I have been learning from the news that many Diaspora Jews in the United States are strongly opposed to the war with Iran. Some of this may stem from the way Washington chose to act, or from the lack of clear and consistent explanations offered by officials in the Trump administration. Others may be uneasy about the absence of a strong international coalition.

Those concerns are understandable. I share some of them myself. But living in Israel has given me a different perspective on what this war represents.

My wife, Judy, and I made aliyah on May 3, 2017 — the birthday of Golda Meir. The date felt symbolic to us, a reminder of the resilience and determination that built the State of Israel and carried it through its most difficult moments.

We arrived with the same mixture of hope and realism that has defined Jewish history. Israel has never been an easy place to live. But it is the only place where the Jewish people are fully responsible for their own destiny.

Since the day we arrived through to the end of February 2026, roughly 40,000 missiles, rockets, and drones have been fired at Israel — from the north by Hezbollah, from the south by Hamas, from the east by Islamic Republic of Iran, and from even farther south by the Houthis.

That number is almost impossible to comprehend. Yet behind every launch is a simple and brutal intention: to kill Israelis.

Most of these weapons were aimed not at military bases, but at civilian communities — neighborhoods like ours. They were aimed at people like Judy and me, at our children and grandchildren, and at our friends and neighbors.

When a siren sounds, statistics suddenly become very personal.

You move quickly, often without thinking. Where is the nearest safe room? How much time do we have — 30 seconds? Fifteen? You grab your phone, a go-bag, sometimes nothing at all. Then you wait and listen for the boom of an interception or the thud of impact.

This has become part of daily life for millions of Israelis.

Outside observers often describe these attacks as part of a “cycle of violence,” as if they were spontaneous eruptions in an endless regional feud.

But there is nothing random about what is happening. There is a strategy.

For decades, the Islamic Republic of Iran has invested enormous resources into building and sustaining a network of militant organizations across the Middle East. Hamas in Gaza. Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Houthis in Yemen. Militias in Iraq and Syria.

These groups differ in language, geography, and tactics. But they share three essential characteristics: they are funded, armed, and trained by Iran; they deliberately target civilians; and they openly proclaim their goal — the destruction of Israel and the killing of Jews.

Tehran calls this network the “Axis of Resistance.” But the phrase obscures what it really is. These groups function as Iran’s forward operating forces — its proxies and instruments of power.

Many Israeli analysts have long described the system more bluntly: Iran is the head of an octopus, and these organizations are its tentacles. When one tentacle strikes, Israel responds. When another launches rockets, Israel defends itself again. And yet the attacks continue, year after year.

Because destroying or weakening one tentacle does not end the octopus.

As long as the head stays intact — funding, arming, training, and directing its proxies — new tentacles will grow. New arsenals will be built. New attacks will be planned.

This reality has shaped Israel’s security environment for a generation. It explains why a war in Gaza can be connected to rocket fire from Lebanon, drone attacks from Yemen, and militia activity in Syria and Iraq. These are not isolated conflicts. They are different fronts in the same strategy.

For Israelis, the consequences are deeply personal.

It means children learning evacuation drills before they learn multiplication tables. It means weddings interrupted by sirens and grandparents calculating how many seconds it will take to reach a shelter. It means living with the knowledge that tens of thousands of rockets have already been fired at the country we chose to call home.

Despite all of this, Israelis continue to build, innovate, raise families, and celebrate life. That resilience is one of the great strengths of this society.

But resilience alone cannot solve the strategic problem.

The world often focuses on the latest flare-up — the latest rocket barrage, the latest escalation on one front or another. Yet those episodes are symptoms of a larger structure that has been deliberately built over decades.

The uncomfortable truth is this: The problem is not just the proxies.

Israel and Diaspora Jews in the US might be viewed as two realities, but Iran is one real threat.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)