#735: Uncomfortable Gratitude
My thoughts about the bombing
Gimme Some Torah #735
There are many Jewish stories about good people who do one bad thing. Moses struck the rock twice to get water out of it and was therefore barred from ever entering the Land of Israel. That was the very same punishment that God meted out to the generation of the spies.
King Saul permitted his troops to take the spoils of Amalek and allowed their King Agag to live. As a punishment, the prophet Samuel terminated his monarchy. King David, the greatest king of Israel ever, arranged for Uriah’s death on the front lines and slept with his widow, Bathsheba. His punishment was the death of his son.
There are not a lot of stories, Jewish or otherwise, about immoral or morally suspect people who do one excellent thing. It turns out that President Trump is just such a person.
It is hardly controversial to say that President Trump has a difficult relationship with morality. He is a multiply convicted felon, an inveterate liar, an insurrectionist, and a foul-mouthed rabble rouser who has been found civilly liable for sexual assault. Those are simply the facts as I see them.
And simultaneously, that very same person who has demonstrated poor moral character over and over again just saved the State of Israel, America, and the world from the growing nuclear threat posed by Iran’s messianic, theocratic government. Whether you think Trump is a good president or not, he deserves our gratitude for annihilating (or at least wrecking) Iran’s nuclear program.
There will be lots of handwringing and pearl clutching in the coming days. People will scream, “But the intelligence community said there is no evidence that Iran was building a bomb!”
I bet that Israel’s intelligence on that matter is superior. Why does Iran need to have nuclear centrifuges and other such equipment buried one hundred meters beneath the surface at three separate sites if they are using uranium for peaceful purposes? Moreover, it’s not like Iran has been transparent with the inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
True, we may not have a video of the Iranians building a nuke. Nonetheless, the circumstantial evidence is compelling. And even if we had such a video, how would we know it wasn’t an AI deepfake?
But more importantly, the Iranian government has been calling for the destruction of America and Israel for more than forty years. They have not kept their intentions a secret, so it would be foolish to ignore them.
It is high time that someone actually did something about Iran’s nuclear program. I disagree with a lot of President Trump’s policies. I do not think questions of morality bother him. For that matter, I don’t think he loses much sleep over violations of the Constitution. Having said that, I thank him sincerely for taking this bold, decisive step against Iran.
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I am the rabbi of Temple Beth El in Somerset, New Jersey, and the author of The JPS Jewish Heritage Torah Commentary.
Hello, Rabbi -- I think Trump did what was needed to be done. It has been needed for a long time. -- I grew up in New York and I know a lot of people cut from Trump-like cloth. Your "questionable morals" assessment of the man, in my view, is a little too harsh. I doubt the felon conviction holds much water, and the womanizing stuff is probably overblown. Nevertheless, I'm glad he had the chutzpah to put an end to Iran's very real threat to western civilization. Thanks for your post.
I can’t say that I love American presidents declaring war extra-congressionally against a regime known for its splitting. Still, that declaration *at least* came against a background of a nuclear watchdog recently ruling that the regime was *objectively* far out of line concerning bomb development.