The Lions Arise

Credit where it's due

It’s early days yet in Operation Rising Lion. And while Israel appears to have successfully inflicted significant damage on the Natanz nuclear facility (or, as a friend of mine insists on writing it, “Natan’s nuclear facility”), it’s still unclear how Israel can destroy the Fordow facility, which is buried deep under a mountain. But, as of the time of writing, Israel has managed an unbelievably successful set of preemptive strikes against Iran, while Iran and its proxies have caused exactly zero harm to Israel. This is one of the most extraordinary military victories in history, perhaps even surpassing such successes as 1967 and the pager operation.

I’d like to speak about the concept of credit, first with regard to Bibi. Many people fail to grasp that both positive and negative things about a person can simultaneously be true. Notwithstanding my strong feelings about Bibi’s terrible performance as prime minister in many ways, I think that he deserves a lot of credit for being bold enough to take this step, as well as for his continuous campaign against Iran for many years. But, by the same token, it is incorrect to say that since he is doing so well against Iran, that vindicates him in general.

To put it another way: I saw someone write that all those who say that Bibi is responsible for the failures of 7/10 should see him as responsible for the successes of 6/13. To which I responded: Absolutely! Give him a medal for 6/13, and he should resign (and face a State Commission of Inquiry) for 7/10.

Now, let’s turn to another aspect of the credit for the extraordinary events of the last twelve hours. Naturally, there are plenty of people talking about it being a miracle, and praising God. And no doubt there will be people attributing it to the merit of Torah study, which they will see as primarily or exclusively being that done by charedim age 18-26.

With regard to the latter claim, the same point about Bibi applies. If you say that it’s charedim who are responsible for the successes of 6/13, then it’s charedim who are responsible for the failures of 7/10. Yet we do not see any acknowledgement of responsibility for that.

With regard to praising God and attributing the amazing successes to Him, this is also problematic, if that’s the only credit one gives. This might be seen by some as theologically controversial (or downright heretical) claim, but it’s not.