Moral clarity arrives uninvited, often at the most inconvenient times. As Israeli warplanes streak toward Iranian nuclear sites, America faces a moment that will define our nation for generations: Act decisively, or watch annihilation become inevitable.
Consider what we know with certainty: Iran has spent two decades systematically violating every nuclear agreement, deceiving every inspector, and rebuffing every diplomatic overture. The regime that proclaims “Death to America” with religious fervor now stands months away from the capability to make good on that promise.
Some on the left argue that diplomacy remains possible, that sanctions might yet succeed, that containment could work. This is wishful thinking elevated to the level of strategic doctrine. Iran’s leaders have demonstrated with perfect consistency that they view negotiations as cover for nuclear advancement, sanctions as tolerable costs, and Western restraint as confirmation of Western weakness.
A reminder to those unconvinced: This is the same regime that has spent four decades perfecting the art of proxy warfare, building what it calls an “Axis of Resistance” designed to strangle Israel and expel America from the Middle East. Through Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and a dozen other tentacles, Iran has waged relentless war against the civilized world while maintaining the fiction of deniability.
But Israel has methodically dismantled this network. Hezbollah lies crippled, its leadership eliminated. Hamas cowers in tunnels, its command structure shattered. The vaunted Axis of Resistance has become an axis of defeat. Iran’s strategy of fighting Israel through proxies while building nuclear weapons has collapsed. The mullahs now face the nightmare scenario they sought desperately to avoid: direct confrontation with Israel before achieving nuclear capability.
What Israel has accomplished in Operation Rising Lion embodies the moral courage that has defined the Jewish state since its founding. Here is a nation that learned the ultimate lesson of the Holocaust: never again means never again. When Iran’s leaders deny the Holocaust while simultaneously promising to complete it, they forfeit any claim to civilized discourse. When they speak of wiping Israel off the map, they reveal their intentions with crystalline clarity.
The Jewish people know what it means to stand alone against genocidal hatred. They remember the world’s silence as six million perished. They remember the closed borders, the turned backs, the committees that debated while children burned. This time, they will not wait for the world’s permission to survive.
President Trump understands this lesson viscerally. His administration has made combating antisemitism a cornerstone of domestic policy, recognizing that the cancer of Jew-hatred abroad inevitably metastasizes at home. When he declares that “never again means never again,” he speaks not as a politician making promises, but as a leader who grasps that Jewish survival and American values are inseparable.
But American interests — not just values — demand we not wait to deal with Iran either. A nuclear Iran would hold American cities hostage, as Iranian missiles under development aim to bring the continental United States within range. Iran’s deepening alliance with Russia and China forms the cornerstone of an anti-American axis spanning three continents.
Consider the strategic mathematics: Iran’s nuclear program, if successful, guarantees decades of proliferation as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey race to match Iranian capabilities. The result would be a multipolar nuclear Middle East where miscalculation becomes inevitable and American influence becomes marginal. Alternatively, successful preemption would shatter the Tehran–Moscow–Beijing triangle, restore American primacy in the world’s most critical region, and demonstrate that American power, when wielded decisively, can still shape global outcomes.
Also consider the strategic prize within America’s grasp. Israel has already set back Iran’s nuclear program by years, crippled its air defenses, and eliminated its top military leadership. Yet the most critical targets remain buried deep underground, beyond the reach of conventional strikes. Here is where American capabilities become decisive — where the unique assets of the world’s most powerful military can complete what courage alone cannot finish.
Critics will invoke the specter of regional war, but the war is already upon us. Iran has been waging it for decades through proxies, terrorism, and nuclear extortion. The choice is not between war and peace; it is between controlled escalation now and catastrophic confrontation later. A nuclear-armed Iran would guarantee decades of proliferation, blackmail, and eventual nuclear conflict.
President Trump promised to protect the Jewish people in the land of Israel, and his administration has already demonstrated that commitment through unwavering support for Israel’s defensive operations. His administration’s relentless fight against antisemitism at home proves he understands that the battle for Jewish survival is indivisible — whether fought in American universities or Iranian nuclear facilities.
Now, as Israel courageously dismantles Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, Trump understands that American power may be needed to complete this vital mission. The president who moved America’s embassy to Jerusalem and recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights will not hesitate to provide whatever support Israel needs to survive and thrive.
The Jewish people have survived 4,000 years of persecution through courage and resolve, never waiting for permission to defend themselves. Now, with American power aligned behind Israeli determination, the combination is unstoppable. When President Trump acts decisively, history will mark this as the moment two great allies prevented nuclear catastrophe.
History judges nations not by their intentions but by their actions and leadership when survival itself hangs in the balance. For America and Israel together, that moment is now.
The writer is the former chairman of the United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad.
