Israel and Iran at War: Inside Netanyahu’s Strategic Strike
By: David Parsons, ICEJ Senior Vice President & Spokesman
One of the most “surprising” aspects of Israel’s surprise attack on Iran in June is why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not order such an operation years earlier. Most astute observers of his long stay in power assess he has always felt a deeply personal and historic duty to protect the Jewish nation from another Holocaust at the hands of a nuclear Iran. Indeed, every time he spoke at the United Nations, he focused not on the Palestinian issue but on the Iranian threat. Yet during his 16 years at the helm of Israel’s government, some doubted that he had the inner resolve to pull the trigger. Well, that moment of reckoning finally came!
Why Strike Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Now?
It appears Netanyahu concluded that a window of both opportunity and urgency opened to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, its ballistic missile capabilities, and all the key figures in charge of both threats.
The window of opportunity first involved Israel’s weakening of Iran’s network of proxy terror militias in the region over the past 20 months, which were always designed foremost to serve as a first line of defense and deterrence against Israeli strikes on its ever-expanding nuclear facilities. With Hezbollah and Hamas battered and the collaborative Assad regime in Syria gone, Iran no longer had that outer perimeter of protection.
In addition, Iran’s air defense systems were crippled by Israeli Air Force (IAF) sorties after Iranian missile barrages in April and October of last year. This left Iran vulnerable to attack, so Israel had to act quickly, since Tehran was frantically trying to rebuild those air defenses with Russian help.
Further, the opportunity was present because the current US administration is the most supportive Netanyahu could ever hope for.
A Recent “Breakthrough”
The window of urgency revolved around a recent “breakthrough” by the Mossad and IDF military intelligence in collecting evidence that Iran had made a strategic decision post-October 7 to advance on all fronts toward weaponization of its nuclear program. With the world’s attention fully diverted to the fighting in Gaza and Lebanon, the ayatollahs sought to use the war as cover for a final mad dash to nuclear weaponry.
By early 2024, Iran’s nuclear scientists scattered into specific groups and went underground to complete all the steps needed to produce nuclear arms. The most troubling proof was Iran’s recent work on nuclear detonation triggers and the conversion of uranium into the metal form needed for the unique shaping of an atomic warhead.
Even the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned in its latest official report that Tehran had accumulated enough enriched uranium at near military-grade levels to build at least nine nuclear warheads. The IAEA also concluded that Iran is in serious violation of its commitments and obligations to the world community concerning uranium enrichment activities and safeguards against nuclear arms proliferation.
Israel’s “Operation Rising Lion” against Iran
Thus, as Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Chief-of-Staff Eyal Zamir stated after Israel’s opening salvo on June 13, Iran had “reached the point of no return” in its efforts to develop nuclear warheads, leaving Israel no choice but to act. President Isaac Herzog described Israel’s actions as a “targeted operation to neutralize an immediate and existential threat to our people.”
Meanwhile, Netanyahu explained that “Operation Rising Lion” would involve “precision, pre-emptive strikes” not only against the threat posed by Iran’s numerous nuclear facilities but also by its ballistic missile assembly and storage sites. This came after Israeli intelligence had concluded that the Islamic regime in Tehran had accelerated its ballistic missile production for the express purpose of overwhelming Israel’s multitiered air defense network, which Jerusalem also viewed as an intolerable threat.
The IDF operation quickly proved more successful than anticipated from Israel’s perspective. Within 72 hours, the IAF, along with Mossad agents on the ground inside Iran, eliminated some 20 senior military officers and at least 14 leading nuclear scientists in charge of Iran’s renegade nuclear program. They destroyed Iran’s air defenses to the point that Israeli jets now have full freedom of action over the skies of Tehran. Many of its missile factories and storage sites and one-third of its launch platforms were also targeted. In addition, most of Iran’s known nuclear sites have been seriously damaged, although the critical underground Fordo site may be out of reach of Israeli weaponry for now. Only American bunker-busters can penetrate the fortress, which is carved inside a mountain.
Israel also began targeting leading symbols of the regime, such as the Defense Ministry building, state TV channel, and Revolutionary Guard Corps command center in Tehran. And Iran’s key economic infrastructure is also coming under assault, such as its vital oil and gas production and storage facilities.
The result is that most Iranians feel the Islamic regime can no longer protect them and is bringing their country to ruin.
Iran’s Response
The Iranian response came in the form of repeated missile and drone barrages, which have claimed 24 Israeli lives so far—nearly all elderly, women, and children. But Israeli authorities assess that Tehran’s reprisals thus far are far less destructive than expected. Due to the IDF’s preemptive actions, many of Iran’s missiles and one-third of its launchers have been demolished, and its command structure is in disarray, so the waves of rockets on Israel’s civilian heartland are not coming at the rate once feared.
The Israeli operation has come after decades of Iran’s relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons capabilities, as well as the Iranian regime’s official, open, and persistent genocidal threats to wipe Israel off the map. Israeli leaders have known of Iran’s nuclear program aimed at the Jewish State since at least the time of the Rabin government in the early 1990s.
Israel’s Moment to Strike Iran
Yet even then, Israel was clear in its firm policy to never allow a regional adversary to acquire weapons of mass destruction to use against the Jewish State born out of the ashes of the Holocaust. Israel proved its willingness to uphold this declared policy by striking the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak in 1981 and the secret Khyber nuclear plant in Syria in 2007. Israeli leaders have now demonstrated their determination once again to strip any regional foe of the means to perpetrate a genocidal attack against the Jewish nation and people.
So what is happening right now should surprise no one. It was just a matter of whether and when Netanyahu would find the right time to launch this preemptive operation.
Iran is trying to reset the narrative by claiming it is a peace-loving nation that was close to a major agreement with the Trump administration over its nuclear program, and that Israel blew up that chance for a landmark deal. But Iran showed its classic intransigent in recent talks with US officials, insisting it would never concede its right to enrich uranium (there is no such right). Tehran also was stringing out those talks and using them as further cover for its fanatical dash across the nuclear threshold.
60 Days to Make a Deal
The morning after Israel launched its operation against Iran, US President Donald Trump confirmed he had told Iranian leaders back on April 12 they had 60 days to make a deal or face the consequences. American negotiators then tested Iran’s nuclear intentions, only to hit a brick wall. So, Netanyahu had the clearance to finally take action on day 61.
It remains to be seen where the conflict will go from here, but so far, Israel’s heavy, direct blows on Iran and its military assets have been humiliating for the clerical regime. There is even the possibility of the Iranian people rising to free themselves from the ayatollahs. Thus, Tehran is begging for a ceasefire and return to negotiations with the United States. Hopefully, Trump gives Israel time to finish the job.
However this war ends, Netanyahu’s decision to finally strike Iran is a historic moment decades in the making. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seized power in the Islamic Revolution of 1979 with a message that only by returning to the fundamentals of Islam would the Arab and Muslim world be able to defeat Israel on the battlefield. He forced his people back to the Islam of antiquity, imposing on women the black chadors of the seventh century. As his regime began exporting their revolution, they slowly built their “ring of fire” of proxy terror militias around Israel and launched a clandestine nuclear program for an ultimate genocidal assault on the Jewish State.
Yet in a few short days, that apocalyptic vision crumbled, along with the means to carry it out. Thanks to Netanyahu’s leadership and a brave young generation skilled at war, the lion of Israel has arisen!
Main photo: Israeli jets ready for takeoff in ‘Operation Rising Lion’. (IDF photo)
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