Israel’s successful strike on Iran

For four hours beginning before 2am local time on Saturday (11am in Sydney) a force of 100 Israeli jet fighters, spy planes and refuelling aircraft launched mostly unchallenged precision strikes against key targets across Iran, including Tehran. Wave after wave of the Jewish state’s most advanced aerial weapon, its F-35 jet fighters, first destroyed air defence batteries in Syria and Iraq, clearing a path for second and third sorties to hit Iranian facilities engaged in production of cruise and ballistic missiles that Tehran used to target Israel this year.

By 6am all the Israeli aircraft were safely back at home, without losses. Over those four hours, Israel’s operation, codenamed “Day of Repentance”, had virtually total control of the skies over Iran. Even Tehran’s vaunted, Russian-made S-300 air defence batteries – claimed by Moscow to be better than Israel’s Iron Dome defences – were among the targets demolished.

Nothing better sums up the remarkable success of an audacious, unprecedented retaliatory strike by Israel that it says, with good reason, amounted to “a historic humiliation” for Iran’s terrorist-supporting ayatollahs and their bellicose insistence that they and their Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi proxies can destroy Israel. As Zvika Klein, editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post, said, the success of the strike unmasked “a simple truth: Tehran, for all its bluster, isn’t untouchable. You can almost feel the tectonic plates shifting under Iran’s feet as the ‘regional power’ finds itself reeling, looking a lot less like the force it projects”.

“Israel,” Klein said, “has done more than just attack military installations. It has rewritten the rules of the game, showing that it has the nerve and know-how to reach where it needs to, stripping Iran of some of its military edge in a single night, leaving the so-called ‘regional power’ scrambling for control over its narrative, like a magician left with empty hands in front of an audience.”

Retired Israeli Brigadier General Assaf Orion said “Iran knew Israel was coming” to avenge Tehran’s October 1 attack when it launched 200 missiles at the Jewish state, most failing to reach their targets. Yet Iran was unable to prevent anything.

The strike should recalibrate thinking about the entire Middle East crisis. Iran and its terrorist proxies should wonder where they’re headed. It may be, as The Wall Street Journal reported, that the strike marks “a dangerous new phase of confrontation between Israel and Iran” since they began striking each other directly earlier this year. But the onslaught showed Tehran’s “lion’s den” is not immune to direct Israeli attack.

In deference to Biden administration pressure, no doubt, the Israeli attack was carefully calibrated. It steered clear of the oil and nuclear facilities Iran had warned would prompt extreme retaliation and, potentially, full-scale war. As the attack began, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin assured Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant the US was ready to help Israel respond to any Iranian counteroffensive. But, while Israel kept away from oil and nuclear facilities, that does not change the reality for Iran and its allies, Russia and China, and its terrorist proxies, that the strike unequivocally demonstrated Israel’s overwhelming military superiority and potential ability to target those facilities should it want to do so.

What happens next is anyone’s guess. But the importance of the successful Israeli strike – and Iran’s feeble response – cannot be overstated. As Klein wrote: “What we’re witnessing isn’t just a military strategy but also a glimpse of a new regional dynamic. Israel has drawn a line that will be felt by power corridors well beyond Tehran. It’s a lesson in calculated defiance, one that sends a message to Iran and its proxies: Israel is ready to protect its own, to reach into even the most fortified regions if it means safeguarding its people. The reverberations of the strike won’t fade quickly – they mark a turning point that might just reshape the balance of power for years to come.”

Iran’s ayatollahs would be foolish if they fail to grasp that powerful message. So would governments across the world, including our own, that naively demand Israel submit to a ceasefire that would assist terrorism.