Israel's Dilemma: What To Do If Trump Bails?

What do you do if your partner in a war to rid Iran of nuclear bomb-making capabilities says, “I’ve had enough. I’m going home.”? 

No “Mission Accomplished” banner for Donald Trump, at least in the world’s eyes, though you can be sure that Trump will compare his military exploits to D-Day, and victories at Gettysburg, Saratoga and Trenton. 

A more apt analogy might be to Napoleon’s and then Nazi Germany’s retreats from Russia. 

But what of his primary partner, Israel, and the Gulf States that have endured rocket attacks to their civil and commercial enterprises, and will now fear continued barrages by Iran and the choking off of trade through the Strait of Hormuz? 

Trump’s “victory” march home would be a hollow one, exposing his frail, bruised ego. Like a bully who underestimates a victim who fights back, Trump retreats when confronted by stronger than expected opposition. In the war with Iran he has no legislative or judicial majority to back him up. 

What he has are allies who will have learned he is an unreliable partner. Short of defusing Iran’s nuclear program he has reinvigorated it. 

The most powerful man in the world—on paper—has been exposed as a paper tiger, surrounded by either incompetent planners or by wiser officials whose counsel he ignored. 

At the beginning of the campaign against Iran, Trump evoked America’s World War II military goal—unconditional surrender by Nazi Germany and Japan. No longer is that top of Trump’s mind.  

Facing an existential threat, Israel has the most to lose if Trump folds before the enriched uranium is contained, by force or negotiated truce. What will Israel do? 

Can it afford to continue pounding Iran by air? Would it risk sending in an elite ground force to secure the uranium, if that is at all possible? Would Trump bless further attacks or consider them an insult to his dominance? 

Israel’s strategists have had recent successes, long-term in their planning, in Iran and Lebanon. But a Trump “premature” withdrawal would leave Israel vulnerable in achieving its ultimate objective of defanging Iran’s nuclear ambitions. For Trump, this has been a war game. For Israel it is an existential conflict. 

 

Voices From the Front In Israel

The front in the current aerial war between Israel and Iran is everywhere in the combatants’ countries and other Middle Eastern states. 

What follows are parts of emails with friends of 50 and 70 years. Yacov is a retired colonel of the Israel Defense Force. He and his wife live in a suburb of Tel Aviv. David is a physician living with his wife in Ashkelon, near the border with the Gaza Strip. He is a high school classmate of mine who I first met 70 years ago as a bunkmate in Camp Massad Aleph.  

The dialogue began with a similar note sent to both of my friends: “My apologies for not reaching out earlier to inquire of your safety and health and that of your family. We all are wishing the war will end soon but know that a successful conclusion requires a positive outcome concerning the buried enriched uranium canisters. They cannot be allowed to remain in Iranian hands. 

“Whether Trump understands this issue, whether he knew about it before engaging in battle, whether he realizes the consequences of a troops on the ground war and his capacity to tolerate the political fallout of infantry fatalities, is the big unknown. We all wonder what Israel would do if Trump simply declares  ‘we won’ and sends our military home. 

“I’m generally a pacifist but the existential nature of the dilemma facing Israel, and to a lesser degree other Gulf countries and the United States, cannot be minimized.”

 

Here, with their permissions, are their responses:

Yakov: “Thank you  for your concern and for reaching out. It means a great deal to us to know that we are in your thoughts during these incredibly challenging times.

“Life here is currently defined by the reality of threats from both Iran and Hezbollah. It often feels like a form of ‘Russian Roulette.’ We never know where the next missiles will strike, as they fall in different locations every time, and we all find ourselves constantly praying that the next one doesn’t land on us. We live between alarms from the Home Front Command app and the sirens that follow.

“We are fortunate to have a reinforced security room (Mamad) in our apartment. When the sirens wail, we gather there, turn on the TV, and wait for updates on interceptions. We stay inside, surrounded by our emergency supplies—flashlights, batteries, water, and radios—feeling safe within those walls, yet always worrying for those without such protection and for the potential damage to our surroundings.

“The scale of the threat is daunting. These ballistic missiles carry hundreds of kilograms of explosives, capable of causing immense destruction. We are incredibly grateful for our defense systems, which are among the best in the world and intercept over 90% of the threats. However, the new tactics—missiles that split into multiple warheads—create new challenges that are difficult for any system to fully stop.

“From our perspective, this is truly an existential war. The Iranian regime has made its intentions to destroy Israel clear, and their enrichment of uranium to 60% is a direct path toward nuclear weapons. To us, the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran is nothing less than the threat of another Holocaust. It is often baffling to us that more of the world does not see this danger as clearly as we do.

“We are deeply grateful to the United States and specifically to Trump for standing with us. We understand that American politics is complex and that many see things differently, having their own priorities and concerns. We are also clear-eyed about the nature of leadership; we know that political winds can shift and that alliances can be unpredictable. But in this moment, that support is vital.

“It is also painful to see the rising tide of antisemitism across the globe and in the U.S. We worry for our Jewish brothers and sisters abroad who must now secure their institutions and remain hyper-vigilant. It feels as though we are all navigating these dark days together, regardless of where we live. We truly believe that a world where Iran is no longer a nuclear threat would be a better, safer world for everyone.”

David: “Fortunately Ashkelon has been little affected by the ongoing hostilities, a mirror image of when Hamas was active, and Ashkelon, Sderot, the Gaza surrounds were constantly bombarded. Now people come to the Gaza perimeter of all places for some peace and quiet.

“Three of our sons have ready access to a safe room in their homes. The fourth lives on the second floor of an apartment building in Ramat Gan (outside Tel Aviv) and when a siren goes off they have to take their two twin boys and run down the steps to the basement. At the beginning of the war it was too much so they came to stay with us for about a week. Since then they’ve been able to cope though they will be with us for the Seder.

“As for broader geopolitics: no one can say what will happen. There’s a political scientist Robert Pape who I heard interviewed on podcasts who talks about an ‘Escalation Trap’ that will turn into Vietnam in which the U.S. will abandon ship with its tail between its legs. Trump had no ideals or ideology and is probably experienced at dumping bad properties. Netanyahu probably sold him a bill of goods about his wonderful soldiers (Begin’s ‘excellent young men’) who will take care of everything and he won’t have anything to worry about and will get all the credit. If that doesn’t happen not only will Trump cut his losses but may turn on Netanyahu.

“Netanyahu is on a mission to maliciously destroy the edifice that Ben Gurion left (the same can be said of Trump vis-a-vis Roosevelt-Eisenhower), with the difference that Trump had Reagan as an intermediary whereas Netanyahu has straddled the entire period, convincing everybody that he was sane. (Reagan also had Nancy whereas Netanyahu has Sara).”

Most of these dialogues with friends transpired in the middle of the night, New York time. I often find it hard to sleep mulling over events of the day, here and abroad. 

My doctor friend David prescribed the following: “Stay well and don’t think about what may happen because it won’t help.”  

One Way Home from War, Through Egypt (with a stop at Mount Sinai)

They were never in immediate danger but seven members of Temple Israel Center of White Plains related their harrowing experiences of being in Israel during the war with Iran and their difficult route, mostly across the Egyptian border, to eventual safety back in New York. 

The one hour dialogue transpired after Sabbath services and kiddush reception ended Saturday morning. The panelists included two of the 54 Leffell Hebrew high school seniors on a months-long program in Poland and Israel, two mothers, a school administrator, and two congregants visiting Israel independently. With writing and audio taping prohibited inside the sanctuary, their accounts are based on my memory, which Gilda would tell you is far from perfect (and since she could not be present for the conversation could not be vetted by her). 

The overwhelming consensus was that Israelis support the war and have adapted into their daily routines appropriate responses to Israel’s sophisticated multi-level alarm warnings. A first siren gives a five to ten minute alert of incoming projectiles, followed by a 90 second warning to immediately seek shelter, either in a personal safe room in one’s home or a communal shelter often three or four levels underground. With missiles and rockets targeting Israel from Iran, Lebanon and now Yemen, alarms have been a constant background buzz.

Visitors to Israel have been advised that if an alarm goes off while driving, even on a highway or hilly road, one should immediately stop and shut off the car, exit and quickly move 30 to 50 feet away and lie flat on the ground. 

Modern hotels and newer apartment buildings have safe rooms built from reinforced concrete. Hotels, apartment houses, office buildings and shopping malls with underground garages have shelters three and four levels underground. Some families set up tents in communal shelters, no doubt to create a more festive environment for children. 

Older buildings, on the other hand, lack communal shelters as well as individual apartment safe rooms. Nor are bathroom facilities to be found in older community safe rooms. Moreover, elderly Israelis sometimes cannot descend by stairs to the community safe room in the suggested time. So they stay in their apartments. A couple in central Israel were killed when debris from an Iranian missile pierced their top-floor apartment.

Extracting 52 Leffell seniors and two faculty members from a war zone operating under restricted commercial flights was not easy. El Al postponed their travel by more than a week. An alternate flight plan through Egypt was hastily pieced together. 

To get to the Cairo airport, the students had to travel by bus from Jerusalem down to Eilat where they would cross the border into Taba. About halfway to Eilat they had to stop because rain storms had washed out the Negev desert roadway. After conferring with authorities, the trip resumed. 

At Taba they passed through border checks, boarded two older buses and were joined by Egyptian security officers. There are two main roads across the Sinai Desert. The northern route was not considered as safe, so they took the longer, southern highway which afforded them the opportunity to stop at a security checkpoint at the foot of Mount Sinai!

They were waved through security stations along the way. But near the tunnel entrance under the Suez Canal they had to disembark, show their documents and have their luggage checked. Egyptians are careful no one can carry a bomb beneath the Suez Canal. 

The trip from Eilat to Cairo took about 14 hours. After another dozen hours in the air, they landed at JFK Airport Friday morning. 

My Brushes with the News

Filled up my car Wednesday, first time since January 19. $31.95 for 8.5 gallons of regular, $3.759 a gulp. With gasoline prices reaching intolerable peaks, more than ever I am trying to limit my driving to less than 40 miles a day, the battery-powered range of my 2022 plug-in hybrid Ford Escape. 

I’m averaging about 100 miles per gallon equivalent, keeping my gas consumption generally limited to times when I travel by highway to New York City, Boston, Rockland County, the metro area airports or into Manhattan to see a play. 

Gilda and I have been happy early adopters of energy-saving technologies. Her car is a 2013 Ford C-Max hybrid that averages a little more than 40 miles per gallon. 

We put solar panels on our roof 11 years ago, cutting about 40% of our annual Con Ed electricity usage. We upgraded attic insulation several years ago to save on home heating oil. 

Our environmental concerns have been transmitted into the next generation. Our son Dan has a full electric car (not a Tesla) on order, delivery expected around June. Maybe the war with Iran will have ended by then, resulting in declining gas prices. No matter. Saving the planet is a long term project, generation to generation. 

Meanwhile, though the Big 3 American car companies have pulled back on their commitment to electric vehicles in favor of gas guzzling trucks and SUVs, pain at the pump has more drivers exploring the buck-saving impact of battery power (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/23/opinion/electric-vehicles-solar-gas-prices.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share).

Dinner Time: We ate dinner Thursday night at 7, a quarter hour past the time a preponderance of diners the world over sit down for their final meal of the day, according to Tasteofhome.com. Gilda strives to finish cooking around 6:30, a carryover from pre-VCR time when our kids were young. We’d watch the evening national news on CBS over dinner. 

No doubt some of you might think exposing young minds to death and destruction, plus politics, was not conducive to proper consumption and digestion. We thought otherwise. We valued the educational benefit of sharing important news of the day. As Gilda was the research coordinator of infection diseases at Westchester County Medical Center during their formative teen years in the 1990s, our kids’ dinnertimes also included discussions about her work on HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis and Lyme Disease. 

Gilda and I still watch the CBS Evening News over dinner. I’m not a big fan, any fan really, of Tony Dokoupil as the anchor, but he is getting better, though he tries too hard to find humor in each broadcast segment. We’ve sampled newscasts on NBC and ABC, but they’re no better, to our tastes. So we stick with CBS despite the turmoil at the network and the departure, forced and voluntary, under news chief Bari Weiss, of correspondents we trust and respect. 

Our breaking point, I believe, would be if she compromises two of our most favored newscasts—CBS News Sunday Morning and 60 Minutes. 

Flooding in Paradise: Scenes of recent sustained flooding in Oahu and Maui evoked memories of our two trips to Hawaii. 

In 1993, Gilda and I attended the annual conference of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. Why? Because it was being held in Maui and we’d never been to Hawaii. 

The annual NACDS meeting had a reputation for lavish programs, from guest speakers to cocktail receptions to entertainment. President of NACDS was Ron Ziegler, Richard Nixon’s former press secretary. He used his political influence to bring heavyweight speakers to appear before the heads of retail companies like CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreen, and their suppliers like Revlon, Johnson & Johnson, Lever Bros. The year we attended keynote speakers included former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto and William Safire, then a New York Times columnist after being a speechwriter for Nixon. 

Liza Minnelli performed at the closing banquet. Bob Hope—a not so spry 90-year-old with jokes at least as old as he was—came to Maui to appear at a private gala hosted by one of the beauty care vendors (Gilda and I snuck in). 

The most memorable parts of our trip were an outdoor Passover service overlooking the Pacific Ocean and a trip to Hāna. 

Many of the NACDS attendees were Jewish. The conference overlapped the closing days of Passover. Few, I imagine, adhered to the stringent Passover diet that prohibited anything made of leavened grain (I also can report that never before and not since have I seen as much shrimp cocktail boats proffered at daily cocktail receptions). 

But I digress. The last day of Passover is when Yizkor, the memorial prayer for deceased relatives, is recited. Even in Maui, executives recalling departed family members filled the some 100 white lawn chairs placed along a sloping hillside. 

Later that day, Gilda and I went with Marianne, one of my staff who succeeded me as editor of Chain Store Age, on the Road to Hāna, renowned for spectacular waterfalls along the 52 mile highway. We also planned to go beyond Hāna to visit the gravesite of Charles Lindbergh. The climb to Hāna passes through tropical rainforest. It’s mostly a switchback single-lane road, with some 620 curves. Without traffic it takes almost three hours to get to Hāna.

Our trip turned out to be an excursion to hell and back. On the way up the mountain we got stuck behind slow moving cars we could not pass because of the numerous curves. Maui had been suffering from a drought. Ergo, there were no waterfalls to behold. There also were no restaurants along the way, no rest stops to relieve ourselves. We finally arrived in Hāna a few minutes after 2 pm. We had hoped to eat lunch in the only sit-down restaurant in Hāna, but discovered it closed sharply at 2. The only open food shop was a greasy spoon shack we reluctantly patronized. 

We had to get back to our hotel for the conference evening event (Liza Minnelli) so we had to forego visiting Lindbergh’s grave. On the way down the mountain, Gilda and Marianne got car sick from all the sharp turns mixing with our greasy lunch. On numerous occasions they opted out of the car to walk a half mile or so in the mist that was now swooping in off the coast. We didn’t get stuck behind any cars or trucks, but our pace going down was significantly slower than when we went up to Hāna. Happiness was reaching the straightaway at the bottom of the road and opening up the throttle of the Mustang to whisk us back to our hotel. 

Our second trip to Hawaii was in 2004 during our daughter’s post-college graduation stay on the north shore of Oahu. The beaches of the north shore attract top level surfers from around the world. Every day in Oahu the temperature was 81-83 degrees with a short rain shower around 4 pm.

The rains of the last week or two have filled the waterfalls along the Road to Hāna and swamped Oahu’s north shore. 

Banksy: Perhaps you saw a recent article identifying the identity of Banksy, the secretive British graffiti-street artist whose paintings have sold for more than a million dollars (https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/fine-art/banksy-reveal-art-cost-buyers-b54c109d?st=qLkvx6&reflink=article_gmail_share).

No mind. I’m here to tell you that the first and only “true” Banksy was Arthur David Banks, a journalist of immense talent and proportions whose editorial skills over five decades influenced newspapers and electronic media in Great Britain, Australia and New York. To his fellow journalists on three continents he was known as Banksy.

He was—still is—my dearest friend. Was because Dave passed away February 22, 2022 (https://nosocksneededanymore.blogspot.com/2022/02/goodbye-to-most-dearest-of-friends.html). 

Outrages and a Hope

Like many writers I keep a list of story ideas. Many don’t pan out. I recently thought of writing about frivolous law suits, like the class-action one two California women initiated against Costco because its $4.99 “preservative-free” rotisserie chicken failed to note the presence of sodium phosphate and carrageenan. The women got Costco to change its messaging, but they presumably didn’t mind the chemicals being in the chicken as they have been quoted as saying they would continue to buy the budget-beating staple. They also said they did not suffer any physical injury from consuming the chicken. 

Then there was the lawsuit faced by Buffalo Wild Wings for allegedly misleading the public because, a plaintiff argued, its boneless chicken wings did not have chicken extracted from a wing. U.S. District Judge John Tharp Jr. dismissed the case, stating the lawsuit had “no meat on its bones” and that diners do not expect “boneless wings” to be derived from a chicken’s wing meat any more than they expect the poultry to actually have chicken fingers.

Then there were lawsuits against Alaska Airlines, Delta and United filed by disgruntled passengers who paid more for what they thought to be window seats only to discover themselves staring at solid walls (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/us/seat-11a-no-window-ryanair-airlines.html?smid=url-share). This story hit home with me as the “window” seat on my recent Delta flight home from Omaha also was windowless, but I didn’t care. I was in an aisle seat, sleeping almost the entire time we were airborne.

It seems to me Americans are expressing outrage over inconsequential issues when they really should be demonstrating their revulsion at actions by Donald Trump and his spineless enablers. (FYI, there’s another “No Kings” nationwide protest planned for Saturday, March 28.)

Where is the outrage? Trump hid the extent of injuries to troops from Iran’s attack on a Kuwait military base. Six soldiers died and many others suffered extensive brain injuries; 

Trump wore a baseball cap to a solemn ceremony greeting bodies of the dead soldiers returned to American soil; 

The slur was magnified by Fox News falsifying images of the ceremony to hide Trump’s indignity; 

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth spent more than $45 million on expensive food and furniture while millions of Americans have been cut off from federal food and housing assistance;  

Four weeks into the war with Iran Trump has yet to address what his plans are for the uranium canisters buried under the “obliterated” nuclear facility he claimed to have destroyed last June. Removing them from Iranian control can and must be the only legitimate conclusion to Trump’s and Israel’s war with Iran.

There is a reason the Nobel Prize is handed out for peace, not war. 

With every statement Trump makes attempting to justify his bombardment of Iran in the name of removing a threat to America and world peace, one has to wonder why he is not as vocal in his denunciation of North Korea (which actually has nuclear capability and is refining its delivery system) and Russia which, with its illegal invasion of Ukraine, has embarked on a mission to reconstitute the Soviet Bloc. 

Assuming—a big assumption—that Trump will honor the 25th Amendment and not seek an illegal third term, and won’t declare a national emergency to cancel elections in 2026 and 2028, Trump is leaving a mess for a successor to clean up. 

My hope is that Donald Trump is alive and cognizant enough to see and comprehend when a Democratic president takes office and declares that the Trump name, portraits, statues and likenesses be removed and erased from all government buildings, documents, monuments, institutions and monetary currency and coin, that America’s true history—warts and achievements—be represented on all official plaques and descriptions, that his era of personal aggrandizement and greed be forever assigned to the trash can of American extremism and demagoguery. 

I hope he is alive to witness and take in the repudiation of his reign of turpitude that has tarnished America’s position of leadership among democratic countries and among people shackled by despots, autocrats and war lords.