“The last few days felt like a year,” an Israeli Air Force reserve navigator identified only as A. told The Jerusalem Post after flying in Operation Rising Lion, the June 13–24 pre-emptive campaign that Israel says crippled key parts of Iran’s nuclear and missile program. “So many highs and lows, so much joy and uncertainty — each day could fill a book.”
A., a staffer in the centrist Fourth Quarter movement on his civilian days, was running its annual conference when a terse text flashed on his phone: “Report to the squadron at dawn. Tomorrow it happens — a preventative strike against Iran’s nuclear project.” He recalled, “We’ve spent years preparing for an Iran operation. You always keep a sliver of hope that maybe we’ll never need it, that the threat can be removed some other way.”
He could not breathe a word to the thousands of relatives, colleagues, and guests milling around him. “Surprise is everything,” he said. “I was surrounded by my parents, my wife, my kids, my Fourth Quarter friends, yet I had to act like it was business as usual. I knew missiles might hit the home front within 24 hours, but if I warned them, the mission could fail. It’s a brutal feeling — biting your lip to save lives.”
At dawn, he kissed his children goodbye. “They’re used to Daddy disappearing for reserves and just ask when I’ll be back,” he said. “Outside, I sounded calm; inside, my heart pounded.” His wife “looked me straight in the eye, hugged me, and said, ‘Do what you must. We’re here, strengthening you.’ That embrace was pure oxygen.”
Briefings were blunt. “They reminded us the enemy is clever, sophisticated, armed with tools that can hurt us,” A. said. “We launch only when the national mission is of historic importance — and that was now.”
The flight plan demanded heavy fuel loads, in-air refueling and what he called “endless checklists for every malfunction, every worst-case hit.” Hours in the air felt like minutes amid near-total radio silence.
From 30,000 ft Tehran looked almost serene. “These are landscapes we’d only seen in photos,” he said. “We flew over biblical sites; Iran’s mountains are breathtaking. The city itself is no different from any other — pastoral, quiet. Maybe people below were afraid, but from above it was still.” Only after exiting Iranian airspace did tension start to ease.
“Crossing the Middle East in an Israeli fighter is insane,” he added, singling out “technicians, engineers, Mossad officers, the entire intelligence community” for enabling the sortie. “Within a minute of re-entering Israel, we were lining up to land.”
Relief of succeeding in a mission
Touchdown brought a flood of relief. “There’s no greater satisfaction than succeeding in a mission of national and historic weight,” he said. “It proves Israelis can do anything — our ingenuity, creativity, technology, our people. Imagine what we could achieve if we tackled unity and education with the same focus.”
A. closed with a direct appeal in Farsi he had practiced for weeks: “Mâ bâ shomâ jang nemikonim. We are not at war with you. We didn’t bomb you; we bombed those who want to destroy us. One day, I believe, peace will come, and our peoples will prosper together.”