With this latest attack on Israel, Iran’s despots have tipped their hand.
“Iran Attacks Israel,” Nick Parker and James Halpin reported for The Sun on October 1, 2024. “EDGE OF WAR: Israel vows revenge after Iran’s 180-missile attack as archenemies trade barbs & put Middle East on brink of all-out war.”
Parker invited subscribers to “Watch the missiles fly over Jerusalem and strike Israel from above” as, between images of missiles filling the skies of Israel and Israelis sheltering from the blitz, the widening conflict came into greater focus.
“Alerts sounded across Israel late on Tuesday afternoon after US satellites picked up ballistic missiles being moved to launch sites in the west of Iran,” he revealed. “Defence rockets intercepted most in the skies above Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa.”
“The skies lit up within minutes as red tracers from the Iron Dome and David’s Sling defence systems blasted the rockets,” Parker added.
While Israel’s advanced anti-missile capabilities averted disaster this time, the next strike might prove more unlucky. The next strike might also come much sooner than foreign policy experts are willing to admit — at least publicly.
The scope and scale of this latest barrage of attacks against Israel has taken many in the international community by surprise.
“Israel and U.S. repel 180-missile attack from Iran,” reported Barak Ravid for Axios. “This was Iran’s largest-scale attack ever against Israel. Most of the missiles were intercepted by Israel and the U.S., and there are no reports of deaths inside Israel. One Palestinian civilian was reportedly killed in the West Bank.”
“Israel is at war with two of Iran’s allied militias, Hamas and Hezbollah,” Ravid reminded Axios readers. “Fears of a broader war involving Iran itself have been growing for weeks.”
“Iran has said it wants to avoid a regional war, but Tuesday’s attack is two months in the making,” he admitted.
The looming threat of a nuclear-armed Iran poses an existential challenge to Israel, and the stakes have never been higher. For years, Iran has relentlessly pursued its nuclear ambitions, despite international sanctions and diplomatic efforts to curtail its progress.
Since 2020, with the world distracted by other crises, Tehran’s nuclear program has been advancing at an alarming pace, and time is running out for Israel to act decisively.
The prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran is not merely a hypothetical scenario. Iran’s hardline leadership has openly called for the destruction of Israel, and its proxies across the Middle East, from Hezbollah in Lebanon to militias in Syria, have been striking at Israel’s heartland. A nuclear weapon would drastically alter the balance of power, giving Iran the ultimate deterrent while emboldening its aggression.
Israel, with its superior intelligence and military capabilities, may have no choice but to neutralize this threat.
The next confrontation between Israel and Iran may not be a war of rockets and drones, but one of nuclear devastation — a risk Israel cannot afford to take.
“Middle East’s power scales tip as Israel senses Iran’s weakness,” ventured John Sawyers for the Financial Times on Monday. “Regional tensions will remain high with neither Netanyahu’s coalition nor the Palestinians ready for a settlement.”
“In the past two weeks, Israel has used its huge military advantage, underpinned by AI-enhanced intelligence, to overwhelm Hizbollah,” Sawyers wrote. “The organisation has lost its top leadership and many of the next generation. Its communications system has been destroyed, as have many of its rocket and missile launch sites. This comes after Hamas’s military capacity has been largely dismantled. It feels like we are witnessing a substantial shift in the balance of power in the Middle East, in Israel’s favour and at Iran’s expense.”
But a shift in the balance of power isn’t likely to last forever. With Iran’s nuclear ambitions foremost in mind, Israel’s military leaders are making decisions poised on the edge of a very dangerous knife.
(contributing writer, Brooke Bell)