Israel’s strikes against Iran maintain US credibility on the world stage without bringing other powers into the fray, while preventing the threat of World War Three that would arise from a nuclear-armed Iran. Opinion.’
Israel vs Iran. A battle the whole world knew was coming for 20 years, a battle that was inevitable the moment then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dropped all pretences of moderation and began openly calling for the annihilation of Israel on the world stage. But no one expected it to look like this.
The blow Israel struck in the early morning hours on Friday will go down as one of the greatest – if not the greatest – pre-emptive strikes in military history, rivalling or surpassing the opening shots of the Six Day War nearly 60 years ago. Iranian nuclear facilities were struck, nuclear scientists were assassinated, and senior military leaders were killed. Overnight, Iran’s military power was decimated and its nuclear ambitions set back by at least a year.
This attack was completely necessary and justified. According to American and Israeli intelligence, Iran had enriched enough uranium for nearly ten nuclear bombs and was approaching the point of no return. Any further delay could have led to global catastrophe and the ascension of the world’s foremost sponsor and spreader of terrorism to nuclear power status.
The danger was not merely that Iran might put nuclear warheads on the ballistic missiles it has launched at Israel, though that danger was great. There is no telling what the Ayatollahs would do with a nuclear arsenal. Certainly, they would use their nuclear threat to subjugate the rest of the Middle East the way they have subjugated Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, and Yemen over the last half-century.
Other countries like Saudi Arabia would be forced to pursue their own nuclear weapons program to counter Iran, leading to a dangerous nuclear arms race and proliferation across the Middle East. World War Three would be a single miscalculation away in a Middle East filled with nuclear weapons.
Given Iran’s history of international terrorism – assassinating dissidents in European cities, blowing up a Jewish community center in South America, attempting to assassinate a foreign ambassador on American soil, and plotting to assassinate multiple former American government officials – including then-candidate and current President Donald Trump – there was a real danger that Iran would give a crude nuclear device to a terrorist proxy to detonate on the streets of a major Western city such as Paris, London, New York, or Washington.
A President Trump told The Atlantic over the weekend, “You can’t have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon.”
However, the necessity of an operation does not guarantee that it will succeed in execution. Many have for decades doubted Israel’s ability to strike at Iran’s nuclear weapons program the way it struck at Iraq’s in 1981 and Syria’s in 2007. The distance, about 2,000 miles, was considered too great. Unlike Iraq and Syria, Iran’s nuclear facilities are spread out and some of the most important facilities are protected underground. And Iran is a more powerful and dangerous enemy than Iraq and Syria were at the time.
Fortunately for the world, Israel’s security forces were up to the task. The Mossad infiltrated Tehran and established a drone manufacturing facility in Iran itself. Israeli intelligence penetrated Iran’s military to an astonishing degree. And Israel created a window of opportunity when it destroyed most of Iran’s air defense systems in response to Iran’s massive ballistic missile attack in October 2024.
The IAF quickly achieved complete air superiority in the skies of Iran, allowing it to act with impunity. Israeli fighter jets refuelled in the air while still in Iran, continuing to strike at nuclear and military targets days after the initial strikes. Iran was also manufacturing its own ballistic missiles, its goal 300 a month, at a site Israel destroyed.
Iran’s strategy depended on its terrorist proxies, primarily Hamas and Hezbollah. Those terrorist organizations were supposed to bombard Israel with tens of thousands of rockets and drones in the event of an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear weapons program. That plan was ruined when Hamas committed the October 7 massacre and Hezbollah launched thousands of attacks over the course of the following year against Israel, leading Israel to retaliate and cripple both organizations.
Hamas in Gaza has fired a few token rockets, while what remains of Hezbollah, the crown jewel of Iran’s efforts to spread its influence and power across the region and the world through its proxies, announced that it will sit out the conflict between Israel and its Iranian masters entirely.
Like Morgoth, the main villain of JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth universe and the original master of Lord of the Rings villain Sauron, Iran wasted its resources in spreading its influence throughout the region through its underlings, empowering them at its own expense. It armed Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and other terrorist groups and provided them with many billions of dollars that could have gone to strengthening its own military and building its own economy. Its true power and danger was spread through its proxies, and when those proxies were destroyed, Iran was revealed to be a paper tiger whose only hope of restoring power was to obtain nuclear weapons, just as the flying dragons were Morgoth’s last hope when his servants were destroyed. Evil destroyed itself.
America has already benefited greatly from Israel’s strikes on Iran. One of the criticisms of President Trump since he took office half a year ago is that he threatens but always backs down, such as in his announcements of tariffs on many countries. Iran certainly thought that all of Trump’s threats and warnings over its nuclear weapons program were nothing more than bluffs and bluster.
But Israel has proven that Trump was not bluffing. By acting on Trump’s threats, by striking on the 61st day after Trump gave Iran 60 days to comply with his demands, Israel maintained and America’s credibility on the world stage, without America having to lift a finger or get involved militarily itself. And by supporting Israel in this conflict with Iran, America has further maintained its credibility and demonstrated to the world why being its friend and ally is still so important.
Israel has paid a terrible price for these accomplishments. Iran is weak and incapable of winning this conflict, but it can still fire hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel. 24 people have been killed in direct strikes in Israeli cities and towns so far, and hundreds have been injured, and although most casualties were people not in safe rooms or shelters, children are among the dead, and an Israeli Arab man in Tamra has lost his wife and three daughters. These casualties are incredibly painful for the entire nation. It is hard not to cry when watching Raja Khatib describe how his oldest daughter, Shada, was studying law at the University of Haifa and how his youngest child, Hala, was only in the 8th grade.
And yet, Israelis know that it could have been much worse. Iran could have launched thousands of ballistic missiles instead of hundreds. It could have had Hamas and Hezbollah launch tens of thousands of rockets at the same time as its missile attacks. It could have had nuclear warheads on its missiles, killing 2.4 million people instead of 24. With the destruction of Hamas and Hezbollah and the choice to engage Iran now and not wait for it to have ten times as many ballistic missiles, some equipped with nuclear warheads, Israel has prevented those nightmare scenarios and fulfilled the promise of ‘never again.’
The job is not yet done. The nuclear facility in Fordow, hidden under a mountain, has not yet been targeted. As long as the Fordow facility remains and the Ayatollahs remain in power, the threat of a nuclear Iran will not have been completely eliminated. Israel does not possess the kind of bunker-busting bombs needed to destroy that facility. Nor has Israel targeted the Ayatollahs themselves, the source of the threat of a nuclear Holocaust.
Just as it would have been a waste to end the fights against Hamas and Hezbollah before the elimination of their leadership and the crippling of their armies, it would be a waste to end Operation Rising Lion while a nuclear facility still exists in Iran and those who lead the plan to destroy Israel are still in power..
We can only pray that there is a plan to deal with Fordow and that there is a plan to prevent the Ayatollahs from ever again threatening Israel, the Middle East, and the world, whether through the rebuilding of their terrorist proxies or with nuclear weapons. If Iran becomes the peaceful nation its 90 million citizens wish it to be, the next three quarters of the 21st Century will be far more peaceful for the entire world than the last 25 years have been.
