Operation Epic Fury, named by the United States, or Roaring Lion by Israel, is now in its third day. It started with a strike that eliminated terror chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei plus at least 40 of his commanders.
Like with moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem, many presidents promised to do it, but only Donald Trump delivered – and without the anticipated fury in the Arab world. Many presidents talked about the need to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, but only Trump did something about it.
Don’t forget that Barack Obama made a deal that would allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons within 15 years. Joe Biden gave relief from sanctions to Iran and supplied them with billions of dollars, all while promising that Iran would not develop nuclear weapons in the near future.
So far, the war seems to be very successful, as it decapitated most of Iran’s leadership, destroyed about 50 percent of its missile launchers, and sank ten Iranian ships.
It did, however, come with a heavy price. Six United States Military servicemen were killed, and ten Israelis lost their lives – nine in one hit in Beit Shemesh. Devastating.
Of course, the Iranians are targeting civilians, whereas American and Israeli strikes are aimed at strategic targets.
In the overall, we must be extremely thankful that we have a president like Donald Trump who took action against this murderous regime. He is certainly not doing it for popularity gain, as polls show that only 27 percent of Americans support the war effort.
Yet the opposition is relentless in its criticism of Trump. Typically, all Democrats have been condemning the war. Mostly as though by an organized script, they have all been saying that this war may be justified, owing to the horrors of the Iranian regime, but should have received congressional approval. Our own Queens representative issued a very revealing statement. She wrote: “No tears should be shed for the Iranian regime which has waged a decades-long campaign of terror that killed Americans, pursued nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, and recently massacred tens of thousands of its own people.” Sounds like she really gets the necessity of this war.
But then she goes on: “Let me be clear. That doesn’t give the right of this or any president to send Americans in harm’s way in another regime-change war in the Middle East. Only Congress has the power to declare war. We must return to Washington and assert our constitutional authority.”
How pathetic. We all know what would happen the minute Congress were to find out about the plans of war. How long would it take congresspeople like Rashida Tlaib, Bernie Sanders, Ilhan Omar, or AOC – plus countless others – to reveal the plans to the Iranians?
Our representative must know the answer, but she is obliged to follow the script of fellow Democrats. We really do have an enemy from within. Most suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome, but others are just naysayers to anything done by a Republican administration.
So we must remain forever appreciative of the president acting so decisively for the betterment of Israel, the United States, and indeed the entire world.
Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld is the Rabbi Emeritus of the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, President of the Coalition for Jewish Values, former President of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens, and the Rabbinic Consultant for the Queens Jewish Link.