Israel–US–Iran War: Exposing a World Already Burning |
This is a Passover meditation on freedom, power, and the viral cruelty infecting the world. The Israel–US–Iran War became the flashpoint that exposed worldwide moral toxins—cruelty, conflict, and instability.
Are you apprehensive, confused, and disappointed by what’s happening? Each day seems to bring another fracture in the ethical foundations most of us were raised to cherish. The maxims we grew up with — tell the truth, be kind, protect the vulnerable, and safeguard our children — feel increasingly fragile. How could Epstein and his co‑conspirators have preyed on victims for decades, only for survivors to continue being pushed aside, dismissed, or forgotten? Power met depravity, and too many people participated or looked away, while victims suffered.
Across the country, we are witnessing the chaos that erupts when principled norms in government begin to erode. Immigration raids in schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods have left families terrified and entire communities destabilized. Children have been detained, separated from parents, and even handcuffed — stark images of how quickly humanitarian boundaries can collapse. In the most extreme cases, people such as Alex Pretti and Nicole Renee Good — both US citizens — were killed during federal operations, reminders of the human cost when enforcement becomes untethered from ethics. As long‑standing guardrails fall away, the result is a landscape defined by fear and confusion, with the basic principles of dignity and fairness no longer guiding public policy.
We see several Epstein survivors on the nightly news who appear well‑spoken and composed. This is not their private reality. This horror has never left them. That’s why they are still fighting — for themselves and for those too afraid to expose their trauma to the public or to the perpetrators who harmed them. How many victims found they couldn’t function after their experiences—and how many chose suicide to stop the pain? When the DOJ released unredacted victims’ personal information, how many were forced into the disclosure they had spent years avoiding — coerced into telling family and friends what happened before they were ready to reveal their agony? I hope they all find the help they deserve — not in backrooms with NDAs, but as proud survivors who fought to be heard and succeeded.
According to a New York Times analysis, President Donald Trump appears more than 38,000 times in the released Epstein files. He denies wrongdoing with Epstein. Additionally, the Department of Justice has been found to be covering up and excluding documents that protect perpetrators of rape and sexual assault — redacting their names while disseminating the names, addresses, and phone numbers of the victims. Unconscionable.
One personally hurtful person listed was Deepak Chopra. I learned to meditate through his and Oprah’s 21‑day programs, which I’ve used for more than a decade. I loved the teachings he offered before each meditation — they grounded me.
According to an analysis reported by International Business Times UK, Deepak Chopra appears more than 4,100 times in the Epstein files — emails, texts, and documented interactions.
Some of the disturbing quotes reported by CNN from the DOJ‑released files include:
“Bring your girls,” Chopra wrote to Epstein while inviting him on a trip to Israel.
Multiple emails show Chopra referring to Epstein’s entourage as “your girls.”
“God is a construct. Cute girls are real.”
Epstein to Chopra: “I liked watching you zero in on your prey.”
Chopra replied: “I’m not a predator, just a lover.”
These messages make me want to take a shower. The emails were written between 2016 and 2019, after Epstein’s criminal history became public.
Chopra has since said the emails reflect “poor judgment in tone.”
No kidding — but they indicate far more than “poor judgment,”— he seems willing to let himself off the hook. I’ve been debating whether to continue using his meditations. Hearing his voice now leaves me with revulsion. I remind myself that what he teaches are not his own insights, but deep lessons drawn from Indian spiritual and cultural traditions. I feel played — wouldn’t you? His authenticity blew up for me — poof!
Just last week, after years of silence, he released a new 21‑day meditation program called “Awakenings.” Can you believe it? He’s teaching us how to wake up? He’d better listen to his own lessons.
Of all places, Epstein invited him to Israel? Hasn’t Israel suffered enough bad press? Yes, there are reasons for it — but that’s another story. Antisemitism plays a role, but Israel has also supplied the evidence, to be reported accurately or distorted. First Gaza, and now Iran and its proxies. Self-defense? Absolutely. Israel has been victimized for its entire existence, and our people long before that.
As I’ve said previously, Netanyahu is a right-fighter. He is politically far-right, but he also believes he is doing what is right. Many agree with him. However, there are those who believe he is warring to avoid being pushed out of office — but again, that’s another sidetrack.
The ugly representation of Israel was predictable. We’ve known for years that Hamas intentionally uses civilians as human shields, building their terror tunnels beneath hospitals, schools, and mosques. To stop Hamas from continuing to fire missiles or store weapons in these locations, Israel would have to destroy them — and it is tragically foreseeable that innocents would be killed, including children, hospital patients, and people praying in mosques.
Achieving deterrence should not have been the only consideration. Although Israel often feels isolated and must act on its own, it cannot afford to ignore the world’s opinion. Israel is portrayed as a pariah. Antisemites now seem to have a friend in a heedless Israeli government that handed them vast libraries of videos and photos — fodder for their Jew‑hatred and raw material for antisemitic narratives.
Beyond Israelis, the diaspora — Jews living outside Israel — are also paying the price. Israel has unintentionally exported the kinds of terrorist attacks it has endured for decades. And yet the diaspora has no ability to directly influence what the Israeli government chooses to do.
Arson attacks on Jewish institutions.
Explosive devices detonated outside synagogues and Jewish schools.
Shootings targeting synagogues and Jewish centers.
Gunfire directed at synagogues.
U.S. shootings at Jewish institutions and threats of mass violence.
Vehicle‑ramming attacks targeting Jewish pedestrians and buildings.
Vandalism of synagogues and Jewish property.
Physical assaults on Jewish individuals.
Online antisemitic threats and incitement.
Harassment and intimidation at schools and universities.
“Israeli Apartheid Week” events are often accompanied by antisemitic rhetoric.
Surveillance and targeting of Jewish communities by extremist or foreign‑linked groups.
Arrests in the UK for spying on Jewish locations on behalf of Iranian intelligence.
Foiled plots against synagogues, schools, and community leaders.
The list is staggering. Attending synagogue feels like going through a checkpoint as our purses and bodies are scanned with metal detectors by armed guards. Could you imagine that before Easter services?
Even the reason the world accepted Israel’s existence — the Holocaust — was the greatest scourge ever inflicted on the Jewish people. In my more cynical moments, I wonder whether some expected the “Final Solution” to simply continue once the Jewish state was established.
When Israel declared independence, six Arab countries immediately attacked: Egypt, Transjordan (Jordan), Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia.
Great Britain, the United States, the United Nations, and Russia all knew what was coming; the Arab states had openly warned of their intentions. No country came to the aid of the newly established state. The Jewish leaders believed the warnings and prepared the best they could, and a miracle happened. They survived. Israel — this tiny country — has transformed through the years, and with the help of the United States, now fields one of the most capable militaries in the world. They’ve had to. Am Yisrael Chai — the People of Israel live.
Instead of all the Arab countries attacking, some have even intercepted missiles aimed at Israel during this current war. Those hosting U.S. military bases have come under fire as well. Today, Israel maintains agreements with four Arab states — the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and (pending ratification) Sudan — through the Abraham Accords. Saudi Arabia and Syria have expressed interest but have not yet joined. What a difference a day makes.
Israel has grown strong in many areas beyond the military. From Nobel Prize–winning discoveries to life‑saving medical devices like the PillCam, ReWalk, artificial corneas, cancer‑screening tools, and breakthroughs in chemistry, mathematics, and AI, Israel has contributed disproportionately to global science, medicine, and technology.
Israel has proven itself a helpful neighbor. Across the Middle East, Arab states increasingly view Iran not as a partner but as a destabilizing, aggressive force — a threat so severe that it is pushing Gulf nations closer to Israel. For now, they seem content to let Israel and the United States do the dangerous work of confronting Iran.
It was a miracle that this newly born country survived and that the Jewish people returned home. However, we cannot ignore that others were living there at the time and have objected ever since. Israel’s Independence Day also created the Nakba — the “catastrophe” — as experienced by the Palestinians.
The good news is that many grassroots Peace organizations — made up of both Israelis and Palestinians — work together toward coexistence. Their stories are the heart of PEACE with Penny, my video podcast. We are working on several new episodes. Last year, we produced fewer because my focus was on addressing the surge of global antisemitism in my Times of Israel blogs.
University presidents told Congress that calls for genocide against Jews on their campuses needed to be evaluated “in context” before determining whether they violated school policies. Yes, that’s correct — I haven’t gone meshuga, as my mom would say. My incredulity has a shorthand: WTF. From politics to universities to K–12 schools, our people are being physically and verbally attacked. Politicians and influencers promote Jew‑hatred and historical tropes with impunity. Violence like this against any other minority would never be tolerated. Our children are being targeted from college to kindergarten. I wrote about this in my September 2024 Times of Israel blog, “As Our American K‑12 Children Return to School — What Hell Awaits Them?”
Given the rise of Holocaust denial, let’s review the truth: Six million Jews were murdered in industrialized killing factories, and other atrocities occurred, including:
Starvation and deliberate deprivation
Forced labor to exhaustion
Medical experimentation
Torture and physical abuse
Systematic theft and economic destruction
Deportations in sealed cattle cars
Targeted persecution of children
Cultural and spiritual destruction
For 78 years, Israelis have endured missiles, rockets, drones, suicide bombers, car‑rammings, stabbings and knife attacks, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), bus bombings, drive‑by shootings, mass‑shooting attacks, cross‑border infiltrations from Lebanon, Gaza (remember October 7th?), Sinai, and Syria, mortar attacks, lynchings and mob violence, attacks on embassies and diplomats, and international attacks such as the Munich Olympics massacre (1972) and assaults on Israeli tourists in Bulgaria, Kenya, and Argentina.
Then there are the “lesser” assaults, including:
Israeli academics disinvited from conferences
Israeli athletes barred from competitions in certain countries
Israeli films or artists removed from festivals
Boycotts of Israeli products, companies, or research collaborations
Israeli students harassed or excluded on some campuses
Cultural events featuring Israelis canceled due to pressure campaigns
It seems Israel has finally said: enough is enough. While Israel did not have knowledge of an immediate Iranian attack, the Defense Minister said the operation was necessary “to remove threats to the State of Israel” — referring to Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic‑missile capabilities. These are actions Israel has held in check for decades.
Yet what Israel views as protective measures are now often labeled as genocidal, racist, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, colonialism or settler‑colonialism, Zionist imperialism, war crimes, crimes against humanity, occupation, oppression, terrorism, rogue‑state behavior, and human‑rights violations.
Just because someone attaches a label doesn’t make it accurate. The problem is that when opponents apply these labels — and people see destruction and loss of life — they rarely ask why. They feel they’ve already seen too much and simply believe what they are told.
We all see the world through our own perspective. When working toward Peace, you must be willing to look from the “other’s” vantage point — and in these conflicts, extremes of action and opinion abound. Add the grief of lost families, friends, and homes, and you have a recipe for pain that goes beyond the physical, mental, and emotional.
How do you convince parents that they must live in Peace with the government that killed their child? At what point — regardless of intention — do people look at the numbers and judge for themselves? How can people replace leaders who want Peace through elections, or in the case of Iranians, by taking back their government?
In Israel, weekly protests continue against the war. Anti‑war and anti‑government demonstrators are demanding:
accountability for security failures
an end to the war with Iran
the rebuilding of public trust in institutions
We are thankful that all of the hostages are back. Israel is celebrating and mourning in the same breath because bringing them home does not erase the trauma of their captivity or the unbearable truth of those who did not return. Their families want answers — and an independent evaluation of what happened.
In the United States, elections once felt accurate and fair, but now — with fears of institutionalized tampering — many wonder what will happen next. At times, political loyalty seems to outweigh ethics and decency. Perhaps now, at least, the horrors of rape and child trafficking will be a line some finally refuse to cross.
Every year sets new records for rising antisemitism. Islamophobia is also a serious problem. Too often, minorities are treated as the “other” — with dire consequences.
In Iran, protesters are killed for standing up to the regime. Will this war lead to a new, sane government — or will the vacuum be filled, as in past conflicts, with still more misery?
Wars are complicated. I believe they are barbaric and not a true way to solve problems. I also understand that I do not know how to resolve a situation in which Iran and Hamas openly seek the annihilation of Israel and the Jewish people. How do you negotiate with those whose stated purpose is to destroy you? Greater minds than mine will have to grapple with that.
During Passover, I can’t help but think: as Jews, we are nothing if not resilient — and this current horror of the Israel–United States–Iran war will also pass.
The Passover story tells how the Israelites were freed from slavery in ancient Egypt — one of the most powerful narratives of liberation in Jewish history. We repeatedly face brutality and extinction, yet somehow, we break free and reclaim our freedom.
This season brings together the three Abrahamic faiths — Ramadan, Passover, and Easter. Each tradition celebrates goodness, reflection, charity, and compassion. Yet, how often are religious beliefs distorted and used to isolate or harm others?
These religions share deep similarities, but do we truly see one another that way? Acts of kindness, charity, love, and reflection are central to all three — yet too often they feel like isolated celebrations rather than shared values.
I hope your Ramadan was meaningful, and that your Passover and Easter will be spent with loved ones and moments of reflection. In the coming year, what can we each do to make this world safer, more loving, and more cooperative for our children? Amen.
Passover asks us to open our doors and our hearts. I want to close with the song in the video above — Craig Taubman’s newly released “Open the Door.” It arrives as a gentle but insistent reminder that even in a world unraveling with fear, hardness of heart, and moral decay, we still have agency. We can still choose compassion. We can still choose to open — to remember, to act responsibly, to defend the defenseless, and to be kind to one another.
This song invites us to open the door precisely when so many are closing theirs — against each other and against the world we share. It becomes a quiet act of resistance, and a deeply Jewish one: to keep our humanity intact when the world around us is losing its moral compass.
Chag Sameah! (Happy Passover), Happy Easter! I hope you had a great Ramadan!
May You Live in Peace, שלום and سلام. Amen.