The Roman senator and orator Cato the Elder (real name: Marcus Porcius Cato) famously ended every speech with the Latin phrase Carthago delenda est (“Carthage must be destroyed”). He used this phrase to advocate for the total destruction of Carthage (today’s Tunisia) during the150s BCE, leading up to the Third Punic War.

Prime Minister Netanyahu has somewhat mirrored that statement for the last four decades, referring not to ancient Carthage, but to modern day Iran, which is, of course, ancient Persia.  Not that he ever literally meant that the country needed to be destroyed. After all, Israel holds no brief against the Iranian people. But rather, that Iran as an existential danger to Israel needs to be neutralized or, in other words, denuded.

Often during this current war against Iran, the enemies of Israel worldwide have pounced on Netanyahu’s statement early in the war charging that he has been advocating for war against Iran for 40 years, but totally misinterpreting Bibi’s intent when making that statement.  To be sure that can be a topic for a full blog by itself at some other point in time.

However, it is clear that the US, our current partner in the war to eliminate........

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