A display of a table setting for the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana, with all the traditional holiday symbols - apples, honey, pomegranate, and wine, July 21, 2015. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
It’s Friday, September 11, and tonight ushers in the Jewish New Year. Rosh Hashana differs slightly from December 31: less drinking, dancing and fireworks, more prayer, meals and more prayer. But like any new year, it offers an opportunity for reflection on the achievements of the past year and the challenges of the year to come. Israel has both in abundance.
Let us begin, in the Jewish tradition, with the bad news.
As many began their frantic holiday shopping, Iran was similarly hyperactive. On Wednesday, the IAEA referred Tehran to the U.N. Security Council for the first time in 20 years, and a day later the organization confirmed new activity at Pickaxe Mountain, the fortified site near Natanz that inspectors have never entered and that even U.S. bunker busters would struggle to crack. The same day, the Wall Street Journal reported that Iran has quietly resumed assembling ballistic missiles in underground plants, months after Washington declared the program “functionally destroyed.”
In Yemen, Iran’s Houthi proxies are on the march. In 24 hours, the terror group captured territory 10 times the size of the Gaza Strip, and this morning it secured the Bab al-Mandab, threatening to turn the region’s second critical waterway into another Strait of Hormuz. Worse, the damage wouldn’t simply add; it would compound. Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline, which has been saving 5 million barrels of oil a day by rerouting the product from Hormuz to the Red Sea, would be bottled up at the other end. If Iran manages to restore some of its degraded capabilities in it’s chokepoint, we could be facing a super-Hormuz situation within a matter of weeks.
In lieu of New Year’s fireworks, residents of Israel’s north were treated to a significantly larger explosion. The IDF brought down Hezbollah’s Ali Taher fortress with 1,100 tons of explosives. The blast reached a 4.5 on the Richter scale. Northern residents were warned to open their windows so the glass wouldn’t shatter. The colour palette was limited, but it was an entertaining show nonetheless.
The bad news is that Iran had warned a comprehensive campaign in the area would trigger a serious response. Taken with the recent attacks on shipping near the strait and the renewed military production, Iran appears to be flirting with changing the status quo. A war is already raging inside the regime: economic strangulation is breeding desperation, and while some want to endure in hopes of depleting Trump’s attention span, others want to break the stalemate and escalate to de-escalate. Ali Taher may be their perfect opportunity, and the IDF is on high alert over the holiday.
But let us do the less Jewish thing and bask in our victories for a moment.
Last year, at holiday tables around the country, tens of thousands of places were set for 20 absent guests. As Israel wished itself a sweet new year, every mind turned to the wound that had made the past two so bitter. Sweeter than any honey was the sight of the 20 living hostages leaving Gaza weeks later. As we ask in the liturgy, God inscribed Israelis in Gaza in the Book of Life: since the ceasefire, the Strip that claimed hundreds of soldiers has claimed none.
Nor can we forget those deserving souls inscribed in the Book of Death. The Middle East’s longest-ruling dictator, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the man who bent his country toward the destruction of the Jewish state, was consumed in the flames of his own terror empire. For the first time in its history, Israel flew wing to wing with the world’s greatest superpower, in a 40-day campaign that has set back the Islamic Republic years if not decades. The ending was not as conclusive as many would have liked, but as we bring in the holiday, the situation has markedly improved. Last year Iran’s supreme leader denounced any negotiation with the West and hinted at its nuclear capacity. This year’s supreme leader is much like his country: crippled and hollow.
Meanwhile, Hamas is contained. The future remains murky, but today a Hamas fighter fears poking his head up in any part of the Strip, and, at least rhetorically, the group has conceded to disarmament. In the north, as mentioned, Israel is bringing in the new year with a bang. For the first time in its 78-year history, Israel holds foreign territory with the consent of the country and the international community, while in direct negotiations with the prospect of normalization on the horizon. Israeli determination and U.S. assistance have transformed the most powerful non-state actor in the Middle East into trapped prey, being dismembered missile by missile and begging its patron for relief.
Not for three years, and perhaps longer, have Israelis had such reason to bless the new fruit, thanking Him “who has granted us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season.”
A Jewish man blows a shofar (ram’s horn) in the northern Israeli city of Safed, a day before the start of Rosh Hashanah, September 10, 2026. (David Cohen/Flash90)
For all the formidable challenges that face the country going into the holiday, it is worth paraphrasing Churchill: there has never been a Rosh Hashana in Israel’s history when an absolute guarantee against disaster could be given to its people.
Last year, despite Keir Starmer’s insistence that it was not the intended recipient, Hamas, still holding the hostages, received a New Year’s gift: recognition of a Palestinian state from much of Europe, Canada and Australia. I can’t say what he did the rest of the holiday, but clearly Starmer was inscribed in the book of political death.
Two years ago, families prepared to start 5785 with an Iranian barrage. Many families, acknowledging the difficulty of rushing to safe rooms in large groups, spent the holiday apart, and sure enough their festive holiday meals were interrupted by 200 ballistic missiles.
Truth be told, in Israel’s history there has never been a perfect year, only better ones. Despite that optimistic realism, I will end with a few verses of unofficial Israeli liturgy, Nurit Hirsch’s iconic song “BaShana HaBa’a”:
Red grapes will ripen till the evening,
and will be served chilled to the table.
And languid winds will carry to the crossroads
old newspapers and a cloud.You will yet see, you will yet see,
how good it will be next year.
Have a happy, sweet New Year! We will be back on Monday.
English Editor: Ari Tatarka
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שנה טובה ומתוקה 🍎🍯🍷
Sending you and your readers optimism for a Shabbat shel Shalom and brachot for a New Year blessed with good health, and New Beginnings. With the IDF, we have never had it better. #amyisraelchai