Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.
They say the war is over. But if it’s over, why do I feel so
nervous, like there’s something left undone, unfinished? Why don’t I feel safe?
I just want to feel safe—not only for myself, but for the generations that
follow. Do I want my grandchildren to grow up listening for sirens, even if
they rarely come? Do I want some future generation to live in fear of an Iran
once again enriching uranium to the point of no return?
If Khamenei and his despotic regime remain in power, they’ll
pick up right where they left off—with nuclear ambitions and terror by proxy.
And when Israel defends itself, will President Trump once again scold her, as
he did the other day? Iran launched missiles at Israeli civilians, and Trump
called it “a little bit of a violation”—perhaps because this particular strike
caused no damage. But just hours earlier, another missile killed innocents in a
residential neighborhood in Beersheva.
I don’t feel safe because Donald Trump still
believes—against all evidence—that the ayatollahs can be reasoned with, coaxed
into peace, talked into laying down their weapons and picking up plowshares.
Worse still, he seems to draw a moral equivalence between Iran—a regime that
threatens Israel’s annihilation, funds terror proxies, and pursues nuclear
weapons—and Israel itself. Unbelievably, he equates the victim with her abuser.
He frames the conflict as playground roughhousing, erasing Iran’s aggression and Israel’s right to defend itself from a nuclear holocaust:
“They’ve had a big fight. Like two kids in the schoolyard—you know, they fight like hell, you can’t stop it. Let them fight for two, three minutes, and then it’s easier to stop them.”
If this is how Trump perceives Iran and Israel—if he truly
believes Iran can be reasoned with—then he doesn’t understand the Middle East.
Worse, he isn’t listening. Iran is telling him, plainly and repeatedly, that it
will not stop. It will rebuild
its nuclear facilities.
And they’re not even hiding it. Iranian nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami openly
admitted as much: “We planned to avoid any interruption in the nuclear industry
process. Preparations for the revival of the country’s nuclear program were
foreseen in advance, and our plan is to not allow any interruption in the
production and service process.”
Meanwhile, Iran’s parliament has announced it is suspending
cooperation with the IAEA—the UN’s nuclear watchdog. Does that sound like a
regime with nothing to hide? Like a nation ready to embrace a peaceful,
nuclear-free future?
Why is Trump letting the Iranians get away with saying these
things? And what about his betrayal of the Iranian people—those weary of living
under Khamenei’s iron rule? Bibi encouraged them to be brave, reminded them
that Israel has no quarrel with them, and wants them to prosper. Are we now
meant to abandon them? Just as Obama
did in 2009, when they rose up and the world turned its back?
And then there are the conflicting reports. Was Fordow
completely destroyed, or wasn’t it? The administration can’t seem to get its
story straight. Trump claimed Iran’s three main nuclear enrichment facilities
were “completely and totally obliterated.” But later, JD Vance described Iran’s
capabilities as merely “substantially
set back,” insisting that had always been the goal.
As Vance put it: “That was the objective of the mission: to
destroy that Fordow nuclear site and, of course, do some damage to the other
sites as well. But we feel very confident that the Fordow nuclear site was
substantially set back, and that was our goal.”
If Vance is to be believed, the goal had never been complete
obliteration, but only a delay in what Iran will inevitably try to do once
more. Which of course means that somewhere down the road, a new generation will
have to live with the Damocles sword of a nuclear Iran hanging over their heads.
And that is neither fair nor right.
And then there’s how the ceasefire came about. Trump’s surprise
announcement apparently caught Israel off guard. It certainly caught me off
guard—reading about the so-called truce from a safe room, while cowering from
incoming missiles.
Bibi gave a victory speech, declaring that “Iran’s malicious intent to threaten Israel has been eradicated.” But has it?
Eradicated?
Obliterated, or only “significantly set back” as both JD Vance and Rafael Grossi, Director
General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), have said.
What bothers me
most is the unspoken message: shut up and
be grateful. And yes, I am grateful. But gratitude doesn’t mean
silence, even when America deploys its bunker busters in a precision strike
that was nothing short of extraordinary.
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