(JNS) Israeli television anchors repeat the same message: There is no immediate alarm. Shelters will open if needed. Hospitals are ready. Experts even joke that life will continue as usual—drink a glass of water, go down to the shelter, return to work. Iran has fierce ballistic missiles, but after tasting Israeli air power during the 12-day war, the ayatollahs may think twice.
More importantly, had Israel not seized its destiny after Oct. 7, 2023—confronting Hamas, Hezbollah and ultimately Iran alongside the United States—it is hard to imagine that the Islamic Republic’s vulnerability would now be visible to the world. The regime has weakened. The people, with extraordinary courage, are marching toward a decisive confrontation.
Israel, in these hours of waiting, maintains a calm exterior. It answers threats from Tehran—voiced by figures such as Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Chief of Staff Sayyid Mousavi—who accuse Israel of fomenting revolution and vow to strike American interests, starting with Israel itself.
Yet the uprising is not a foreign conspiracy. It is the righteous eruption of a people oppressed morally, culturally and physically by a terrorist regime—another chapter in a tragedy that has too often ended in blood.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed solidarity with the Iranian people while insisting on a crucial principle: only those who have suffered must determine their own victory. Still, the massacre has changed the equation.
US President Donald Trump now signals that intervention is becoming urgent—not only to save lives, but to defend the very idea of human dignity and the global struggle between democracy and authoritarianism.
China objects to sanctions on those doing business with Iran. The United Nations remains silent. Previous American administrations looked away—or worse—while the ayatollahs openly declared their intent to destroy Israel, then America, then Europe. Trump’s message breaks with that past.
In Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, people quietly prepare water and blankets for the shelters. The army works in silence. Everything is still ahead, and no one knows whether this moment will resemble the French Revolution or the fall of the Berlin Wall. Nor does anyone know whether American and Israeli planes will again fly together.
But Trump’s words—calling on Iranian patriots to persist—leave little doubt. Thousands are dead. The images are real. Young men and women are being shot by Basij forces and hauled away in black plastic bags. The regime’s violence recalls the blind savagery of Oct. 7. There comes a moment when a scorpion can do nothing but sting.
Faced with that reality, Trump’s message has crystallized. He will not be Barack Obama. He will not turn his back on people being murdered in the streets of Tehran.
Want more news from Israel?
Click Here to sign up for our FREE daily email updates
