BASEBALL, PASSOVER, AND IRAN March 27, 2026

Baseball, Passover and the war with Iran have a connection. 

The national pastime represents an ordered world. Games end in a recognized win or loss. The standings clearly position each team. Simple. 

Passover: not so simple. God freed the Israelites from Egypt. But the waters—during and after Pharaoh drowned in the Sea of Reeds—muddied quickly. When Moses was late coming down from Mount Sinai, the Israelites forced his brother Aaron to create the Golden Calf. This incensed God. Moses sent twelve spies into Canaan. Ten reported that the land and its people were too difficult for the Israelites to conquer. God, again incensed, forced Israel to wonder in the wilderness for forty years. 

Israel marched into Canaan under Joshua. The next 1,200 years were filled with warfare and rebellion. The Romans destroyed the Second Temple in 70 CE and Judea as a nation in 135 CE following the Bar Kokhba revolt. In 1948, the modern State of Israel was declared. War followed. “Peace” has been intermittent. 

Iran: complex. The story in the Middle East seems chaotic. It likely will remain so long after the war ends. However Donald Trump defines “ends.”  

Israel’s Bibi Netanyahu wants to destroy Iran’s military threat and that of its Hezbollah proxy in Lebanon. Laudable. Tehran seeks Israel’s destruction. But Bibi’s long-range strategy lacks a coherent diplomatic policy and so remains troublesome.

And what does Donald Trump want? Regime change? Many of Iran’s top leaders were killed, but the regime carries on. End Iran’s nuclear-weapon capabilities? The world will be better for it! But didn’t the U.S. bombing “obliterate” (Trump’s word) Iran’s nuclear program last July? A major problem: Iran retains enriched uranium. Getting to it will be quite a challenge.  

Does Trump want to degrade Iran’s military capabilities? We have. Yet Iran keeps sending missiles and drones to strike Israel and the Gulf states. 

Maybe Trump wants to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to restore the shipping of oil and other goods. Necessary! But wasn’t the Strait open before the war?  

Military muscle can’t by itself create peace and security. Far-sighted planning with an eye on contingencies best guides a nation. Tragically, Washington lacks this. 

The first bomb or shot fired opens a Pandora’s box of unknowns. As an example of great planning and heroism leading to victory, I recommend Garrett Graff’s book, When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day. Note: The successful Normandy invasion, despite detailed preparation, included much deadly confusion. 

Note also that following the Allied victories in 1945, brilliant diplomacy and planning achieved a saner world in the West and Japan. The Marshall Plan wisely rebuilt the German and Japanese economies. War without robust diplomacy before, during and after hostilities inevitably leads to more war. 

The novelist Phil Klay, a Marine Corps combat veteran of Iraq, put things in perspective in a March 22 New York Times guest essay: “Power does not grow out of the barrel of a gun, cruelty is not the same as strength, and a politics built on such ideas promises ruin, delusion about the limits of our power and a betrayal of the promise of our founding.” 

In baseball, winners and losers go home in one piece. On Passover, we feast. War takes a heavy toll—heavier when ill-conceived. 

For all of you celebrating Passover, starting Wednesday night, Chag Sameach (Joyous Festival)! 

To understand the background of today’s far-right, authoritarian descent, read my new novel, RIDE THE TYGER. Order from Amazon, barnesandnoble.com, iuniverse.com, or your favorite bookstore.