Iran broke all the previous norms this past weekend, and attacked Israel, and it’s not over.
It fired 170 drones and 350 rockets at Israel, which was aided by the U.S, and UK and Jordan, shooting them all down as they flew towards the Jewish State.
Remember, Iran has repeatedly threatened to destroy Israel, and this attack could have been much worse, and it has larger missiles which could one day carry nuclear warheads.
Iran has attacked Israel in the past using it’s proxy fighters in Lebanon and Syria and even Hamas in Gaza, but this attack was an overt state to state attack and takes us into a completely new world.
Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper notes this attack “changes the paradigm”, because Iran has pledged to carry out more attacks like this on Israel if it chooses, and Esper was critical of President Biden for calling for restraint against Iran.
Iran says it was responding to the Israeli strike on it’s consulate in Syria, which Israel hit to take out Iranian commanders, killing seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members, including two generals.
But Iran directly attacked Israel, forcing the closures of airports, and making Israeli’s run for bomb shelters. If this attack wasn’t a direct threat to Israel, I don’t know what is.
Israel has no choice but to respond now, even though Western leaders say it could be a mistake and lead to a wider regional war.
Iran is intent on dominating the entire middle east, and pushing Israel and American influence out.
It has used every tactic to prevent normalization of relations with Israel and Arab countries, including supporting Hamas’ terror attack inside Israel October 7, just as Israel and Saudi Arabia were poised to sign a peace agreement.
Iran has bullied Arab States too, and is always in the minds of leaders in places like Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, which see Iran as their number one threat.
President Biden is allowing the U.S, and Israel to be bullied by Iranian mullahs who won’t stop lighting the region on fire, unless they pay a price inside Iran. And Israel has wanted to punish Iran for sometime, and now will most certainly exact a price for this unprecedented attack.
That means Israel will likely have to target Iranian nuclear sites, or military bases, or even Tehran to make it clear Iran won’t be allowed to attack anyone and have immunity inside of Iran.
Sunday, as the possibility of an Israeli response loomed because of Iran’s attack, the Int Atomic Energy Agency pulled it’s inspectors out of Iranian facilities. The fact there are some inspections still is positive, but On Sunday, Israel’s U.N. envoy told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that Tehran would soon have nuclear weapons capabilities.
“Iran’s breakout time to produce an arsenal of nuclear weapons is now weeks — mere weeks,” Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan said.
And the IAEA Chief Rafael Mariano Grossi noted “we are telling our Iranian counterparts that this important accumulation of nuclear material, at levels that are very, very close — technically identical almost to weapons grade level — of course is not irrelevant and raises questions in the international community.”
Translation - Iran, a global threat especially to Israel and U.S. interests in the middle east, will not only now directly attack, but it may soon be waving a nuclear threat, which Israel and America have vowed could not stand because of the extreme nature of the Islamic Republic and it’s extremist forces.
Indeed an Israeli strike on Iran will help ignite a larger conflict in the middle east, but the ground work was laid by Iran, which has sets a new bar and implied it may now carry out massive attacks in the future.
Dangerous times, about to get worse, but Iran bears responsibility for an overt very large scale assault on Israel that must have a price attached, or Iran will think it has a blank cheque in a region that is already a powder keg.