The vastly outnumbered Jews are now mauling Iran

Israel’s weekend attack destroyed Iran’s air defences, damaged nuclear weapons sites, and killed many of its military leaders, including its top military officer, its air force chief, its armed forces’ chief of staff and a former national security chief. To take out so many top military leaders so quickly is astonishing.

The Left rubbishes our “culture wars”, but see Israel now proving culture counts.

It can save your country.

How is Israel still there?

It could fit into Tasmania three times, and its seven million Jews live on the edge of an Arab world of 470 million people, many in countries that have fought to destroy it.

Right now, it’s at war with Iran (population 90 million) and the Houthis of Yemen (40 million), while fighting the Hamas rulers of Gaza (two million) and beating the 100,000-strong army of Hezbollah in Lebanon (five million).

These vastly outnumbered Jews are now mauling Iran.

Israel’s weekend attack destroyed Iran’s air defences, damaged nuclear weapons sites, and killed many of its military leaders, including its top military officer, its air force chief, its armed forces’ chief of staff and a former national security chief.

The vastly outnumbered Jews are now mauling Iran. Picture: AFP

To take out so many top military leaders so quickly is astonishing, and suggests two things.

One, many Iranians hate their regime so help Israel.

Two, Israel’s military and intelligence services are super-smart.

Of course, we know that bit already after Israel last year blew up most of Hezbollah’s leaders with booby-trapped pagers.

But Israel’s smarts are more decisive than that.

Its Jews have such a culture of scholarship, inquiry and innovation that they’ve won 13 Nobel prizes, twice as many as their Egyptian neighbours, with 15 times more people.

Israel’s Arabs have won none.

More importantly for Israel’s survival, this culture has helped the Jews turn Israeli deserts into farms, and turn a land with virtually no oil and gas, and little water, into one of the Middle East’s richest, per person.

It also means they could build or buy some of the world’s most lethal weapons, and invent the Iron Dome and David’s Sling antimissile defences that have saved its cities from being devastated by missile attacks.

Being so lifesaving smart seems a function of culture.

Judaism pushed followers to study religious texts, and persecution taught them that the one thing your enemies couldn’t steal was your learning.

Without that, Israel would be dead.

Thinking of all this, what could Australia become with such a culture?

We have gifts denied to Israel – massive mineral resources, rich farmland and the world’s biggest moat to keep any enemies far.

But what are we making of that?

Culture counts.

Maybe a culture war might remind us of that, and help us one day survive.