Lessons not learned?

We now read reports from the IDF about their October 7^th failings. A Wall Street Journal article begins with, “Signs of an impending assault were everywhere.” In a Jerusalem Post release, we learn, “The Air Force has been questioned about if the forces it had invested in attacking Hamas commanders deep in Gaza would have been better used to defend the Gaza border and to attack Hamas invaders in Israeli villages.” Apparently, “Never Again” didn’t ensure, “never again.”

Beyond the national suffering from burials, the hostages, the displaced, the injured and the traumatized, the military and government face the burden of guilt. They must ensure that the painful lessons learned are converted into actions to prevent yet another tragedy.

Concurrent with this assessment of the epic failure of Israel to guard borders and protect her people, Iran is racing to build a nuclear bomb and the weapons systems to deliver it. Their “death to Israel” mantra and their enormous investment to construct deeply buried factories is sufficient proof of both intent and capability.  The Times of Israel reported that UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said two weeks ago, “Time is running out to secure an accord to rein in Iran’s nuclear program as Tehran continues to accelerate its enrichment of uranium to near weapons grade.”

In October 2024, in Operation Days of Repentance, the Israeli Air Force using over one hundred planes neutered most Iranian air defense batteries while also destroying missile production facilities and military targets. Since that time, Israel and the United States have not acted and beyond political posturing, and we hear confounding reports of possible renewed “deals” with the treacherous Iranians. While President Trump and his pro-Israel administration are a vast improvement over the prior equivocating, sclerotic leadership, the window of opportunity created back in October by the Israeli Air Force is slowly diminishing. The Iranian rope-a-dope procrastination continues as they are nearing nuclear readiness.

The dilemma of how to eradicate this truly existential threat is understandably complex and dangerous. Sending troops into harm’s way to attack a sovereign country is an ominous responsibility for any national leader. To destroy the multiple, disbursed, and dug in nuclear assets would be an unprecedented military operation. Except for the attack by Israel in 1979 as part of the Begin Doctrine, to destroy Osirak, a nascent Iraqi nuclear reactor, no nation has set out to attack another’s atomic bomb program. Lives will be at stake and mistakes will have enormous consequences. The geopolitical and economic fallout will be significant.

Nonetheless, the mullahs remain convinced of their “right” to create these weapons, to sponsor destabilizing vicious proxies, and to ignore the world’s feeble outrage. Israel and the United States must decide how to proceed to prevent a catastrophe on a scale far beyond Hamas’s invasion of Gaza. Any future court of inquiry into a G-d forbid nuclear attack on Israel’s heartland will confirm that Israel and the United States was warned. For the October 7^th fiasco, the IDF generals had been warned, and they mistakenly underestimated the planning and resolve of Hamas. Technological dependence and outright hubris were some of the culprits.

It seems only America has the aircraft and massive ordinance to complete the task. But maybe Israeli wizards can once again conjure up the tools for this extreme mission. The America-Israel alliance would be tested whether American troops and assets were deployed or not. The reality is that Israel is the point of the spear called upon not only to defend herself but the Europeans and America.

Will the recency of the horror of the October 7^th failures provide lessons? Historians cite times between 1933 and 1938 when Hitler could have been stopped. His brazen actions were obvious but weak-kneed politicians kicked the can down the road. World War II and the Holocaust were the result. Will America and Israel do what must be done? Will the iconic “Never Again” vow prove to have teeth?