Ernest Hemingway opined: “Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. Ask the infantry and ask the dead.”

Jewish tradition supports wars of self-defense, to restore justice, prevent genocide, and to ensure the survival and continuity of the Jewish people. Before going to war, however, every possibility must be explored diplomatically to resolve disputes between nations, and then once wars begin, every effort must be made to protect innocent life.  

Israeli fears about Iran as an existential threat are justified based upon Iran’s consistent threat to destroy the State of Israel. The Obama Administration’s painstaking negotiated agreement with Iran (the JCPOA) that was finalized in Vienna on 14 July 2015 between Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—China, France, Russia, the U.K., U.S.—plus Germany) together with the European Union, took effect after 20 months of negotiations on 20 January, 2026. The deal was criticized by many political leaders in Israel and by many in America’s Republican Party. However, many Israeli retired generals and security officials argued at the time that the deal could be effective and was worthwhile, though imperfect. In fact, the deal achieved the following:

• Iran limited its uranium enrichment levels to 3.67% for 15 years;
• Iran reduced its stockpile of enriched uranium to 300 kg, down from over 10,000 kg;
• The Arak heavy-water reactor was redesigned to prevent the production of weapons-grade plutonium;
• The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had enhanced access to monitor at every level Iran’s nuclear facilities;
• In exchange for Iran’s compliance, international sanctions on Iran were lifted, allowing for economic benefits;
• Key restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program were set to last for 10 to 15 years, with some provisions extending longer.

That deal was working well. Iran’s march to a nuclear bomb was essentially halted. Those who negotiated on behalf of the United States and the western nations acknowledged, however, that the deal wasn’t everything that they would have hoped to achieve. But, they said, when the deal would expire in 10 to 15 years, a new extension could be negotiated that would continue what had already been achieved, and that the control of Iranian ballistic missile production could be added along with other limitations on Iran’s worst instincts and behavior.

Donald Trump, in his obsessive effort to reverse everything President Obama did, tore up the deal on 8 May 2018 without any thought to develop a plan to replace it. Iran immediately accelerated its march to the development of a nuclear weapon.

The dire consequences of Trump’s cancellation of the working Iran deal led to this war. Trump went to war unilaterally without the consent of Congress, without clear and achievable goals, and with no international allies, beginning on 28 February. He wrongly expected that American air power would destroy Iran’s military and nuclear capability in two weeks. After almost five months of war, an estimated 1,700 or more Iranian civilians (including hundreds of children) have been killed, and 17 young American soldiers are dead. Now Trump thinks that bombing Iran from the air is going to bring that nation to its knees, an assumption that most Iran experts believe is a delusion.

Jennifer Rubin of The Contrarian (22 July 22 2026) summed up well the truth about this war:

“No decision has been as unpopular and humiliating for Trump as the decision to launch a harebrained war against Iran. The war has delivered on none of its goals — e.g., regime change; an end to Iran’s nuclear program or missile production — or even undone the reckless damage it caused, like ceding control of the Strait of Hormuz to Iran. Despite constant chest-thumping from Trump and his testosterone-obsessed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, the war has resulted in one military calamity after another, which civilian leaders have tried to minimize, hide, or simply lie about.”

Going to war has horrendous consequences, and I would hope that Congress turns down Pete Hegseth’s request yesterday before the Senate Appropriations Committee for $86.7 billion, what Senator Patty Murray of the State of Washington rightly called “another forever war.”

I offer a few insights into the awful nature of war and why going to war must be the very last option a nation undertakes:

“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.” -General Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)

“The only way human beings can win a war is to prevent it.” -General George Marshall (1880-1959)

“It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.” -General William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891)

“The one that is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.” -Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

“All war is a symptom of man’s failure as a thinking animal.” -John Steinbeck (1902-1968)

“The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions.” -Robert Lynd (1879-1949)

“People may go to war when they will but cannot always withdraw when they like.” -Nicolo Machiavelli (1649-1527)

“War, at first, is the hope that one will be better off; next, the expectation that the other fellow will be worse off; then, the satisfaction that he isn’t any better off; and, finally, the surprise at everyone’s being worse off.” Karl Kraus (1874-1936)

“The force which makes for war does not derive its strength from the interested motives of evil [people]; it derives its strength from the disinterested motives of good [people].” -Norman Angell, (1872-1967)

“In the nuclear era, the enemy is war itself.” -From the film Crimson Tide, spoken by Mr. Hunter, played by Denzel Washington

“War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.” -John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)

“That’s the terrible hypnotism of war, the brute mass-impulse, the pride and national spirit, the instinctive simplicity of human beings that makes them worship what is their own above everything else. I’ve thrilled and shouted with patriotic pride, like everyone else. Music and flags and [people] marching in step have bewitched me, as they do all of us. And then I’ve gone home and sworn to root this evil instinct out of my soul. God help [us] — let’s love the world, love humanity — not just our own country!” -Christopher Morley (1890-1957)

“No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.” -Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)

“I’m fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young [people] to die in.” -George McGovern (1922-2012)

“Any leader who does not hesitate before sending young men and woman to war, doesn’t deserve to be a leader.” -Golda Meir (1898-1978)

“It is easier to lead those to combat, stirring up their passion, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labors of peace.” -Andre Gide (1869-1951)

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” –General Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)

“I hate with a murderous hatred those who, having lived their youth, would send into war other youth, not lived, unfulfilled, to fight and die for them; the pride and cowardice of those old men, making their wars that boys must die.”  -Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958)

“When the sword is drawn, peace is lost.” Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 58a

“In times of war, the Torah teaches us to seek peace.” –Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 59b

“Who is mighty? The one who subdues the [evil] inclination, as it is said: ‘The one that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and the one who rules one’s spirit than the one that takes a city’ (Proverbs 16:32)” -Mishnah, Sayings of the Sages 4:1

“Whoever saves one life saves an entire world” -Mishnah, Sanhedrin 4:5