Pinch yourselves. The roar of the astonishing facts pouring over us during the war is deafening. More than that, it is numbing the mind. The brain refuses to believe that what is happening is real.
Dreams thousands of years old, prophecies spoken long ago, promises made across generations — all seem to be unfolding around us. And when the mind refuses to believe, it also refuses to wake up.
So pinch yourselves. Wake up, brothers.
As someone who had the privilege of writing a series of articles about Iran about a year and a half ago — articles that described almost exactly what has been unfolding in recent days — I waited about a week before writing again. What I had to say, I already said long ago, even close to the outbreak of the war.
But I waited for the commentators.
Not only did many of them fail to foresee what is happening — they wrote the exact opposite. They called Donald Trump erratic. They insisted Iran was unbeatable. They claimed Turkey and Qatar had influence over Trump. And many openly hoped that Israel’s aggressive strategy would fail.
This is their method.
At first they are stunned. The facts overwhelm them. Now, as the shock fades, they move to the next stage. With impatient sighs they ask: “But what about the final stage?” And then comes their decisive line: “There must be an exit strategy.”
But that phrase itself is a contradiction.
War and victory are shaped by thousands of variables that constantly change. Only after decisive victory is achieved can an exit strategy be determined — based on the realities at that moment.
Yet in the lecture halls of Harvard, Columbia and UCLA — and among their commentators such as Thomas Friedman — the arrogance is boundless. They already know the exit strategy. In their version, it usually ends with the just side — Israel or the United States — apologizing for defending itself or admitting it was wrong to wage war.
They said it about Gaza. About Venezuela. About Hezbollah. About Iran.
What they fail to grasp is the magnitude of the tectonic shift Israel has triggered across the eastern hemisphere. Israel is changing half the globe — and they remain asleep.
So let the facts pinch them awake.
First, we must acknowledge the divine. Israeli pilots returning from sorties, along with intelligence officers and maintenance crews, all speak about the extraordinary synchronization required for these operations. For such achievements to occur, they say, it feels as though all the stars must align in the sky at every moment.
It is, in essence, another way of saying the familiar Jewish blessing: thank God.
Trump — despite the condescension of many commentators — is increasingly revealed as the Churchill of our generation. He joined Israel in confronting Iran and preventing what many believe would have been Israel’s destruction.
Israel stood on the edge of catastrophe on Oct. 7, 2023. The fact that it survived is almost unbelievable. Iran and its allies succeeded too well in their plans — and that story deserves its own article.
Along the way, Trump has confronted governments hostile to Israel. Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, condemned Israel’s actions. Spain threatened to cancel trade ties. France’s President Emmanuel Macron criticized the attack. Trump brushed them aside, emphasizing that Israel possesses enormous power and knows how to use it.
Then came Narendra Modi, leader of the world’s most populous nation, an economic titan and the third-largest consumer market on Earth. On the eve of the war he traveled to Israel and addressed the Knesset, nearly in tears.
He reminded the world — and perhaps us — of something we sometimes forget: Israel is a nation that has shown the world how courage, determination and innovation can overcome the greatest challenges.
Forty-eight hours later, on Saturday morning, Jews around the world were reading the weekly Torah portion about the commandment to erase Amalek — a reading repeated for nearly 2,000 years.
And in those very minutes, the Israeli and American militaries were launching their campaign against what many here see as a modern embodiment of that ancient enemy.
It is staggering to witness.
Since then, Israel and the United States have been peeling away Iran’s power layer by layer. Trillions of dollars poured into a regime whose chief export was terror and violence are turning to dust — and in the process strengthening the broader Western world.
At the same time, another regional threat is unraveling before our eyes. Qatar and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan believed Trump was in their pocket and would never attack Iran at their request. Instead, not only did he strike Iran — Iran itself is now turning against them.
Some would call it coincidence. Others might see the hand of God.
Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — a man of clarity and conviction — appears to understand the scale of what is happening.
He has reminded the world that the two most powerful air forces on Earth — those of the United States and Israel — now operate with complete dominance over Iranian skies, the very regional empire that once threatened Israel.
Such is the scale of the transformation that one might joke that by the next Passover, even the ayatollahs may be eating matzah.
First published: 10:49, 03.11.26