For some time, people thinking about the changing nature of military conflict—especially those examining the recent experiences of Israel and Ukraine and what they might imply for a confrontation between the U.S. and China—have been speaking about the problem of “missile math.” This new form of arithmetic primarily involves two calculations: will one side run out of missiles, rockets, and drones before the other runs out of the interceptors used to shoot them down? Or, more likely, vice versa? And does the high cost of anti-missiles systems, compared with the low cost of drones and rockets, bestow an untenable economic cost on the defenders?
Daas Torah - Issues of Jewish Identity
Friday, March 27, 2026
Trump said Iran’s nuclear program was ‘obliterated.’ So why is he looking to strike again?
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/24/politics/nuclear-program-iran-trump-strike
In March, the US intelligence community assessed that Iran was “not building a nuclear weapon.”
In June, the Trump administration nevertheless launched airstrikes targeting Iran’s nuclear program.
And today, it might strike Iran again over its nuclear ambitions — this time despite President Donald Trump having assured repeatedly that those June airstrikes had “obliterated” its program.
But if Iran actually is that close to having material to make nuclear bombs, that would represent a truly miraculous recovery — at least, to the extent one believes Trump. After all, it was just eight months ago that Trump declared Iran’s nuclear program to have been “obliterated.”
CNN broke the news that an early US intelligence assessment did not back up Trump’s claims. It had found the strikes did not destroy the core components of Iran’s nuclear program and likely only set it back by months. (The New York Times reported something similar.)
But Trump has continued to say the nuclear program was obliterated.
Trump: Iran 'running out' of missiles, launch sites, as strikes 'decimate' regime's capacity
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-888693
Iran is running out of missile launchers and areas to launch missiles from, United States President Donald Trump claimed in an interview with Politico on Tuesday.
As the US’s Operation Epic Fury and Israel’s Operation Roaring Lion continue to pummel the Iranian regime, Trump stated that the regime is being “decimated.”
While he predicted that Iran would “keep lobbing missiles for a while,” he asserted that “they’re running out and they’re running out of areas to shoot them, because they’re being decimated.”
Pious people don't need Doctors
Ramban (Vayikra 26:11) In general then, when Israel is in perfect accord with G-d, constituting a large number, their affairs are not conducted at all by the natural order of things, neither in connection with themselves, nor with reference to their Land, neither collectively nor individually, for G-d blesses their bread and their water, and removes sickness from their midst, so that they do not need a physician and do not have to observe any of the rules of medicine, just as He said, for I am the Eternal that healeth thee. And so did the righteous ones act at the time when prophecy existed, so that even if a mishap of iniquity overtook them, causing them sickness, they did not turn to the physicians, but only to the prophets, as was the case with Hezekiah when he was sick. And Scripture states of Asa, king of Judah, by way of rebuke, Yet in his disease he sought not to the Eternal, but to the physicians. Now had the practice of consulting physicians been customary among them, why should the verse mention as a sinful act Asa’s consulting the physicians, since his guilt was only because he did not [also] seek G-d? But the verse can be compared to someone saying: “That person did not eat unleavened bread on the Festival of Passover, but instead ate leavened bread.” For he who seeks the Eternal through a prophet, will not consult the physicians. And what part do the physicians have in the house of those who do the will of G-d, after He has assured us, and He will bless thy bread, and thy water, and mostly with food and drink, warning [the patient] against [eating] certain foods and commanding him to eat others. Thus also the Rabbis said: “During all the twenty-two years that Rabbah reigned as head of the Academy at Pumbeditha Yoseph did not call even a blood letter to his house” as he, being a righteous person, was protected directly by G-d and needed no physicians, and they also say by way of proverb: “A gate which is not open for the commandments i.e., a house wherein the commandments are not observed]is open for the physician.” This is also the meaning of their saying: “People should not have to take medicaments, but they have become accustomed to do so.” That is to say] had they not accustomed themselves to takingmedicines, people would become sick according to the degree of punishment corresponding to their sin, and would be healed by the will of G-d, but since they accustomed themselves to medicaments, G-d has left them to natural happenings. This is also the intent of the Rabbis’ interpretation: “And he shall cause him to be thoroughly healed. From here you deduce the principle that permission has been given to the physician to heal.” They did not say that “permission was given to the sick to be healed” by the physician, but instead they stated by implication that since the person who became sick comes to the physician to be healed, because he has accustomed himself to seeking medical help and he was not of the congregation of the Eternal whose portion is in this life, the physician should not refrain from healing him; whether because of fear that he might die under his hand, since he is qualified in this profession, or because he says that it is G-d alone Who is the Healer of all flesh, since after all people have already accustomed themselves [to seeking such help]. Therefore when men contend and one smites the other with a stone or his fist the one who smote must pay for the healing, for the Torah does not base its laws upon miracles, just as it said, for the poor shall never cease out of the Land, knowing beforehand that such will be the case. But when a man’s ways please the Eternal, he need have no concern with physicians.
LevinAt11 Tzav- Arthur Goldberg ZL
Linked below is this week's pre-Pesach LevinAt11 radio broadcast of March 26, '26, Parshas Tzav and Shabbos HaGadol.
Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter,
Executive Director,
Help Rescue Our Children
845.642.1679
Direct: 771.215.8892
Israeli Helpline: 03.721.3337
Tomim Tih'yeh [countering "New-Age" infiltration]:
Presentations on New-Age dangers: 605-313-6831 ext. 2
Heard weekly on New Jersey's WSNR Radio 620AM, co-hosting the renowned Levin At Eleven program, every Thursday evening, 11pm to midnight (ET).
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Trump slams ‘terrible’ Fox News polls
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5803424-trump-slams-fox-polls/
President Trump took a swipe at Fox News and its polls while speaking on the network’s “The Five” on Thursday, saying he “hates” them.
“I hate Fox polls,” he said on the show. “Honestly, whoever does your polls are terrible.”
The latest Fox News poll shows Trump with a 41 percent approval rating and a 59 percent disapproval rating.
He said he’s spoken to Rupert Murdoch, media mogul and chair emeritus of Fox Corp. and News Corp., over the polls.
“Rupert Murdoch has promised me for years he’s going to get rid of your pollster, but he doesn’t do it,” he said. “I don’t get it, but your Fox polls are terrible.”
Amid war, Iranian hardliners ramp up once-taboo calls to seek nuclear bomb
Killing of security chief Ali Larijani has made it more difficult for less hawkish figures to push back on IRGC hardliners’ support for building a bomb and bolting NPT, sources say
U.S. and Israel Have Pounded—but Not Eliminated—Iran’s Missile Threat
The U.S. and Israel are pounding Iran’s missile-launching sites, hitting some over and over across almost a month of war. But Tehran’s missiles keep flying.
Iran has shifted to firing from deeper inside its territory with longer-range missiles, military analysts and former U.S. officers said, after airstrikes early in the war inflicted a heavy toll on Iranian bases and truck launchers near the Persian Gulf coastline. Iran is firing far fewer missiles now—down to around a dozen a day—but they have turned them against less-defended targets in Israel and Gulf Arab states, causing greater damage in some cases.
Even in small numbers, the weapons have helped Tehran achieve its goals—prolong the conflict, raise the economic costs on oil-exporting Gulf countries and in the U.S., and survive to fight another day.
Thursday, March 26, 2026
Bigotry among young conservatives has Republicans on edge
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/03/26/gop-feuntes-trump-antisemitism-nationalism/
Many Republicans dismiss such party members even as white supremacists like Nick Fuentes gain popularity, but there’s growing unease at their presence in the rank and file.
At a conference on antisemitism this month in Washington, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) warned that he has seen more prejudice against Jewish people “in the last 18 months on the right than at any point in my lifetime,” and that “it is gaining real purchase, especially with young people.”
The fight against antisemitism is winning with “folks in this room with some gray or salt-and-pepper in their hair,” Cruz said.
“But in the college classroom,” he added, “I’m a lot less certain.”
Callousness Towards Bloodshed
On the topic of Chillul HaShem, but more directly related to an all too common absence of vigilance - often abject callousness - towards Sakonas Nefashos and basic Derech Eretz, before Yom Tov is a time to emphasize the need for elevated vigilance regarding road safety - for drivers, pedestrians, and especially those exceptionally dangerous scooters.
Living in Monsey, I very frequently witness such recklessness - in driving and scooting in particular - from those whose external appearance is clearly mechazeik the Chillul HaShem factor.Just yesterday, my non-Jewish cab driver very narrowly avoided a crash with someone who opted to attempt to make a wild turn that was, shall we say, as "artistic" as it was potentially lethal.With all of the bloodshed and threats our community is facing, perhaps we need to look in the mirror.To those aware of common attitudes towards Sakonas Nefashos, at least one message cannot be more obvious, as per the Gemara in Brachos דף ה עמוד א, רש"י פישפש ולא מצא - as elucidated by Rav Chaim Volozhin in Ru'ach Chaim on Avos 4:11 - תשובה ומעשים טובים כתריס בפני הפורענות. Also see Nefesh HaChayim 3:29.We need to look at sins corresponding to the tribulations we're facing. This isn't very complicated. If we're frequently tolerating endangerment of lives, is it a surprise that we're facing unrelenting threats to our safety? That selection of Ru'ach Chaim concludes with a chilling warning: If we refuse to heed the Divine wake-up call - even if we repent for sins others than those HaShem is signaling us to rectify - the yisurin will not stop.** In addition, the recklessness of local officials - and their enabling, influential community "leaders" - in allowing hyper-greedy, self-centered real-estate developers to build narcissistically, without any regard for public safety, and thereby contribute to the casualty count on the roads - is another ongoing avlah for which many in our community must answer.On a positive note, I found the opportunity to make a small kiddush HaShem by tipping the driver, extra, after expressing sympathy for what he encounters regularly on the roads.Having said that, this is just one area of urgently needed improvement. There are several additional acute communal shortfalls, clearly corresponding to increasing community endangerment, that need to be rectified immediately.Overall communal silence in confronting the institutionalization of murder -- be it in the form of Physician-Assisted poisoning of the medically vulnerable ("Assisted "Suicide")**, or abortion-at-whim legislation, including Trump Administration support for homicidal abortion drugs (that every irresponsible mother or father can obtain and abuse) -- are prominent examples of communal failures - breaches that also constitute an ongoing public Chillul HaShem which receives almost no attention - beyond in a few select venues, including our weekly Thursday radio program, LevinAt11, at 11pm.
In Eretz Yisroel, they face similar challenges. Why, for one topical example, do we see frequent demonstrations against the infringements of the Lite-Rail - and practically not a peep against the institutionalization of the abortions of over two million Jewish babies - far more than murdered by all external enemies combined, despite the formidable frum influence within the government?
Nor do we see very many such demonstrations against that which physically and spiritually endangers the next generation of Jewish mothers, namely, the institutionalization of the female draft of "nonreligious" girls - who don't have the figment of recourse to the "religiosity exemption.". The "religious exemption" is an Israeli military draft exemption which has, in any case, in recent years become far less accessible to girls from weaker backgrounds, or without political protexia.The fact that, overall, communal leadership is derelict in speaking out against these glaring iniquities, among others, arguably even worse (pertaining to LGBTQ), is not a potair, but rather a mechayev to do what we each can to rise to the occasion to hold back חרון אף השם.May we merit the Ge'ulah by - at least very belatedly - combating its impediments - as if it really makes a difference, because it truly does.Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter,
Executive Director,
Help Rescue Our Children
845.642.1679
Direct: 771.215.8892
Israeli Helpline: 03.721.3337
Tomim Tih'yeh [countering "New-Age" infiltration]:
Presentations on New-Age dangers: 605-313-6831 ext. 2
Heard weekly on New Jersey's WSNR Radio 620AM, co-hosting the renowned Levin At Eleven program, every Thursday evening, 11pm to midnight (ET).
~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
Fox News Poll: Voters oppose action in Iran but give US military positive marks
Forty-two percent support the current U.S. military action against Iran, and 58% oppose it, including nearly 4 in 10 who are strongly opposed.
The partisan divide is stark: 77% of Republicans support the effort compared to 12% of Democrats and 28% of independents. Within the GOP, support ranges from 90% among MAGA supporters to 52% of non-MAGA Republicans.
Voters largely agree that the most important U.S. objectives in Iran should be reducing its ability to support terrorism in the region (70%), ending Iran’s nuclear weapons program (69%), and protecting the flow of oil from the region (66%). A slim majority says the same about bringing about regime change (53%).
Trump disapproval highest in both terms: Fox News poll
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5801661-trump-disapproval-rating-fox-poll/?tbref=hp
President Trump’s disapproval rating hit its highest rating across both of his terms, according to a new Fox News poll.
The survey, released Wednesday, found that 59 percent of registered voters do not approve of Trump’s handling of the presidency, with 47 percent who say they strongly disapprove. Another 41 percent said the opposite, with roughly half of that number, 22 percent, saying they strongly approve of his job performance.
Respondents also largely disapprove of Trump’s foreign policy agenda, with 62 percent who disapprove overall and 64 percent who specifically said they do not approve of his handling of the conflict with Iran.
Trump is baffled that Iran won’t end the war he started
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/26/politics/trump-iran-peace-talks-us-troops-analysis
Iran doesn’t seem to be susceptible to the art of the deal.
President Donald Trump is desperate to sell the story that the Islamic Republic is ready to end the war.
But there’s no public sign yet from Tehran that it’s poised to help him walk back a crisis that he triggered by obliterating his own previous diplomatic effort nearly four weeks ago.