Last Wednesday’s newsletter described how Jews are being hounded in the literary world if they refuse to display their anti-Israel credentials. Recently the Israeli author Dina Rubina confronted an especially egregious example of this trend after being asked to give a Zoom talk about her novels by London’s Pushkin House, a prestigious center for Russian literature. The session’s prospective moderator sent Rubina a note citing “critical messages” about the event and asking her “to formulate her position” on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Rubina canceled her appearance. Herewith, her reply, which she made public:

This is what I want to say to all those who expect from me a quick and obsequious report on my position regarding my beloved country, which currently lives (and always has) surrounded by ferocious enemies who seek to destroy it. My country which is waging a just war today against a rabid, ruthless, deceptive, and cunning enemy. The last time I apologized was in elementary school, in the principal’s office, I was nine years old. Since then, I have been doing what I think is right, listening only to my conscience and expressing exclusively my understanding of the world order and human laws of justice.

Rubina goes on to lay out the facts of the current Gaza war and the circumstances that led up to it, and concludes with a word about the hostages:

It goes without saying that these victims, who continue to be mocked, are of little concern to the “academic community.” But that’s not what I’m talking about right now. I am not writing this so that anyone will sympathize with the tragedy of my people. . . .

The academic community, which was not concerned about the massacres in Syria, nor the massacre in Somalia, nor the mistreatment inflicted on the Uighurs, nor the millions of Kurds persecuted by the Turkish regime for decades, this very worried community, which wears “arafatkas” [keffiyehs], the trademark of murderers, around their necks at rallies under the slogan “Liberate Palestine from the river to the sea,” which means the total destruction of Israel (and Israelis). . . . And it is this same public which asks me “to express a position clear on the issue.” Are you really serious!

As you know, I have been a professional writer for over 50 years. My novels have been translated into 40 languages, including Albanian, Turkish, Chinese, Esperanto, and many more. Now, with great pleasure, without choosing my expressions too much, I sincerely and with all the strength of my soul send to all the brainless “intellectuals” who are interested in my position to go fuck themselves.

While I’ve seen much speculation—some reasonable and well informed, some quite the opposite—about why Jerusalem chose Friday morning to begin its campaign against Iran, the most obvious explanation seems to be the most convincing. First, 60 days had passed since President Trump warned that Tehran had 60 days to reach an agreement with the U.S. over its nuclear program. Second, Israeli intelligence was convinced that Iran was too close to developing nuclear weapons to delay military action any longer. Edward Luttwak explains why Israel was wise to attack:

Iran was adding more and more centrifuges in increasingly vast facilities at enormous expense, which made no sense at all if the aim was to generate energy. . . . It might be hoped that Israel’s own nuclear weapons could deter an Iranian nuclear attack against its own territory. But a nuclear Iran would dominate the entire Middle East, including Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, with which Israel has full diplomatic relations, as well as Saudi Arabia with which Israel hopes to have full relations in the near future.

Luttwak also considers the military feats the IDF and Mossad have accomplished in the past few days:

To reach all [its] targets, Israel had to deal with the range-payload problem that its air force first overcame in 1967, when it destroyed the air forces of three Arab states in a single day. . . . This time, too, impossible solutions were found for the range problem, including the use of 65-year-old airliners converted into tankers (Boeing is years later in delivering its own). To be able to use its short-range F-16s, Israel developed the “Rampage” air-launched missile, which flies upward on a ballistic trajectory, gaining range by gliding down to the target. That should make accuracy impossible—but once again, Israeli developers overcame the odds.