Best Responses to “Trump’s Fighting Israel’s War”
#1313 March 15,, 2026
Not surprising, among criticisms of joint U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran is “Trump’s Fighting Israel’s War.” It’s also America’s war, and it’s been going on for some time.
Best Responses to “Trump’s Fighting Israel’s War”
Of all the criticisms of the joint U.S.-Israel war on Iran – “diplomacy wasn’t exhausted … Congressional declaration was needed … Iranian threats didn’t amount to justifying ‘self-defense’ … etc.,” the one zeroing in on blaming us, “the Jews,” is “Trump is gratuitously fighting Israel’s war,” carried to the extreme of “Bibi made him do it.”
For answers, let’s start with a clear voice for American Jewry, ZOA’s Mort Klein, who began his March 6 USA Today op-ed, Why U.S. Needed To Attack Iran:
“Even if Israel didn’t exist, the United States would need to go to war against the Islamic Republic of Iran. In weekly Iranian rallies, there were repeated calls for “Death to America” and proclaiming America is the “Big Satan.” And there’s been nearly half a century of Iranian hostility and its current drive for nuclear weapons, intercontinental ballistic missiles, suicide drones and financial support and arming of proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis attacking the United States, its allies and interests.” [emphasis added]
And next, Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S. The subhead of a Ynet article Thursday, March 12, If a Nuclear Iran Took the Strait of Hormuz, Who Would Control the World’s Oil? cites him giving three inescapable reasons:
“Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter argues the US-Israeli campaign aims to stop Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, exporting terrorism and gaining leverage over global energy routes.” [emphasis added]
How close is Iran’s fanatical regime to acquiring those nuclear weapons? Israel’s ambassador answers that:
“Asked why such a broad military effort was necessary, Leiter said Iran’s scale and long-term nuclear preparation left little room for half measures. “Iran is a very large country. It’s a population of 92 million people. It’s a territory twice the size of Texas,” he said. “They’ve been planning this day for many years when they can come into negotiations and say that they have 462 kilograms of enriched uranium at 60%, which could, within a week, be brought up to 90% and provide them with 11 nuclear bombs. OK. So this had to be eliminated.” [emphasis added]
In announcing America’s military action on February 28, America’s military forces’ Commander-in-Chief, who doesn’t take orders from anybody, explained America’s action this way:
“A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran. Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime. A vicious group of very hard, terrible people. Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world.” [emphasis added]
Among the internet articles documenting those Iranian menacing activities against the United States is journalist Stu Bykofsky’s blunt March 5 Here Is Why It IS the United States’ War, sub-head Trump Doesn’t Take Orders From Netanyahu – He Gives Them (read on stubykofsky.com).
Stu writes that from the moment the mullahs took over Iran in 1979 and took hostage our American embassy’s staff, “the ayatollahs have done everything in their power to hurt the United States, and Americans.” He cites instance after instance of Iranian connection through its terrorist proxies to attacks on Americans from a timeline compiled by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Here’s a summary of some of his summary:
*** April 1983: 17 Americans killed in car bombing at embassy in Beirut, Iran-backed Islamic Jihad claims responsibility
*** October 1983: 241 American marines and other service members killed in Hezbollah car bombing of compound in Beirut
*** December 1983: No Americans hurt in Hezbollah attack on gates of U.S. embassy in Kuwait City
*** March 1984: Islamic Jihad-claimed kidnapping of Beirut CIA station chief William Buckley, tortured and killed
*** December 1984: Hezbollah terrorists hijack Kuwait Airways flight, divert it to Tehran, kill two American officials of U.S. Agency for International Development
*** June 1985: Hezbollah hijacks TWA Athens-to-Rome flight, kills U.S. Navy diver
*** July 1989: Hezbollah kills U.S. Marine Col. William Higgins, kidnapped previous year from UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon
*** April 1995: Palestinian Islamic Jihad claims responsibility for van crashing into bus in Gaza, killing American
*** August 1995: Hamas bomber blows up Jerusalem bus, killing American and three others, wounding more than 100
*** February 1996: Hamas bombers blow up Jerusalem bus, killing three and wounding three Americans among 26 who died
*** March 1996: Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad blow up Tel Aviv shopping center, wounding two Americans among 20 killed and 75 injured
*** June 1996: Iranian-backed Hezbollah Al Hijaz deemed responsible for truck carrying 5,000 lbs explosives blowing up Khobar Towers U.S. Air Force housing complex in Arabia
*** September 1997: Three Hamas bombers blow themselves up in Jerusalem shopping mall, killing U.S.-Israeli dual national, wounding seven Americans, four others died and 200 wounded in attack
*** August 1998: Hezbollah-assisted al Quada bombers blow up U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224, including 12 Americans, wounding thousands
*** August 2001: Hamas blows up Sbarro Pizza in Jerusalem, killing U.S.-Israeli dual national and two other Americans, 15 die in attack
*** January 2002: Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade-affiliated gunman kill U.S.-Israeli dual national in Judea-Samaria community
*** July 2002: Hamas-planted bomb at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University kills five American students among nine who died
*** June 2003: American among 16 killed in Hamas bus bombing
*** October 2003: Iran-backed Popular Resistance Communities kill three U.S. diplomatic personnel in Gaza bombing
*** 2003-2011: Pentagon says Iranian-backed militias kill at least 603 U.S. troops in Iraq, using “some of the deadliest weapons used against American troops, including explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) and improvised explosive devices (IEDs)”
*** August 2003: Hamas blows up Jerusalem bus, five Americans among 24 killed
*** January 2007: Twelve of Iran’s IRGC disguise themselves as U.S. soldiers, enter facility in Karbala, Iraq, kill five and wound three U.S. soldiers
*** October 2015: Hamas drive-by shooting kills American husband and wife in Judea-Samaria community
*** December 2019: Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah rockets kill American contractor and wound several U.S. service members at military base in Kirkuk, Iraq
*** January 2020: “A direct Iranian ballistic missile attack against the Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq causes more than 100 U.S. troops to suffer traumatic brain injuries.”
*** February 2021: Iran-backed militia’s rockets wound U.S. service member and five U.S. civilian contractors in Erbil, Iraq
*** July 2021: Iran-backed militia’s rocket and drone attacks wound two U.S. service members in Iraq and Syria
*** September 2022: Iran rocket attack kills U.S. citizen in Iraqi Kurdistan.
*** November 2022: IRGC orchestrates killing U.S. citizen working at English language institute in Baghdad
*** March 2023: Iranian drone kills American contractor and five service members in strike at coalition base in Syria
*** October 7, 2023: “Hamas kills at least 48 Americans and kidnaps at least 12 Americans in a massacre of 1,200 people in southern Israel”
*** December 2023: Iranian-backed Iraqi militia drone attack against U.S. forces in Erbil wounds five U.S. soldiers
*** January 2024: “A drone launched by Kataib Hezbollah kills three U.S. soldiers at a U.S. military base in Jordan and wounded more than 40 other service members”
*** October 2024: Iran executes U.S. permanent resident on fraudulent terrorism charges.
*** November 2024: “A report released by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies indicates that Iran and its proxies have conducted more than 180 attacks against U.S. forces in the Middle East between October 17, 2023, and November 19, 2024, resulting in more than 180 wounded and three killed U.S. service members”
*** November 2024: “The U.S. Department of Justice announces charges against an Iranian national and two American accomplices for plotting to assassinate President Trump”
*** March 2025: “A U.S. jury convicts two agents of Iran for plotting to assassinate Iranian[1]American journalist Masih Alinejad in New York in 2022”
*** June 2025: “At least three U.S. bases in Syria and two U.S. bases in Iraq are attacked with missiles or drones, likely by Iranian-backed militias”
Stu concludes: “Any questions about this being the United States’ war?”
Reader responses by email:
From Saul Axelrod:
Jerry:
You have published many great posts on Arab/ Iranian treachery but this one was the best. I am glad we are on the same team.
Saul
So am I, Saul. Thanks! Jerry
= = = = =
From Rainer M in Germany:
…and beside all that it is good to jump in for the best, most reliable, innovation prolific and culturally close, non aggressive, benign ally in the area (if not worldwide). Krgds Rainer from Germany
Right, Rainer. Thanks, Jerry
= = = = =
From Bob A:
Jerry, your blog was right on the money. It addressed the two comments that are made over and over concerning the war in Iran, that the U.S. is fighting Israel’s war, and that Iran was not an imminent threat to the U.S. Stu’s listing of Iran’s involvement in the killing and maiming of our soldiers and civilians over those 47 years says it all.
Great blog. One additional point. The Islamic Republic of Iran has a national holiday celebrating the Death of America, Nov. 4th. It was the day they attacked our embassy and took the staff hostage in 1979. Since the start of the Islamic Republic of Iran, their goal has been our death. As Stu has pointed out and Jerry repeated, they have acted on their goal for 47 years. Finally, we recognize we have been at war. Trump did not start it; he recognized the obvious.
Myron Sugarman’s preface to forwarding this week’s #1313 to his followers:
Dear 1,800 friends on Bcc
As the price of everything from gasoline to you name it goes up every day, we are going to hear many more “What the f****************** are we doing in Iran? This isn’t America’s war, this is Israel’s war, this is the Jews’ war, Bibi manipulated Trump and suckered him into this disastrous war, which has nothing to do with America.”
Nothing could be further from the truth,
To my very good friend Jerry Verlin’s great credit and honor, he has taken the time to enumerate all the reasons that this war today is as much America’s as it is Israel, I don’t say it’s more than Israel’s, I don’t say it’s less than Israel’s, basically America and Israel are one and the same, we both recognize the threat of a Nuclear Iran, based on their actions, Iran has proven to be the most destabilizing force throughout the entire world from Israel, Egypt, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, PLO, Fatah, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Houthi’s, Yemen, ISIS, Al Qaeda, Ciudad del Este, Paraguay on the border of Argentina and Brazil, Buenos Aires, Venezuela, Maduro, Cuba, Nicaragua to Russia and their war with Ukraine, supplying them with Drones and other weaponry, and includes Iran’s partnership with the others of the Axis of Evil, China, Russia, North Korea.
Please take the time to read Jerry Verlin’s summary below, which helps to make clear the reason we are sacrificing short term for the long term stability and security of the future for our children, children’s children and their children, etc. until some new despotic, tyrannical force of evil emerges in the future, but for now, it’s Iran and their fanatical cult of Shiite Islam
Shabbat Shalom
Thank you, Myron. In addition to the long long list of attacks on Americans compiled by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Americans must understand the three reasons this is America’s war so succinctly summarized by Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S., I quoted in #1313 above – Iran’s proximity to acquiring nuclear weapons, supporting terrorism and gaining leverage over energy routes:
“Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter argues the US-Israeli campaign aims to stop Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, exporting terrorism and gaining leverage over global energy routes.” [emphasis added]
Jerry