A Synagogue in Belgium. Soldiers in Lebanon. · Liberty Politics Discussion

A Synagogue in Belgium. Soldiers in Lebanon.

"I lift my eyes to the mountains, where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, maker of heaven and earth." (Psalms 121:1-2)

In March, someone attacked a synagogue in Liege, Belgium. This week, Belgian police finally identified the suspects. The story barely made the news when it happened. The identification barely made the news now.

A synagogue, a place where Jewish families pray, where kids go to learn their heritage, where communities have gathered for generations, was attacked in a Western European city, and it got two paragraphs in the international press. We know that if someone had attacked any other house of worship in Liege, the coverage would have looked very different. We all know that. And yet we've quietly accepted this double standard as the new normal.

Jewish communities across Europe are making security decisions right now that would have been unimaginable thirty years ago. Armed guards at Shabbat dinners. Children walking to Hebrew school past security cameras. Since October 7, antisemitism in Europe got louder, angrier, and less embarrassed about itself. The Liege attack is one data point. There are thousands more.

Now to the front lines, because the front lines haven't stopped.

Four IDF soldiers, including two officers, were wounded in southern Lebanon on the night of June 25, in a direct clash with a Hezbollah gunman. A ceasefire is nominally in effect. Israel has been striking Hezbollah positions. Hezbollah has been probing IDF lines. The soldiers who were wounded last night were defending Israeli communities in the north that spent years being bombarded by Hezbollah rockets.

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem had the nerve this week to declare the US-Iran agreement "a defeat for Israel and America," then demand that Israel leave every inch of Lebanese soil with no gains, no normalization, and no partial presence. I think what he's really saying is: Hezbollah wants the clock turned back to before the war. Back to when it had 150,000 rockets pointed at Israeli cities and Israel had no buffer zone. That's the demand. Israel's answer has been no. That's the right answer.

On the nuclear question.

The US and Iran signed their memorandum of understanding nine days ago. Already they can't agree on what's in it. The IAEA's Grossi says Iranian nuclear sites will be inspected under the current deal. Iran says that's wrong, inspections only happen after a final agreement is reached. Technical teams are flying back to Switzerland next week to try to figure out what was actually agreed to.

I think if you need to have emergency technical meetings nine days after signing a deal to clarify whether inspections were agreed to, the deal was not ready to be signed. We know how this movie goes. The JCPOA in 2015 was supposed to block Iran's path to a nuclear weapon. Instead it gave Iran sanctions relief, time, and legitimacy while its program advanced. I'm not going to pretend this is different until Iran gives us a real reason to believe it is. The burden of proof is on them.

But we should always remember, while Jewish and Israeli security being negotiated, dismissed, or threatened, and the responsibility for protecting it falling, as it always has, on Israel and on the Jewish people.

That's not self-pity. That's history.

It's why Israel fights the way it does. It's why the IDF doesn't wait to be told it can defend itself. And it's why, even when the international community grows impatient with Israel's insistence on holding its ground, Israel holds its ground anyway.

Because we know what happens when it doesn't.

BLESS ISRAEL.

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A Synagogue in Belgium. Soldiers in Lebanon.