Yesterday (Wednesday) was Shushan Purim here in Jerusalem, where I live. It is celebrated a day later than “regular” Purim because Jerusalem was a walled city.
I was at home, as I have been almost all of the time – in order to stay safe. Weary, as I am almost all of the time – because of alarms signaling incoming missiles that wake us from our sleep, sometimes multiple times during a night.
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But Purim is Purim, a holiday meant to be celebrated joyfully.
I had two friends with me to celebrate the Purim seudah (festive meal) when an alarm went off. We trudged down to the miklat – the communal shelter for my building. There we encountered not just my neighbors, but their guests. Many were dressed in Purim costumes. Some carried food with them because they too were in the midst of their respective meals.
And then… then they began singing, and the mood inside that miklat, while we waited for the incoming missile to be taken down, was joyous.
It was not only in my shelter that this happened – I heard similar stories from many different places, sometimes participants had instruments with them.
See a video (an example, just as the picture above is):
https://www.instagram.com/reels/DVbZx0_kZC3/
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How marvelous is Am Yisrael. A people with this spirit – embracing life and defying enemy threats – will not be defeated! This is my primary message for today.
I will return after Shabbat with a more extensive analysis of the rapidly shifting situation in the war. Here I touch upon a handful of the major issues.
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Various reasons were offered for the participation of the US in this battle against Iran, but I think the most coherent and powerful was provided by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
If the US had waited much longer, it would have been an impossible situation (emphasis added):
“They are producing, by some estimates, over 100 [missiles] a month… compared to the six or seven interceptors that can be built [per month by the US]…
“This operation needed to happen… because Iran, in a year or a year and a half, would cross the line of immunity—meaning they would have so many short-range missiles, so many drones, that no one could do anything about it, because they could hold the whole world hostage...
“”Why does Iran want those capabilities? What they’ve been trying to do for a long time is build a conventional weapons capability as a shield they can hide behind — meaning there would come a time where they have so many drones and so much damage that no one can do anything about the nuclear program. They are trying to put themselves in a place of immunity where the damage they can inflict will be so high that no one can do anything about their nuclear program or ambition.”
https://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2026/03/the-ballistic-missile-math-behind-war.html
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It makes the blood run cold, to recognize what Islamist Iran was on its way to doing. We must be thankful – thankful beyond words – that there are leaders here in Israel and in the US who not only recognized the dangers but were prepared to act on them.
What Rubio spoke of, in some detail, followed what Prime Minister Netanyahu had addressed directly when announcing the war last Saturday night (emphasis added):
“Today, everyone understands that this murderous terrorist regime must never be allowed to arm itself with nuclear weapons that would enable it to threaten our existence and the peace of all humanity. We have gone to battle to change this situation fundamentally, to put an end to the threat.”
https://www.gov.il/en/pages/spoke-statement-b280226
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From the left in the US came charges that Israel dragged America into a war. And it was President Trump who addressed this:
“No, I might have forced their [Israel’s] hands. You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they [the Iranians] were going to attack first… If we didn’t do it, they were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that. So if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand. But Israel was ready, and we were ready.”
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The attacks on Iran, both by Israel and the US, have been powerful, and Iran is weakened. Government and Revolutionary Guard buildings and infrastructure are being hit, along with missile sites and all-important launchers. Having missiles serves no purpose if the equipment for launching them is gone. I have read that about 50% of the launchers have been taken out. Now there tends to be longer periods (several hours) with no missiles coming in, and then multiple missiles over a short interval of time.
I was advised of one report (do not have confirmation on this) that the people operating the launchers in some instances are refusing to launch missiles. They know if they do, the location of that launch will be quickly identified, and they will be in the line of fire.
Israel is reportedly hoping to bring about a situation in the next few days that will allow Israelis to go about their lives in close to normal fashion. Attacks in the center of Iran would continue.
“Israel’s ability to sustain such a situation depends on achieving air superiority and suppressing Iran’s surface-to-surface missile array. I don’t fool myself into thinking we can completely eliminate it,” the officer cited in the report said. “But we can reach a better place, and that is the goal.”
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The regime, however, still stands. It is anticipated that Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of the now deceased Ayatollah Khomenei, is about to succeed his father. Mojtaba is just as radical as his father was; he headed the Basij (a vicious paramilitary branch of the Revolutionary Guards), when it was called upon to suppress an uprising in 2009. He is the first choice of the Guards.
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What needs to happen is that the army must turn – choosing to stand with the people instead of the regime. That would be the end. I am receiving reports of individual defections from the army. This must inspire a groundswell of defections in order to be effective.
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The US is reported to be in contact with Iranian Kurds who are located in Iraq (pictured), at the border with Iran. According to one plan being advanced, they would come across the border into Iran and generate significant unrest. This would draw Iranian troops into the outlying areas away from the capital in order to put down that unrest, thus giving civilians in the capital more room to act against the regime without fear of immediate reprisals.
Another thought involves more direct action by the Kurds – many thousands of whom are already armed and who would receive additional assistance from the CIA – in generating an uprising against the regime.
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-888834
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I am pleased to read about the involvement of the Kurds for another reason: Several Iranian ethnic groups, the Kurds primary among them, had reportedly been reluctant to join in the uprising because they had been treated repressively by the Shah and feared more of same with his son. If they are treated with respect now and feel themselves to be a significant part of what is going on, this strengthens the opposition.
I will add that the Kurds are quite pro-Israel.
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To be continued, my friends.
In the meantime, please keep praying. It is difficult to exaggerate what it might mean for the Middle East and the Western world, should Islamist Iran come down.
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©Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by independent journalist Arlene Kushner. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.
