Before Passover, Jews perform a strangely delicate act. We search the house by candlelight for crumbs. Not for furniture. Not for walls. Not for the house itself. The ritual assumes something politically profound: a home can contain danger, residue, negligence, even corruption, and still must not be treated as disposable. The point is discrimination, not fury. The point is to remove what ferments without burning down the structure that allows life to continue.

That is precisely the distinction Israel is in danger of losing.

Today’s Times of Israel presents a country living under genuine and repeated assault. The live coverage includes further Israeli strikes in Tehran, Houthi fire toward Israel, Hezbollah attacks from Lebanon, and continuing regional escalation, while the White House signals further public positioning from Donald Trump on the Iran war. Exposure is real. Pressure is cumulative. No serious person can deny that. 

But pressure does not excuse conceptual laziness. On the contrary, it punishes it.

That is why the phrase “clear, hold, flatten” matters. Its danger is not only military. It names a grammar in which the removal of threat slowly ceases to be a means and starts masquerading as an outcome. No rebuilding. No transfer to ordinary........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)