Israelis woke up this Shabbat morning to sirens and red alerts. Israeli air space has been closed, and citizens have been warned to stay near safe rooms. Diplomatic negotiations are over, and Israel and the United States have begun striking the Iranian regime, a major coordinated operation against nuclear and missile infrastructure, and U.S. President Donald Trump has called on the Iranian people to take back control of their government from the Ayatollah. Retaliatory missiles have been launched at Israel from Iran, and rockets and terrorist infiltrations have already been identified across the country throughout the day. The historic Israeli-U.S. operation, called “Roaring Lion” by Israel and “Epic Fury” by the United States, is expected to last for at least one week, and it will be devastating for the Islamic Republic’s terror regime. 

Contrary to mainstream portrayals, Israel and the United States are not starting a war with Iran. We are finishing it. The Iranian regime has sponsored and directed Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, encouraging the October 7 massacre and orchestrating the barrage of missiles against Israel ever since. After nearly three years of this proxy war, Israel and the United States are throwing the last punch. In doing so, we are saving Iranians and the world from a brutal despotic regime racing toward nuclear weapons.

The timing is righteous. In January 2026, nationwide protests erupted across Iran over food prices, water shortages, and the regime’s theological despotism. The Islamic Republic infamously responded with savage brutality against their own citizens. Revolutionary Guards and Basij militias opened fire on peaceful crowds, many young women and students, killing thousands of people in a matter of weeks with snipers, helicopter gunships, and summary executions. This latest massacre, amid decades of public hangings, torture, and gender-based terror, exposes the regime’s evil nature as well as its desperation. The mullahs slaughter their own people because they fear losing power. This internal rot gave America and Israel a moral imperative: not only to stop Iran’s nuclear drive, but to hasten the fall of a regime that massacres its own citizens merely for protesting. Iran’s refusal to halt nuclearization in Geneva sealed the regime’s fate.

The moment of action has arrived, and it’s a triumph of decisiveness over diplomatic delay. Negotiations in Geneva between Iran and the United States collapsed this past week after Iran flatly refused to halt its nuclearization process, demanding instead the full lifting of sanctions before even considering a freeze on enrichment, let alone dismantlement. Despite weeks of negotiation, Tehran clung to its path toward a nuclear bomb, rejecting Trump’s red line of zero enrichment and no path to weapons-grade material. Further, a United Nations watchdog report released last week confirmed that Iran has not provided access for inspection, and is likely secretly continuing with the nuclearization process. 

With President Trump’s massive air and naval armada assembled in the Middle East since early February, the largest since 2003 with two carrier strike groups, swarms of long-range bombers, and fighter squadrons, now unleashing precision strikes on IRGC bases, nuclear facilities, and command centers across Iran, the era of fruitless talks is over. 

Critics will cry about “escalation,” but history will applaud this justified operation. This is the historic action that will save lives and secure the future, born from Iran’s own intransigence. Israel must now withstand Iran’s retaliation, and that price is worth freeing the Iranian people and eliminating a constant existential threat. 

Building on the foundation laid in June 2025, when Israel’s twelve-day war and America’s Operation Midnight Hammer seemingly “obliterated” Iran’s visible nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, this new round of strikes targets the regime’s persistent rebuilding efforts. Tehran had been roofing over the ruins, tunneling deeper, and clinging to roughly 400 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium, nearly reaching weapons-grade material. Iran’s ballistic-missile factories were up and running again, even as its proxies of Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and the Assad regime have been decimated. But Iran’s refusal to stop nuclearization during the Geneva talks, insisting on “peaceful” enrichment rights while accelerating underground work, left no choice. Never has the Islamic Republic been weaker since it came to power after the 1978 revolution. And by launching major combat operations this morning, Israel and the U.S. have exploited that weakness at the lowest possible cost, working toward preventing a nuclear-armed terror state.

President Trump ran on peace through strength, not weakness, and this coordinated operation proves it. He has acted where diplomacy failed, unlike the Obama-era nuclear deal that funded terror while Iran lied its way to the threshold of nuclearization, or the Biden years that let enrichment soar to 60% while money flowed into Iranian coffers. Trump’s red line was clear: zero enrichment, no path to a bomb, no more funding of global jihad. Iran’s answer in Geneva was merely performative gestures, claiming “medical” enrichment, half-hearted offers tied to immediate sanctions relief, and no concessions on ballistic missiles or full denuclearization. This was not negotiation, but stalling: a clever tactic to let centrifuges spin and give the regime bought time to survive. But today’s strikes shatter that illusion, crippling the IRGC’s ability to rebuild, and ensuring Iran’s nuclear dreams die along with its failed diplomacy.

The strategic case for these strikes is clear. The timing, triggered by Iran’s nuclear refusal and its massacre of protestors, is perfect. A nuclear Iran remains an existential threat to Israel, the only Jewish state on Earth, born from the ashes of history’s greatest crime against our people. Iran’s leaders chant “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” while racing for the means to make it reality. Their missiles already target Tel Aviv. A nuclear bomb would make every future crisis potentially apocalyptic. The coincidence of striking Iran on the Shabbat before Purim is profound, about 2,500 years after thwarting the attempted Persian genocide of Jews. 

For America, the stakes are no smaller. Secure the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, protect Gulf allies like the United Arab Emirates, end the world’s leading sponsor of terror, and prevent a cascade of nuclear proliferation across the Sunni world. By hitting now, after Iran’s Geneva stonewalling, Israel and the U.S. not only degrade the nuclear threat but also enable Iranian protesters, creating an opportunity to usurp power while signaling that the free world stands with them against their oppressors.

These strikes avoid the historic mistakes of hesitation and diplomatic deferment. Whether it was Chamberlain at Munich in 1938 or the JCPOA’s false dawn in 2015, every time free nations chose diplomacy while militaristic tyrants rearmed, the bill only came due later at far higher cost in blood and capital. The mass protests in Iran prove its own people know it is rotten. Today’s major combat operations will accelerate the internal collapse already underway and ensure that the long nightmare of the Islamic Republic ends, not with American or Israeli boots on the ground, but with the Iranian people rising to finish what we’ve accelerated.

The United States and Israel had the firepower positioned and the will to act. Two carrier groups, overwhelming air dominance, and a president who doesn’t bluff made this morning’s operation seamless. The decision to strike after Iran’s Geneva failure, before they crossed the final threshold or dragged the world into a far worse war, was the right one.

This well-defined operation against Iran, unlike the prolonged war in Iraq, secures the future. It bid the start of the end of the regional war initiated by Iran on October 7, 2023. The free world, with the Jewish state at its frontline, can finally breathe easier knowing that strength has prevailed over failed negotiations.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)