At 3 a.m. this morning, my wife and I were roused from slumber by a loud, high-pitched warning on our cell phone, heralding the imminent triggering of air raid sirens. We navigated the short distance to our safe room (mamad), locked the heavy metal door that secured its entrance, and huddled together on the sofa. Air raid sirens shrieked, followed by booms which rattled our surroundings. Twenty to thirty minutes later, an all-clear signal permitted us to go back to sleep.
The nightly occurrence described above is the new norm in Eretz Yisrael. Over Shabbat, we were accompanied into our mamad by eight family members, including grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. As the time slowly passed, we maintained a calm, positive demeanor. Nevertheless, some of the children were anxious and could not fall back to sleep. Indeed, REM and uninterrupted sleep have eluded most Israelis since the commencement of the Iran–Israel war.
Despite the sleep deprivation and the curtailment of activities associated with our daily routines, spirits in Israel are very high. The overwhelming majority of Jewish Israelis unequivocally believe that the attack on Iran was necessary and justified. Iran and its Ayatollah/Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps–led regime have destabilized much of the Middle East since 1979. This fundamentalist religious/military dictatorship eradicated all civil rights of the Iranian people and terrorized those who opposed their iron-fisted rule. Today, in an ironic twist, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) bombed the front gate of Evin Prison. The destruction of this hellhole of oppression and torture provides a symbol of what the free world needs to achieve in Iran.
Since inception, Iran has spewed two major mantras: “Death to the Great Satan” and “Destruction of the Zionist Entity.” Using proxies such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis—and more recently, Islamic militias in Iraq—Iran funded and enabled terrorist attacks that killed thousands of Americans and Israelis, resulted in assassinations in 40 countries, and destabilized Lebanon. Israel has been taunted with existential threats from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei for years. When these threats became almost daily diatribes, and Iran neared the threshold for achieving uranium-enrichment levels and triggering mechanisms for a nuclear weapon, Israel had to act. Fortunately, the meticulous military plan put in place following Hamas’s barbaric invasion of the Gaza envelope communities on October 7, 2023, and in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attacks on Israel on October 1, 2024, and April 13, 2025, led to significant degradation of Iran’s proxies and its air defense capabilities. When the IAF struck Iran on Friday morning, June 13, it faced minimal resistance from a depleted Iranian air guard and quickly gained control of the skies. The Israeli people and many Americans are inspired by the IAF’s accomplishments.
Israel is a country of fewer than 10 million people. Iran boasts more than 90 million residents and has a military and police force exceeding a million individuals. Despite Israel’s superior military technology and its achievements, the support, firepower, and diplomatic stature of the United States are necessary to prevent Iran from remaining a threat to world peace. President Donald Trump’s order to attack three nuclear centers in Iran and the successful strike on Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordow by the United States Air Force on June 21 sends a powerful message of deterrence to Iran and other renegade states. As an American Israeli Jew, I am proud that my birth country and historic homeland have joined together to fight for freedom and world peace. When I go to sleep in my mamad tonight, I will take solace that the successful end of this campaign is within our grasp. If the democratic countries of the world united together, the battle could end much sooner. Many historians conjecture that a coordinated early opposition to Hitler by the Allies might have altered the course of history and saved millions of lives. It is now time for those countries to join the fray against Iran.
Dr. Fred Naider is a Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry and former Provost at the City University of New York. He lives in Rehovot. The opinions in this article are his own.