https://thehill.com/homenews/5362296-trump-us-bombs-iran/
President Trump announced Saturday the United States had bombed three Iranian nuclear sites, including the Fordow site that is located in a mountainside.
“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
https://mishpacha.com/wars-easier-to-start-than-finish/
Did President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu collude to deceive Iran by creating the impression that the US opposed the IDF taking military action while negotiations over a nuclear deal were still underway? Or did Netanyahu act alone, fearing that Trump would strike a deal with Iran that would garner international support, making it impossible for Israel to attack Iran without becoming a pariah state? There is a lot of spin in both directions. The truth may lie somewhere in between, but it’s irrelevant now.
The mixed messaging serves both American and Israeli purposes. Israel has an interest in demonstrating that Trump and Netanyahu are in sync. Trump is playing a more difficult hand. He boasts of Israel’s military prowess, pleasing his pro-Israel constituency, while his insistence that America is not involved in Israeli strikes and his call to Iran to resume negotiations reassure his domestic right-wing base that he is adhering to his policy of keeping the US out of foreign entanglements.
Regardless, Israel has made significant progress in restoring its deterrent posture with a diversified and well-planned preemptive strike against Iran, which doomsayers claimed Israel could never achieve alone, while also absolving Trump of any blame. Assuming that Iran lacks the desire or capability to restart talks, Trump is no longer at risk of damaging his reputation as a dealmaker by either entering into an agreement that Iran would never honor or being forced to admit that the negotiations had failed.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-close-was-iran-to-the-bomb-and-how-far-has-israel-pushed-it-back/
The more we learn, the clearer it becomes that Israel struck in the nick of time: Iran was very close to the bomb. Its ballistic missiles were becoming a dire threat. And then there’s that derided ‘Destruction of Israel Plan’
Igros Moshe (YD IV #36.11) Question: Doesn’t the Talmud and Rishonim indicate that working at a job is required? Answer I don’t understand why you cite the gemora in Kiddushin (29a) that a father is obligated to teach his son a trade and if not it is consider the son was taught to steal. Or the statement at the end of Kiddushin that a father most teach his son a trade which seems to be the view of the Rashba. This seems to indicate that this is the halacha. In fact all it shows is an obligation to teach a trade . It simply means he should ensure the son gets a good Torah education so that he can teach others or be a rabbi of a community and thus have parnossa.
Igros Moshe (IV #36.14) Question: Those students who are not successful in their Torah study should they leave yeshiva and study secular subjects? Answer Are you claiming it is because of a lack of intelligence but they are intelligent for secular subjects? The fact is that concerning Torah anyone can improve with study even those who can’t study it in depth as long as they have a working memory. This is aslso considered growing in Torah and sometimes the ability of in depth study develops and it is possible to become great in Torah knowledge. It is not like medicine and other secular study where misunderstanding can result in harm. In fact the opposite is true. The ignorance in Torah can be harmful to his soul.
Igros Moshe (IV #36.14) Question Is it permitted for unsuccessful students to leave yeshiva to study other subjects. You write that there are many yeshiva students who are afraid of sin and therefore they are not involved in the needs of daily life and they sit in yeshiva with an open sefer but they don’t actually learn anything and thus there learning is not successful. Answer It can’t be that they make such an error but their real motivation is that they are simply lazy. Even if they were actually learning according to their abilities but they were not going into depth but merely skimming the material this is being lazy and is considered serious bitul Torah . They need to be chastised and explained the error of their ways. If they don’t accept this from their peers they need to hear it from the rosh hayeshiva.
Igros Moshe (Y.D. I #223): You bring from Sefer HaIkkarim (4:15) that the reason that Moshe did not break the Tablets immediately when G‑d told him that the Jews had made the Golden Calf was because seeing is more powerfully real than knowledge. In my humble opinion, G‑d forbid to say that when Moshe heard about the Golden Calf that it was less significant to him than when he saw it himself - even in terms of emotional response. A possible explanation of why he broke the Tablets only after seeing the Golden Calf, because G‑d did not tell him about their enthusiastic dancing and therefore he thought it would be enough if they saw him - to completely repent immediately. However when he saw their enthusiastic dancing he realized that they would not so readily repent and therefore he broke the Tablets. You can also say that that he waited to break them so that the Jewish people could see him break the Tablets and realize the great loss they had caused because of the sin of the Golden Calf. This is stated explicitly in Devorim (9:14), “I broke the Tablets before their eyes.” This implies that he deliberately did it before their eyes. In addition it says later more explicitly in Devarim (34:12), “Before the eyes of all Israel.” Rashi explains this verse to mean that he intended to break the Tablets before their eyes. If so he had don possibility of breaking it when he first heard from G‑d about the Calf before he descended from the mountain. He was thus forced to wait until he descended so they could all see that he was breaking the Tablets. In contrast regarding hearing something from another person it is definitely true that seeing is more powerful in eliciting emotions and there is no need to bring a proof to something so obvious.
Igros Moshe (O.C. III #50): I replied to you many years ago and my reply was printed in my Igros Moshe (1:223) that G‑d forbid to say about Moshe that what he saw with his own eyes was much more real than what he heard from G‑d and that is the reason that he only broke the Tablets after he saw the Golden Calf with his own eyes. Now you write to me that the Akeidas Yitzchok also shares the view of the Sefer HaIkkarim. I in fact looked into the Sefer HaIkkarim and I saw that in fact he agrees with my view that there is no difference between hearing information from G‑d to seeing it oneself. He brings a medrash that the reason that Moshe didn’t break the Tablets previously was in order to inform the Jews that it is prohibited to act on knowledge – even absolutely certain knowledge until it is directly witnessed… The Akeidas Yitzchok himself wanted to say that Moshe wanted to break the Tablets in front of the Jews in order to magnify the message to increase their discomfort at sinning. This is a strong reason and I my explanation anticipates this as I wrote previously.
In contrast in Darash Moshe (Yisro 18:01) For everyone hearing about something is not the same as seeing. Even if what is heard is known to be true as what is seen it doesn’t get accepted in his mind and emotion and have the same impact as seeing. We see this even with Moshe who did not break the Tablets until he saw the Golden Calf even though he had heard about it from G-d.
The ideological battle over what “America First” means in the Trump era is intensifying in wake of Israel’s strikes on Iran, splitting the MAGA right and testing its relationships with the president.
On one side, noninterventionist doves insist the Trumpian tagline means the president must avoid U.S. troops, resources or dollars going toward the conflict, for fear of getting dragged into an endless war.
“Anyone slobbering for the U.S. to become fully involved in the Israel/Iran war is not America First/MAGA,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) posted Sunday on the social platform X.
But on the other end, foreign policy hawks and supporters of Israel are appealing to President Trump’s position that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon, and encouraging him to leave all options — including direct military intervention — on the table.
“How is it not AMERICA FIRST to congratulate those who just made sure Islamists who chant ‘DEATH TO AMERICA’ and who openly plotted to assassinate President @realDonaldTrump never have an opportunity to have a nuke?” right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer posted on X over the weekend.
https://thehill.com/homenews/5354764-trump-gabbard-iran-intelligence-assessment/?tbref=hp
President Trump rejected his own director of national intelligence’s assessment of Iran’s nuclear capabilities in remarks as he returned from the Group of Seven summit in Alberta, Canada, a day early to weigh America’s response to escalating airstrikes between Israel and Iran.
Tulsi Gabbard testified before Congress in March that while Iran had an “unprecedented” stockpile of weapons-grade uranium, the country did not appear to be building a nuclear weapon.
“I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having one,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One in the wee hours of Tuesday morning in response to a direct question about Gabbard’s testimony.
CNN reported Tuesday that American intelligence assessments continued to say Iran was not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon and was up to three years out from being able to launch one. Israel has claimed Iran was approaching a crucial tipping point for developing nuclear capabilities as justification for its airstrikes.
American spy agencies stand by their assessment that Iran hasn’t decided to build a nuclear weapon, but Trump now says Tehran is ‘very close.’
https://www.emess.co.il/radio/1726011
בעקבות היעדר מיגון בישיבת 'תורה בתפארתה', הורה מרן הגר"ד לנדו לסגור את הישיבה: "אם אין מרחב מוגן – הבחורים ילמדו בבית". ראש הישיבה עדכן את התלמידים כי מדובר בפיקוח נפש והם נשלחו לבתיהם
