Iran wants to cause real damage, Israel’s response may not be as restrained as last time
When Iran attacked Israel in April, it seemed like they had a point — but Iran effectively put the attack on notice as to how they carried it out, and everything was pretty much lost on the defense force. shot down by Israel and the US.
This time is different. The Iranians appear to want to do some serious damage and are being much more aggressive.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that it was retaliating for the killing of senior leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, and warned that if Israel retaliated, it would strike back.
Last time, Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — “Let’s win,” don’t make a big response — and they didn’t. This time in Israel the atmosphere is very different.
Look at former prime minister Naftali Bennet’s tweet last night, using very strong language, saying: “This is the biggest opportunity in 50 years to change the face of the Middle East.” He argued that Israel should attack Iran’s nuclear facilities to “fatally cripple this terrorist regime”.
He is not the prime minister now (although many people think he will be one in the future, so he wants to show that he is tough) but that reflects a certain mood. settled in this country.
I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of Israel attacking anything at this time – nuclear facilities, petrochemical facilities, anything that could damage the Iranian economy.
The scenario has always been that Iran has a forward defense force in the form of Hezbollah in Lebanon, with a huge arsenal of sophisticated weapons that, in theory, would be of use if Iran and its nuclear facilities attacked.
But in the past few weeks, Israel has beheaded Hezbollah, destroying half of its weapons, according to US and Israeli authorities; and invaded Lebanon.
You could argue that the deterrent that Iran had is not just gone, it’s been smashed into a thousand pieces. So I think Israelis are feeling more free to act. And Joe Biden is dispatching another aircraft carrier strike group to the Mediterranean, signaling to the Iranians that if you hit Israel, you also hit America.
This is why people talk about widespread fear of war: the instability, the chaos that comes from everything that’s going on – now we’re seeing it happen and there’s little room for diplomacy. at this time.
