Israel’s War of Survival

Israel faced the Hobbesian choice of passing the point of no return and exposing itself to the risk of a nuclear attack by Iran or taking military action in time to prevent that catastrophe from happening. Israel wisely chose the latter course. Israel conducted “preemptive” strikes against Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities (including the Natanz enrichment site), long-range missile facilities, and aerial defenses on June 12th, which also killed several military commanders and nuclear scientists.

The United States did not participate in the Israeli strikes inside Iran. However, when the Iranian regime responded with barrages of drones and ballistic missiles aimed at Israeli population centers, the U.S. helped Israel to intercept as many of them as possible. Although some of Iran’s missiles managed to get through Israel’s multilayered defense systems and hit their targets, many lives were undoubtedly saved by U.S-Israeli defense cooperation.

Israel haters leaped at the chance to blame Israel for taking forceful military action to defend itself against the rapidly approaching existential threat of nuclear annihilation at Iran’s hands.

For example, the extremist leftwing group Code Pink said,

“We strongly condemn Israel’s unprovoked and reckless attack on Iran, which risks igniting a catastrophic regional war. This dangerous escalation threatens millions of lives across the entire Middle East. The U.S. must not continue to support and enable this illegal act of aggression.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) declared:

“We condemn Israel’s offensive strike on Iran and the broader pattern of aggression it represents. Netanyahu is using American weapons and taxpayer dollars to launch illegal and destabilizing wars across the region. President Trump must act immediately to suspend all military support to Israel and stop allowing U.S. arms to fuel war crimes, mass civilian death, and regional collapse.”

Pro-Hamas campus groups in the United States rallied around Hamas’s puppet master Iran. “We reject the US/Zionist attack on Iran, and affirm Iran’s right to self-defense, sovereignty, and self-determination,” Columbia University’s pro-Hamas student organization Apartheid Divest posted following Israel’s strikes. “No to the imperialist was of encroachment — from Syria to Lebanon to Iran — and YES [sic] to the people’s struggle for Palestinian liberation.”

All of this is, of course, pure falsehood.

Israel was perfectly justified in commencing its military operation when it did before the Iranian regime passed the threshold of being able to imminently produce multiple nuclear weapons with long-range ballistic missiles capable of delivering them. As Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told the Security Council at an emergency session held on June 13^th, the mission is to “dismantle Iran’s nuclear programme, eliminate the architects of its terror and aggression and neutralize the regime’s ability to follow through on its repeated public promise to destroy the State of Israel. Israel did not act recklessly – we waited. This was an act of national preservation. It was one we undertook alone, not because we wanted to, but because we were left no other option.”

According to the Associated Press, which had viewed a May 2025 confidential United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, “as of May 17, Iran has amassed 408.6 kilograms (900.8 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60%.” This was an increase of nearly 50% since the IAEA’s previous February report. “The 60% enriched material is a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.”

Unless something was done immediately to halt Iran’s march to becoming a full-fledged nuclear-armed state, Israel faced the existential threat of annihilation that Iran’s fanatical Islamist leaders have vowed time and again to bring about. Other countries within the reach of Iran’s ballistic missiles would also be in the regime’s crosshairs.

President Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off taking any military action while the Trump administration pursued negotiations with Iran. Trump set a 60-day deadline to reach a workable diplomatic solution which did not have all the loopholes that caused President Trump during his first term to withdraw from former President Obama’s disastrous nuclear deal with Iran.

This time the Iranian regime would have to agree to cease its enrichment of uranium altogether and allow unimpeded and reliable verification mechanisms, including 24×7 anytime anywhere inspection by independent monitors. Instead of negotiating in good faith, the regime dragged its feet and used this time to quickly ramp up its uranium enrichment to a near weapons-grade level. President Trump’s 60^th day deadline to reach a nuclear deal arrived with no real progress. This forced Israel’s hand. The Jewish state had no choice but to pursue the military alternative before it was too late.

There are Democrat members in their rapidly declining pro-Israel caucus who supported Israel’s action, most notably Pennsylvania’s Democratic Senator John Fetterman. “Our commitment to Israel must be absolute and I fully support this attack,” Senator Fetterman exclaimed. “Keep wiping out Iranian leadership and the nuclear personnel. We must provide whatever is necessary—military, intelligence, weaponry—to fully back Israel in striking Iran.”

However, Israel’s vocal critics in Congress eagerly denounced the Jewish state with brazen falsehoods.

Democratic Senator Jack Reed from Rhode Island, who is the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, condemned Israel. “Israel’s alarming decision to launch airstrikes on Iran is a reckless escalation that risks igniting regional violence,” he said in a statement. “The world cannot afford more devastating conflict born of short-sighted violence.”

False: There already are devastating conflicts in the Middle East but they are not born of Israel’s defense of its people from existential genocidal attacks. They are born of the Iranian regime’s Islamist revolutionary goal to obliterate the Jewish state and exert its hegemony over the entire region.

“The Israeli government bombing Iran is a dangerous escalation that could lead to regional war,” Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said. “Our government must stop funding and supporting this rogue genocidal regime.”

False: The rogue genocidal regime is the Islamist theocracy in Iran, which is the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism. Its leaders have repeatedly vowed to wipe the Jewish state, the only true democracy in the Middle East, off the face of the earth. Iran’s terrorist proxies have also attacked U.S. facilities and killed hundreds of U.S. military service members.

Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said: “Just as talks with Iran were set to resume, Netanyahu launches a strike and declares a state of emergency. He is provoking a war Americans don’t want.”

False: The Iranian regime has been negotiating in bad faith from the time that talks started and accelerated its nuclear weapons development program during the supposed dialogue.

“This attack by Netanyahu is pure sabotage,” Representative Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said.

Misleading: Israel did not sabotage the diplomatic dialogue between Iran and the Trump administration. The Iranian regime is solely responsible for the failure to reach an acceptable nuclear deal. But Prime Minister Netanyahu did intend for its strikes to sabotage Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities.

There is also a faction within the MAGA movement who believe that helping Israel defend itself against Iranian reprisals could lead to further American involvement and violates the movement’s core America First principles.

Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk, for example, warned that any U.S. involvement could cause “a massive schism in MAGA and potentially disrupt our momentum and our insanely successful Presidency.” Worried about how far the Trump administration would go to defend Israel against Iran’s counterattacks, he asked rhetorically, “How does the America First foreign policy doctrine and foreign policy agenda … stay consistent with this right now?”

President Trump’s America First doctrine does not mean a Fortress America that buries its head in the sand. Where American interests in national security and economic policy align with those of its allies, President Trump is prepared to work together to achieve a common goal.

The Iranian regime has American blood on its hands. Its leaders rally their supporters with chants of “Death to Israel,” “Death to America.” Stopping Iran from producing nuclear weapons is in America’s interests. A nuclear-armed Iran with long-range ballistic missile delivery systems would threaten not only Israel. It would also threaten American lives and facilities in the Middle East, Europe, and ultimately the U.S. homeland. Israel is taking the lead in the fight against a fanatical enemy that is obsessed with the goal of bringing down Western civilization.

Having Israel’s back by supplying arms and helping to intercept Iranian missiles and drones aimed at Israeli civilians and infrastructure is the least that the United States can do in return. If the Iranian regime makes the mistake of killing American citizens and destroying U.S. assets with reckless attacks, the Iranian regime will face the prospect of paying a very heavy price, courtesy of the strongest military in the world.

That is America First in action.