8 | MAY 13 • 2021 

PURELY COMMENTARY

continued from page 7

own pleasant pattern: sleeping 
later, praying at home, spend-
ing more time with my wife 
and, when the weather allowed, 
meeting up with friends — 6 
feet apart — on a bench out-
side.
I know I’m not alone in 
my ambivalence about going 
back to shul now. I’ve talked to 
friends about it and they, too, 
seem a bit mystified about what 
keeps some of us home. We 
know that going back would be 
good for the congregation, and 
probably for us, even though 
the prospect of COVID-limited 
attendance, singing and social-
izing is less than appealing.
Are we just lazy or fearful 
of becoming sick? Or have we 
become dependent on the safe-
ty and security of keeping close 
to home?
What would get me back to 
shul? No, it’s not the prospect 
of visiting a nearby fire station 
after services. It’s the chance to 
ignite a spark of faith and com-
mitment, and time to take the 
next step back on the long path 
toward normalcy.
So, there I was on Saturday, 
back in synagogue. Sitting 
alone, at least 6 feet away from 
others, and wearing a mask, 
felt isolating at first, like pray-
ing alone in a room despite 
the others around me. But 
gradually the mood lifted and 
the familiar comfort of the 
prayers — and the warm (if 
muted) greetings from fellow 
congregants — made me feel at 
home again. I could get used to 
this. 

Gary Rosenblatt is a former editor of 

the Detroit Jewish News and editor 

and publisher of the Jewish Week, 

1993-2019. Follow him at garyrosenblatt.

substack.com.

commentary

Israel Has No Choice but to 
Act on its Own to Stop Iran

T

he head of Israel’s 
Mossad intelligence 
agency and the gov-
ernment’s national security 
adviser was in Washington 
late last month 
on an import-
ant mission 
that has failed 
even before it 
began.
White House 
spokesperson 
Jen Psaki made 
it clear that the Israelis are 
wasting their time. When 
asked if Israeli pleas about 
the danger to the region if 
the United States rejoins the 
2015 nuclear deal would have 
any impact on President Joe 
Biden’s plans, Psaki answered, 
“No.”
She went on to say that the 
Israelis are free to keep “chal-
lenging” the administration’s 
goal of returning to a weak 
pact that gives Tehran a legal 
path to a nuclear weapon by 
the end of the decade, but the 
best they could hope for is to 
be “kept abreast” of America’s 
plans.
That contemptuous atti-
tude was of particular signif-
icance because the day before 
the Israeli security officials 
arrived, news broke about 
how former Secretary of 
State John Kerry had shared 
intelligence with Iran about 
Israeli covert operations 
seeking to stop their nuclear 
program. According to an 
audiotape of comments made 
by Iranian Foreign Minister 
Mohammad Zarif that was 

obtained by the New York 
Times, he said, “It was for-
mer U.S. Foreign Secretary 
[sic] John Kerry who told 
me Israel had launched more 
than 200 attacks on Iranian 
forces in Syria.”
There is a lot to unwrap 
in that one sentence and not 
just because the Times buried 
this revelation at the bottom 
of its story.
Kerry, for whom Psaki 
served as spokesperson 
during the nuclear negotia-
tions from 2013 to 2015, cur-
rently acts as Biden’s special 
presidential envoy of climate. 
We already knew that in 2018 
Kerry consulted with Zarif, 
advising his former nego-
tiating partner not to work 
with the Trump administra-
tion, which withdrew from 
the nuclear deal as part of a 
“maximum pressure” cam-
paign to force the Iranians 
to agree to a new tougher 
agreement that would elim-
inate sunset clauses, as well 
as include bans on Tehran’s 
role as the world’s leading 

state sponsor of international 
terrorism and its illegal mis-
sile-building. Kerry told Zarif 
to simply wait out Trump and 
then deal with a more pliant 
Democrat that he hoped 
would be elected in 2020.
That’s exactly what hap-
pened, and now the Iranians 
are reaping the benefits. 
Biden’s foreign-policy team, 
composed almost entirely 
of veterans of the adminis-
tration of former President 
Barack Obama, are again 
resuming their past practice 
of appeasing the Iranians 
with concessions in the 
works to entice Tehran to 
return to a deal with little 
hope of improving upon it.

U.S. ISRAEL TENSIONS
Kerry’s collusion with Iran is 
important because it comes 
in the context of the grow-
ing tension with Israel over 
its efforts to sabotage the 
Iranian nuclear program. 
Unlike in the past, when it 
was clear that the United 
States and Israel were cooper-

Jonathan S. 
Tobin
jns.org

continued on page 10

U.S. MISSION/ERIC BRIDIERS.

Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Iranian 
Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2015. 

