All indications are strongly suggesting that the Bashar al-Assad regime used chemical weapons, ostensibly a barrel bomb containing toxic chlorine gas, on a rebel-held Syrian town…yet again.

This time, the Russian- and Iranian-backed Syrian government used its stockpile of poison gas on its own people living in the rebel-held town of Douma last Saturday.

And what do the Syrians, Russians and Iranians claim? That it did not happen. That the almost impossible-to-view smartphone videos showing a pile of over 30 dead bodies, some with foam bubbling at their mouths, is not their responsibility.

So whom does it fall on to take responsibility?

If there were first shots taken in the aftermath of this ghastly act against humanity, it figures that they would come from Israel. U.N. members who are quick to pile on rhetoric and resolutions against Israel for defending its border at Gaza in recent days have remained repulsively silent when it comes to Syria’s Russian- and Iranian-backed regime.

Yes, Israel’s growing concern that Iran have any foothold in Syria existed before last weekend’s attack. Israel’s military and its intelligence remain vigilant to limit Iran’s destabilizing threat. Israel has responded with pinpoint military action to stall this threat, knowing the risk that it could escalate a possible confrontation with Iran and even Russia.

But let’s get back to the poison gas attack. Doesn’t it seem searing and symbolic that this very week, when we observe Yom Hashoah, that the Jewish people living in the Jewish homeland must give serious concern to the enemy’s use of poison gas on its own people?

As we go to press with this week’s Jewish Link, a U.S. military response might have happened or not just yet.

Israel, however, cannot ever afford to wait. As a Jewish state that declared its independence in 1948, Israel hasn’t achieved its upcoming 70th anniversary by waiting for the world’s approval on how it defends itself, nor should it.

There are, through the grace of Hashem, Holocaust survivors living out their lives in Israel, and they know all too well that it’s no stretch to compare the horrors of Zyklon-B, used to exterminate our people in the years just prior to Israel’s independence, to the poison gases used by the despicable Syrian regime and camouflaged in lies by its supporters.

We know that sometimes Israel has to take the difficult approach, more often than not, alone. Fighting for what is right is often the loneliest place on earth to be.

And even if no other nation responds to poison gas bombings, we know that Israel did the right thing, took the correct action.

It has to. Not just for existential reasons. Being the “light unto the world” comes with a difficult responsibility.

Israel knows this all too well.