After discovering explosives planted along the Israeli-Syrian border, the IDF on Wednesday morning struck a joint Syrian and Iranian military headquarters near Damascus. Ron Ben-Yishai places the attacks in the context of Tehran’s efforts to turn Syria into a base for attacking the Jewish state:

As terrorists were launching thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians, mobs were destroying Israeli cities, and Jews were being harassed and attacked on the streets of the U.S. and Europe, a group of nearly 100 American rabbinic and cantorial students signed an “appeal to the heart of the Jewish community.” The document, which was circulated online and then published in the Forward, echoed the anti-Israel rhetoric that was then pouring forth from the halls of the academy, major newspapers and television stations, and various celebrities and activists. Alvin Rosenfeld comments: