedia Commons