WhatsappIsrael finally did it. While not as devastating as people originally thought it would be, Saturday’s early morning attack against Iran by Israel’s air force was nothing short of miraculous.
Flying more than 1,000 miles, much of it over hostile enemy territory 100 IAF planes enabled an aerial attack on Iran’s ballistic missile fuel factories, air defense systems, and drone factories as well as a nuclear research center. Damage from the attack is still being assessed by the regime, but outside sources indicate that it has left much of the strategic sites like the nuclear sites and oil fields unguarded as the air defense systems surrounding them were destroyed.
Iran has vowed that they have a right to retaliate, but it is not clear in what capacity they will do so. Although Israel knocked out the Ayatollah’s ability to produce ballistic missiles at the rate they were doing before, it is clear that theymay still have some stock piled elsewhere.
The Ayatollahs and the IRGC will now have to think twice about retaliating since the lack of a credible air defense system leaves them vulnerable for a much more devastating attack.
While many on both the left and right in Israel are panning the lack of a comprehensive knock out, many observers have correctly pointed out that a knock out punch can only come once the regime is vulnerable enough to be toppled. In order for Israel’s fighter jets to reach Iran, the air force had to knock out a series of radar stations in Syria and Iraq along the way. This took time to do.
In order to destroy the nuclear sites and oil fields, the latter being the regime’s lifeline, Israel had to decimate the air defense systems around these sites first. This could not have been done at the same time.
More importantly, many analysts are coming to the conclusion that the attack has left the regime severely weakened internally for the first time since the Iranian Green Movement of 2009 and 2010. The Islamic Republic of Iran has no effective way to stop Israel from taking out its leaders, economic engine, and military. It has also shown to the public that instead of building a thriving economy for its people it has squandered Iran’s economic potential on proxies in foreign lands for the sole purpose of destroying Israel.
It is Israel that is now showing the Iranian people that they can in fact topple their fascist regime. Israel is showing the entire world that Iran may be bellicose, but it has only won up until now due to its duplicitous and weakness of Western leaders worried far too much about appeasement rather than standing up against evil.
