Robert Besser is a news editor who has worked in television and newspapers in the United States, Asia and the Middle East.
Sukkot 2026 saw hundreds of thousands of Jews converge on Jerusalem, in a tradition dating back perhaps to King Solomon, some 29 centuries ago.
In Jerusalem, the Sukkot crowds booked every hotel room, jammed restaurants, crowded stores, streets, buses and trains.
While wandering Jerusalem it was impossible not to witness the bible come to life as Jews thronged the Kotel and adjacent plaza, and enormous crowds gathered to celebrate Sukkot.
In Jerusalem and throughout Israel there were endless demonstrations of passion, enthusiasm and devotion during Sukkot 2026, which ensures us that עם ישראל חי the people of Israel live……and are thriving spectacularly.
With gratitude let us recall that there were only 60,000 Jews in Israel in 1918, while today there are 7.7 million Jews.
Israel’s hospitals and universities are among the finest in the world. Our research centers are second to none. Our cities are truly a joy to behold.
And critically in 2026, the opportunities available to Jews within Israel or those making aliyah--in education, in business, in science, in yeshivot and seminaries--make Israel unrecognizable from earlier years.
Yet all of this, the returning of the Jews to Israel and the building of a great nation, is in serious jeopardy of being destroyed by the continued existence of Iran.
Since US President Jimmy Carter, a man whose intellect was on par with former Vice President Kamala Harris, gave the OK to the ayatollahs to create Iran in 1979, there has not been one day in which the Iranians did not scream ‘Death to Israel.’ Not one day!
Meanwhile, how many Jews have died in South America, Europe, Israel and Asia because of Jimmy Carter’s gift of Iran to Moslem terrorists?
Move forward to today, where we are being told to be good Jews and sit quietly as Iran works to complete its nuclear bomb. They already have developed their missile delivery systems. Very soon, all Iran will need to do is strap a nuclear warhead onto a missile, target Israel and light the fuse.
As the Moslem countries have learned that they cannot destroy Israel with conventional warfare, the nuclear bomb gives them a new opportunity to strike Israel without warning, in a war which will only last minutes.
The always-frightened West has repeatedly told Israelis to be patient because the Iranian people will one day rise up and overthrow the corrupt ayatollahs.
However, anyone with two eyes can see that totalitarian regimes such as Cuba and North Korea, whose people we were told would also overthrow their corrupt governments, remain in power.
Why? Because totalitarian regimes know that as long as they control the violence--the police and army--they can keep hold of power. Critically, such regimes also know that if they brutally suppress any alternative government which might arise---then their futures are secure.
Western leaders, one after another, happily lied to Israel when they declared that Iran would never obtain a nuclear bomb. And neither individually or collectively do the Western countries have the will to stop Iran from anything the ayatollahs choose to do.
Of course Iran must build a stockpile of nuclear bombs if the ayatollahs want to survive. For the Iranians have drawn the obvious conclusions from their North Korean allies who are shielded by their own bomb.
And when Iran has their bomb, the always-appeasing West will then demand that Israel absorb an Iranian first strike before we receive Western permission to retaliate.
Israel knows this because we have heard it before. Do not act first, the Americans and French told Israel before the Six-Day War. Do not strike first, the Americans told Golda Meir in 1973. Yet Prime Minister Levi Eshkol did not listen in 1967, and Israel lost 776 soldiers in the wildly successful June war. However, Golda did as she was ordered and did not strike first, and Israel lost 2,500 soldiers during the Yom Kippur War.
And to further understand Western appeasement, we now learn that US President Joe Biden, the man who disgraced America when he surrendered to the Taliban in Afghanistan, sent generals to Jerusalem after October 7 who urged Israel not to wage war against the Gaza Arabs.
Dropping two primitive atomic bombs on Japan in 1945, the Americans killed as many as 246,000 Japanese.
But today, as we have advanced the science of killing, how many Jews in Israel will have to die if there is an Iranian first strike?
And to prevent an Iranian nuclear attack, what is Israel’s choice except to strike first?
What have we Jews learned since October 7? Among the most important lessons is that Moslem hatred of the Jews cannot be appeased. Period.
We also have learned that Iran cannot be deterred, since they are motivated by a radical messianic Islam which no Western logic can penetrate.
And no Western mind is honest enough to even acknowledge.
Many of the appeasers will say Israel must negotiate a settlement with Iran. But the Arabs brag that Moslem tradition demands that peace treaties are only moments of quiet so they can rearm for the next conflict.
And we must not disregard the regional impact of Iran obtaining nuclear arms, which will trigger other Arab countries to seek their own weapons to protect themselves.
And because they are Moslems, who can say that these countries will not also point their nuclear weapons at Israel?
The New York Times reports that the Pentagon is preparing a three-day military campaign against Iran and three US aircraft carriers are headed to the Middle East, but it is unclear what ther real plan is.
What then is our choice, except to strike Iran first?
Since their creation in 1979, the Iranian leaders have delivered on their promises of non-stop jihad. Clearly their Islam is a religion that knows only death and destruction.
And after nearly fifty years, the ayatollahs, Islam and Iran still scream that they are coming to kill the Jews in Israel.
Now, we Jews know too well what the world order will do when the Iranian missiles have their nuclear warheads strapped on and are pointed at Israel.
The countries in the West will pronounce meaningless words of support for us, which will be their passive way of offering a green light for the Iranians to destroy Israel.
Jewish history shows us that Israel will only survive if we Jews are prepared to act alone. And if we must preemptively use our most terrible weapons to at last destroy the Iranian regime and ensure the future of Israel, then so be it.
During the first round of the most recent war against Iran we saw how different are the Iranian ayatollahs from the rest of us.
They clearly did not care how much their people suffered due to war, as their single goal during the recent conflict was for their leadership to survive.
For when they climbed out of the holes they were hiding in they declared victory over America, and much of the world agreed and celebrated.
Unfortunately, time is never on the Jews’ side, and in Israel we are not given a moment to breathe.
Just days ago, on September 30, the harsh realities of living with Moslem enemies was once again learned by Israel, this time on FlyDubai flight 1073 while traveling at 30,000 feet.
A Moslem savage co-piloting an aircraft carrying 180 Israelis tried to kill his pilot and then crash the plane inside Israel, presumably within Tel Aviv. However, the Israelis on board took matters into their own hands, stormed the cockpit, subdued the terrorist co-pilot and the plane landed safely.
Of course, this is the lesson Israel must absorb in dealing with a nuclear Iran. We only have ourselves. Israel has no allies.
And in the face of an inevitable nuclear war with Iran, Israel must act in every way available to stop the mad ayatollahs.
We Jews have not worked so hard and sacrificed so much just so Moslem lunatics in Iran can throw nuclear bombs at us and destroy the dream we carried with us for 2,000 years.
So right now, today, before dinner, is the time to act. From the land, from the sky, from below the waters----the Jews have prepared the means to strike Iran and save Israel, and to save our children and to save our grandchildren.
For now is the time to permanently end the Iranian threat, since the Iranians have proven to us that there is no other way.
The Moslem Arabs came running to kill us in Jerusalem and Hebron in 1929. And as five invading armies struck in 1948, they again came to kill us. Yet again the Arabs gathered armies in 1967 and 1973 so they could kill us.
And Arab savages marched into Maalot in 1974 to kill us.
And the Arabs hijacked Air France Flight 139 in 1976 and flew to Entebbe to kill us.
And they walked into Jerusalem’s Sbarro Pizza in 2001 to kill us.
And they invaded our 2002 Passover seder in Netanya to kill us.
jAnd the Arab Moslems crossed the Gaza border on October 7 to kill us.
Every day the Iranians say they will kill us. So now, right now, let us show the Arabs and the world what happens to those who threaten Israel.
Let us say damn Western appeasement, let us save Jewish lives, and let Israel strike first.
Let us strike first against Iran, and do it right now. Because they are coming to kill us.