Is revenge sour?

The Iranian regime is finally getting its just deserts, and all I can do is worry.

In 1945, shortly after a trip to what was left of Germany following its surrender to the Allied powers, George Orwell wrote an essay entitled “Revenge Is Sour.” In it, Orwell remarked that, while he understood that some would playact taking pleasure at the decimation of Germany, he believed that, in the end, everyone simply found it ugly, pathetic, and stomach-churning.

“Properly speaking, there is no such thing as revenge,” he wrote. “Revenge is an act which you want to commit when you are powerless and because you are powerless: as soon as the sense of impotence is removed, the desire evaporates also.”

Orwell saw this as a kind of testimony to the futility of victory after so much destruction, noting,

It is said that when Mussolini’s corpse was exhibited in public, an old woman drew a revolver and fired five shots into it, exclaiming, “Those are for my five sons!” It is the kind of story that the newspapers make up, but it might be true. I wonder how much satisfaction she got out of those five shots, which, doubtless, she had dreamed years earlier of firing. The condition of her being able to get close enough to Mussolini to shoot at him was that he should be a corpse.

I am not entirely in agreement with Orwell on all this. Certainly, the defeat of Nazi Germany was more than futility, and a certain satisfaction at Germany’s decimation after it decimated so many others was both natural and understandable. After all, there was a distinct justice in the outcome of the war.

Nonetheless, Orwell had a point, and I have been much in mind of it as the current US-Israeli military operation against Iran continues.

I have advocated for aggressive military action against Iran for years, and I am not ashamed of it. While I believe regime change from within is preferable, I have long believed that the racist, antisemitic, and genocidal Islamic regime must be destroyed. Now that it seems like it might actually be happening, however, I find myself overcome not by glee or satisfaction, but by worry.

Even the death of Iran’s supreme genocidist Ali Khamenei, a man I’ve long hated with every fiber of my being, has left me cold. We are forbidden to rejoice at the deaths of our enemies, but I have been unable to feel even a hint of satisfaction at the end of this modern-day Haman on the eve of Purim.

I imagine the reason is my deep concern for my people in Israel. I am not currently in the country, and can do nothing but stay in constant contact with friends and loved ones who are there, hoping that they emerge unscathed from the relentless missile attacks now pouring down on Israeli civilians.

On the second night of the war, the windows of some friends’ apartment building were shattered by a shockwave. This feels not only worrying, but far too close, as if the monster were creeping very slowly into the house. This robs me of any sense of satisfaction, as I know that if, God forbid, any of my people are hurt, I will feel like none of this, however great the victory, was worth it.

This is my deepest and most important worry, but there are others. In particular, I believe another wave of antisemitic incitement and violence may have already begun. Demented anti-war activists and pundits of both left and right are blaming the Jews for “dragging” the US into war with Iran.

The ongoing conflict guarantees that these sentiments will intensify and very possibly result in a situation much like that which immediately followed the Oct. 7 massacre. It could end in mass violence against Diaspora Jewish communities, especially in cities like New York with systemically antisemitic municipal governments. The fact that those engaging in such incitement are wretched hypocrites and supporters of terrorism and genocide, sadly, counts for very little in the heat of the moment.

This may only be exacerbated by what appears to be the unpopularity of the conflict in the US. Polls seem to indicate that only around 25% of the country approves of the military action. As it continues, Americans will weary of it and, in all likelihood, find themselves angry and resentful. They may well direct this anger and resentment against Israel and the Jews. This would not only have terrible consequences for American Jewry, but would further endanger the US-Israel alliance, which is already threatened by powerful forces in US politics.

My greatest worry, however, beyond concern for my loved ones, is the endgame. It is unclear, at the moment, what it might be and if the US and Israel even have one in mind.

If the goal is regime change, it seems unlikely this can be accomplished by military action solely from the air, but boots on the ground would be politically impossible for the US and logistically impossible for Israel. Moreover, is there a replacement government in mind? At the moment, it does not appear so. Those who oppose the war, however craven or hypocritical, are already making comparisons to the debacles in Iraq and Libya, and I am not certain they are wrong.

The one comfort is that it seems highly unlikely that Benjamin Netanyahu or Donald Trump would go into this without a way to get out. They must know what the stakes are, and if the war ends in failure, it means the end of their respective careers. Perhaps they are simply holding their cards close to their chests.

We can only hope that the powers that be know what they’re doing. If they do not, revenge will indeed be sour and, in the end, nothing more than a very bitter joke.

At the moment, however, it seems all I and many others can do is think of our loved ones in Israel and worry.