We awoke just over two weeks ago to a new day and to a new reality, one that we have prayed and longed for.
Though painful, this historic time carries with it a deep spiritual clarity. On June 13, darkness was challenged, not by hatred, but by the strength to say, “Enough.” We won’t let the darkness rule over our lives any longer.
For decades, the Islamic Iranian regime has waged war. Not only on us in Israel, not only on America, but on the very foundations of Western civilization that we hold sacred.
On their parliament floor, and on every platform they have occupied, this regime has called Israel “the little Satan” and The United States “the great Satan.” And they meant it – because what they hate, what they have always tried to destroy, is not just a people or a place. It is the light of Judeo-Christian values: the belief that human life is sacred, that freedom is holy, and that God created every person in His image.
They tried to destroy us, along with these values, on October 7.
Following that, they sent their proxies to help them with this destruction – Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Hamas.
The values they tried to destroy are those that hold up everything we cherish: justice, compassion, dignity, and truth.
These are the values that extremists fear most. Our civilians and our brave soldiers died to uphold these values and to save our land that embodies them.
Evil doesn’t just live in Tehran, and it doesn’t only move through its proxies. It seeps. It erodes. It creeps into silence and comfort and compromise – into institutions, and headlines, and families.
This is not only military warfare; it is spiritual warfare. And if we don’t call it that, we risk forgetting what we are truly fighting – not only missiles and regimes but the slow and deadly unraveling of the moral and spiritual foundation that holds back darkness; the corrosion of truth; the turning of right into wrong and wrong into virtue. When we allow it to flourish – when we grow tired, or afraid to confront it, or unwilling to name it – we risk losing everything.
This is the deeper battle. This is what we are standing against – not only to protect land, but to protect light.
The Torah's teachings on pursuing peace
The Torah teaches us how to live in such a world: “Turn from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it” (Psalm 34:14). It is not enough to hope for peace. We must turn from evil – actively, with moral courage. Only then can we do good.
The Torah also tells us that “The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace” (Psalm 29:11). It is one sentence – strength and peace are one. Because peace without strength is fragile, and strength without the pursuit of peace is empty. However, when you fight for life, for good, and for truth, your strength becomes a vessel for blessing.
We are pursuers of peace, but there are moments when pursuing peace means standing up with everything we have against the forces that destroy it.
This is one of those moments.
Yes, the road is hard, and we have traveled it daily for almost two years. There is pain.
No one prays for confrontation. I don’t want to be running to my bomb shelter here in Israel multiple times a day. I don’t want to see my people suffer.
But friends, if we aren’t ready to pay a tough price for freedom, we have to be ready for barbarism. And we are not willing to accept a world where evil reigns.
If I have learned one thing from my faith, it’s that light always triumphs over darkness, even when it flickers. Good always prevails over evil, even when it bleeds.
The God of Israel – the God of our shared faith – never abandons those who walk His path with courage.
We hold fast today not only for ourselves but for our children and our children’s children. We are shaping a future in which terror will no longer be exported across the world, in which fear will not govern free nations, and in which the eternal values that gave birth to our civilization will rise again in strength and clarity.
Here in Israel, we know that this is not our battle alone. We reach out to every heart across the world that still believes in righteousness, in truth, and in the God who makes peace – and we know you stand with us. We know that you pray with us and for us... We do not walk alone.
May the God of peace bless us all with strength.
May the God of strength bless us all with peace.
The writer is president and CEO of The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.