Dear Friends,
President Trump announced this week that the United States and Iran are about to sign a memorandum of understanding — a deal he says will end the war, strip Iran of its enriched uranium, and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
I am a great admirer of President Trump, and I shudder to think what kind of world we would be living in had Kamala Harris won that election. But gratitude does not require us to close our eyes. And when I look clearly at what is unfolding, I see a hard truth: Iran's strategy worked.
Go back to February 28th, the night this war began. President Trump stood before the nation and laid out four objectives — destroy Iran's missiles, annihilate its navy, end its funding of terror proxies like Hezbollah and the Houthis, and ensure the regime never obtains a nuclear weapon. He told the Iranian people their hour of freedom was at hand.
Now look at the deal on the table. The missiles are off the agenda. The proxies are off the agenda. The IRGC butchers who were told to lay down their arms or face certain death are still standing — and soon, with released funds flowing into Tehran, they'll be paid again to keep crushing the very people we told to rise up.
The regime survived. Survival was the whole point. Bruised but intact, they will keep their heads down until this administration ends, then rebuild with help from China and Russia.
The most alarming part? Iran's foreign minister is claiming this memorandum requires an end to the fighting "across all fronts" — including Lebanon. Iran wants Washington to force Israel to halt its operations against Hezbollah and withdraw from the north, while Hezbollah keeps its rockets aimed at our communities.
Prime Minister Netanyahu made Israel's position unmistakable: Israel is not a party to this agreement. We will not allow our hands to be tied by a deal cut between America and the terror state that has spent forty-seven years vowing our destruction. If Iran truly wants Lebanon included, then let the deal disarm Hezbollah. Anything less is not peace — it is surrender dressed up as diplomacy.
There is a deeper danger here, and it is not military but psychological. Across the region, Iran is being seen as the power that stood against America and Israel and did not break. That perception erodes the deterrence Israel has spent years and blood to build.
King David understood that a nation's security rests on more than treaties signed by men. "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we call upon the name of the Lord our God" (Psalms 20:8). Deals can be broken. The Guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps (Psalms 121:4).
Let me leave you with a measure of hope. I don't believe Iran will actually concede on the issues that matter — they haven't budged on a single real point — so I expect these talks to stall before they produce anything binding. And I trust that the President's team knows exactly who they're dealing with.
Let us pray for a good outcome, let us keep our eyes open in the days ahead, and let us stand with Israel as she does what she has always had to do: defend herself, by her own hand, for her own people.
Sincerely,
Rabbi Pesach Wolicki
Executive Director, Israel365 Action
