When the chickens come home to roost

Shortly after Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the shah and became supreme ruler of Iran in 1979, I received a call from Mark Talisman. Mark was the Council of Jewish Federations’ DC lobbyist, and he was effective at that job. (The Council was the predecessor of the Jewish Federations of North America.)

He asked me to launch a telephone campaign to ask Iranian Jews to call their relatives in Iran and urge them to leave. Even in those early days, we knew about the venomous antisemitism of the ayatollah and his regime. As assistant director of the Atlanta Jewish Federation, I helped facilitate the calls.

About a dozen years later, President George H.W. Bush launched his campaign to evict Sadaam Hussein from his aggressive invasion of Kuwait. In order to ensure Arab unity for this operation, Bush persuaded then Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir to stay out of the war even if Israel was attacked. Vulnerable to being accused of not cooperating and having incurred the wrath of Secretary of State James Baker for allegedly not moving quickly enough in peace talks with the Palestinians, Shamir complied.

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In the following days Hussein launched Scud missiles against Israel, the only nation attacked at that point, terrifying its population.

When I was the director of the Minneapolis Jewish Federation, at the height of the Operation Exodus campaign for Soviet Jews, we launched a series of ads showing that as the Scud missiles were flowing, so were El Al flights bringing Soviet olim to Israel.

We also organized a rally in support of Israel and our troops featuring former Vice President Walter Mondale and Minnesota’s Attorney General Skip Humphrey, Hubert’s son. In rallying support for this event, I encountered resistance from a leading rabbi claiming that we would be “perceived as being parochial.” I countered that if supporting the only country attacked with Scud missiles was parochial, so be it. But the rally was supporting our troops too. Was that also parochial?

The rally was very successful, attracting thousands of participants, including the aforementioned rabbi.

How the tables have turned.

Israel is now a full partner with the United States in devastating Iran’s capacity to develop nuclear bombs, protected by an ever-growing shield of thousands of ballistic missiles and drones.

Why did Israel and the U.S. attack, and why now? Despite the conspiratorial claims and falsehoods from Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and their far-right ilk, there are numerous reasons justifying this combined operation.

Other than Iran’s long -time desire to wipe Israel off the map, the Iranian regime was responsible for the loss of thousands of American lives. It trained and funded its proxies to attack the Marine barracks in Beirut, killing hundreds, blew up two embassies, and through its supply of IEDs in Iraq killed 600 American troops and injured thousands more. What retribution did Iran receive by the strongest military in the world? Nothing of consequence that would deter future attacks.

Through its proxies, Iran funded the intifada and numerous wars in Lebanon and Gaza, killed hundreds in the bombing of the Israeli embassy and Jewish center in Buenos Aires and attempted assassinations against the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., Mike Pompeo, John Bolton, and President Trump. Iran bombed Saudi oil refineries, disrupting the flow of oil for days.

Even after the 12-day war last June, when Israel and the U.S. destroyed Iran’s ballistic missiles, air defense systems, and nuclear facilities, Iran immediately began restoring its nuclear facilities and sped up its ballistic missile production.

Despite this, the U.S. entered negotiations to avert war. But as Special Envoy Steven Witkoff said at his initial meeting with Iran, their representatives stated that it was their inalienable right to enrich uranium and build more ballistic missiles. They even bragged that despite sanctions they had enough enriched uranium to build 11 nuclear weapons. That’s why negotiations failed.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio exposed Iran’s strategy. Iran would build 100 ballistic missiles a month compared to the U.S.’s ability to produce seven anti-missile systems a month. Over time Iran would overwhelm us and our allies with barrages of hundreds of missiles at one time, overwhelming our defenses. With this ballistic shield, the Iranians would complete their nuclear aims unfettered.

So it was imperative to stop Iran now. Politicians are protesting that there was no imminent threat. Should we wait until Iran has the capacity to overwhelm our defenses while rushing to make the bomb?

When intelligence revealed that top Iranian leaders would be meeting on Saturday, February 28, the order was given to attack.

There are legitimate concerns about how successful the mission will be, the potential for the war widening, and what happen “the day after.” But doubting the rationale for the war or trying to derail it is flat out wrong. When Hakeem Jeffries, who may be the next speaker of the House, stated that the operation “will end in failure,” that was unseemly and unpatriotic with thousands of our soldiers in harm’s way. When Chuck Schumer valiantly voted with two other Democratic senators against the JCPOA, opposing President Obama, he reminded us that his last name derived from the Hebrew word shomer, or protector, in this case of Israel. How is he playing his shomer role while denouncing the war in which Israel is protecting itself against the genocidal Iranian terror state?

We know that Mayor Mamdani reflexively opposes anything that is in Israel’s interests. So he condemned the attacks against Iran. According to journalist Will Bredderman of the Jewish Insider, the Democratic Socialist party, the party of Mamdani and nominated Democratic congressional candidate Analila Mejia, is part of a far-left coalition funded to organize pro-Iranian rallies. This is clearly unpatriotic. The funder is Shanghai-based Maoist tech tycoon Neville “Roy” Singham. This is not surprising, as China is a key purchaser of Iran oil and its major benefactor.

As a member of the Democratic Socialist party and hewing to its venomous platform, candidate Mejia denounced Israel for defending itself without condemning Hamas. This is apparently because she seems to be uncomfortable with Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.

I hope a credible Democratic candidate who’s supportive of Israel will run against her. Or vote for the pro-Israel Republican Joe Hathaway. We can’t afford to have this far-left antisemite represent our congressional district.

So when the chickens come home to roost against the evil Iranian regime, we should stand behind our U.S. and Israeli troops.

May they prevail overwhelmingly.

Max Kleinman of Fairfield was the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest from 1995 to 2014. He is the president of the Fifth Commandment Foundation and consultant for the Jewish Community Legacy Project.