Iran’s Diplomatic Advantage: Why Military Wins Fall Short
The shameful surrender of the United States to Iran, and its more or less complete acceptance of the terms of the regime of evil, illustrates once again that even the most brilliant military victory cannot create a new reality without diplomatic momentum.
While the United States and Israel defeat Iran again and again on the battlefield, at the negotiating table the United States emerges battered and bleeding, and Israel, as its dragged-along ally, also bears the severe consequences.
The question, then, is why this always happens. Why do the Iranians manage to achieve in the diplomatic arena what they failed to achieve militarily? And more than that, how is it that terrorist organizations and Arab states also win significant diplomatic achievements against Israel, even though Israel defeats them again and again on the battlefield?
If we examine reality coldly and rationally, we discover that against all the military, economic, technological, and other advantages that the United States and Israel possess over their enemies, there is one area in which the enemy enjoys absolute superiority: belief in the justice of its cause and a precise definition of the essence of the struggle.
The Trump-Vance administration placed its cards on the table with complete clarity: the United States entered the war because of oil and dollars, and the overthrow of the evil regime that threatens to destroy Israel was never a goal worth sacrificing American soldiers or economic interests for.
While the Iranians see money and control over oil reserves as tools for advancing the ideology of Islamic domination over the world, the Americans view all reality through the dollar. All other considerations are merely instruments serving the coveted goal of control over global trade.
When these are the relations of power, it is very easy to understand how we arrived where we are, and why all military successes cannot stand against the Iranian vision, which understands that man does not live by the dollar alone.
Israel now stands at a crossroads and must choose between two possibilities.
It can continue to be an American appendage, to see, like America, the purpose of its existence as prosperity and economic comfort, and the results will follow accordingly. Not only against Iran, but against the many enemies surrounding us and thirsting for our blood.
So long as we present a vision of “Israel as a nation like all other nations,” so long as our Zionism is merely a Zionism of a safe refuge for the Jewish people and nothing more, so long as our aspirations revolve around Moody’s credit rating and joining the ranks of the leading OECD countries, so long as we are another star on the American flag not only because of political subjugation, but even more because of value-based subjugation to American materialism, we will always stand at a disadvantage before an enemy that can strike us with primitive tractors, axes, and kitchen knives, because he believes in the justice of his path and his vision is clear before him.
But there is another possibility.
We do not have to be part of the moral rot created by Western society. We can act with vision. We can act with Torah. We can act with a correct and rooted understanding that our war against the enemy is a war of good against evil, and that it is meant to repair the world morally.
Call it messianism if you wish. I do not care. On the contrary, it is a compliment to us.
If we make this critical change, the enemy will discover that the ground has slipped from beneath its feet, because the advantage it once possessed will fade away.
The Iranians can come to the negotiating table with the United States after their senior leadership has been eliminated, their defense systems neutralized, their nuclear facilities bombed, and Israel and the United States have done in their country as they pleased — and after all that, still bend the United States and force it into submission, because the Americans care about money and only money.
But they will not be able to do that to Israel, because against the murderous Islamic vision, Israel will place the vision of the Torah, which is no less dear to our hearts than their vision is dear to theirs. In truth, much more so.
You threaten to create an energy crisis? By all means. It will harm you more than it harms us.
You threaten to create economic chaos? No problem. We will find solutions. Perhaps we will conquer some of your territory for that purpose.
What is certain is this: we will not give up our vision, and we will not allow our enemies to arm themselves in order to destroy us. We will no longer wait until the penultimate moment. We will strike them decisively wherever they are.
We are not playing Monopoly with you like Donald Trump. We are dealing with the survival of the Jewish state that rose from the ashes of the crematoria, and we do not intend to lose it because J.D. Vance likes doing business with Qatar, or because Jared Kushner needs to prove that he is loyal to America despite being Jewish.
The key to victory in the diplomatic arena passes through vision, through consciousness, and through belief in the justice of our cause.
Military success is only preparation for the mitzvah. It paves the way toward a different diplomatic reality, but it cannot create that reality unless it is accompanied by a fundamental transformation of the values on which the State of Israel is founded.
Perhaps now that everyone sees how great America cannot translate military success into diplomatic achievement because of the built-in moral failure of Western culture, perhaps Israel will finally understand that leaving that culture behind and truly returning to God and His Torah in every layer of national life is the only formula that will bring the absolute victory we all long for.
The writer is Rabbi Yehuda Epstein, chairman of the Kedushat Zion Association, the association of Haredim for the pursuit of Zion in holiness.