In the early hours of Friday, June 13, Israel carried out a strike against the Iranian regime that will go down in the annals of military history. It was a combined feat of intelligence and daring that shocked the ayatollahs and stunned the world. I can’t wait for the movie.
It already tops the most fantastic episodes of the popular Israeli spy series Tehran, in which Niv Sultan stars as Mossad agent Tamar Rabinyan, who penetrates the Iranian capital to try to thwart Iran’s nuclear program.
Operation Rising Lion got its name from the biblical verse “A people that rises up as a lioness, and as a lion lifts himself up” (Numbers 23:24). It’s a poetic name for poetic justice.
To use a different biblical reference: Israel is David, Iran is Goliath. David is tackling the giant that has taunted the Israelites. Instead of being paralyzed by the fear of the Iranian response, Israel roared and pounced.
Having used several ruses to put Iran off its guard – including reports of the prime minister taking a vacation before his son’s (now postponed) wedding, and talk of discussions ahead of renewed negotiations between the US and Iran – in the opening salvo, the Israel Air Force managed to eliminate most of the Iranian General Command and Intelligence top cadre, including Chief of Staff Gen. Mohammad Bagheri and Hossein Salami, leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Israel reportedly used pre-deployed Mossad commando units in Iran to knock out many weapons that could have been used in a retaliatory strike.
This type of sophisticated operation requires incredibly precise intelligence and long-term planning. Israeli Air Force control of the skies above Tehran (as I write these lines) sends a powerful message to foes, and an invitation of support from friends and potential friends.
The Abraham Accords with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain did not occur in a vacuum. The Gulf states, also threatened by Iran, realized that Israel’s capabilities could be useful. Any tears shed in Saudi Arabia when Israel hits Iran are tears of joy. Riyadh is closely following developments, including the fate of Iran’s Houthi proxies in Yemen who fire rockets on the Saudi kingdom as well as the Jewish state.
The campaign comes on the heels of the brilliant Pager Operation last September, which targeted the Hezbollah top cadre in Lebanon. Operation Rising Lion has restored Israeli deterrence, which was so badly damaged in the October 7, 2023, Iranian-sponsored Hamas invasion and mega-atrocity when 1,200 were murdered in southern Israel and 251 abducted; 53 remain in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
So far, a decimated Hezbollah has decided to sit this war out. This is a far cry from the beginning of Operation Iron Swords, when Israel, still reeling from the ISIS-style invasion, came under massive rocket fire from Lebanon and Gaza.
A long time coming
OPERATION RISING LION was a long time in the making. Its roots lie in the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted the Shah of Iran and replaced him with Shi’ite zealots. The current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has long referred to Israel – or “the Zionist entity” – as a cancer. His aim was to cure the “cancer” with nuclear medicine – nuclear weapons. If there is one lesson from October 7 it is to believe your enemies when they say they want to destroy you.
Calls for “both sides” to exercise restraint are farcical in their hypocrisy. Iran had been gradually extending its tentacles of terror from Tehran to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, and Yemen – aiming to crush the Jewish state from all directions. Having knocked out much of Hezbollah’s and Syria’s air capabilities, Israel has been able to create a corridor to Iran – the exact opposite of Iran’s intentions under its “ring of fire” policy.
This is not a war of political survival for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as portrayed in much of the liberal and foreign media. This is his “I told you so” moment. Netanyahu has been warning of the threat of Iran’s steady march to developing nuclear weapons for decades.
Despite struggling from severe economic difficulties, Iran continued to fund its terrorist proxies and nuclear and weapons programs at the expense of Iranian citizens.
Just days before the start of the operation, the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors concluded that Iran is not complying with its nuclear non-proliferation safeguard obligations, in effect admitting that Iran was on the threshold of a breakout.
I’M ONE OF those people who scroll through cat videos on Facebook for light relief. I also watch emotional reunions of lost dogs with their owners, and cute clips of mutts being adopted. But this week, like everything else in Israel, these clips have also been different – and a lot less relaxing.
This week has not been about animal shelters; it’s been about the shelters where people (and their pets) gather when missiles and drones are fired indiscriminately from nearly 2,000 km. away.
Social media filled with posts of owners looking for their lost pets, and rescuers seeking to reunite shell-shocked cats and dogs with their families. There was footage of felines being rescued from the debris of apartment blocks and of ambulance teams giving oxygen to cats that had just lost one of their nine lives.
The image of an Israeli firefighter handing a huge, trembling hound to its owner outside a destroyed apartment building particularly struck me. Just this month, by contrast, Iran extended the ban on walking (or transporting) dogs, which had been in force in Tehran, to some 20 cities across the country, in effect banning the ownership of pet dogs in most of the Islamic Republic.
Of course, it’s not only dogs that are banned. Iran still hangs homosexuals. (The annual Tel Aviv Pride Parade was canceled due to the war.) Women are forced to wear hijabs in public. Children can receive a death sentence. Girls can be legally married from the age of 13. And religious and ethnic minorities face severe discrimination and persecution.
Siding with the ayatollahs betrays Western values. Although, perhaps, a stand against Israel has become a part of Western culture.
ISRAEL HAS been left to carry out the dirty work of the free world. The ayatollahs’ dogs of war have long snarled at Israel. Their bark is not worse than their bite: It is a growl of intent before an attack. However uncomfortable it has been for Israelis to rush to shelters night and day, we understand what we are fighting for: our existence.
The damage caused by the missiles Iran already possesses has been extensive, despite Israel’s impressive defense systems. The thought of one ballistic missile armed with a nuclear warhead should keep everyone awake at night, not just those of us in Israeli shelters. As Seth Mandel summed up in Commentary: “To simplify: Iran is practicing nuking Tel Aviv.”
Israel has been focusing on military targets and other targets symbolizing the regime, along with nuclear facilities and scientists involved in its nuclear program.
Iran, on the other hand, has been firing rockets indiscriminately – the approximately 340 ballistic missiles launched in just the first few days killed 24 Israelis, including a woman in her nineties, two children in Bat Yam, and five female members of a Christian Arab family in the Galilean village of Tamra.
Unlike the mass global rallies for Gaza, the streets have been quiet over the Israeli victims extricated from the rubble of their homes.
While China, Russia, and North Korea are part of an axis with Iran, Europe is giving the impression that it wants Israel to defeat the Islamic Republic, but not to be too strong.
The hypocrisy of France stands out. While French President Emmanuel Macron joined other G7 leaders in saying Israel has a right to defend itself, just one day before the opening of the prestigious Paris Air Show this week, exhibition organizers, following instructions from the French government, erected a black wall to block the Israeli pavilions.
Perhaps this was partly motivated to prevent competition with French weapons industries, particularly since Israeli weapons have been proven in the field. More likely, Macron is playing for the vote of his Muslim citizens, apparently unaware that he has already lost control of large areas to young extremists.
Wherever you are reading this, you should hear the lions’ roar and pray that the operation against Iranian tyranny succeeds. Israel isn’t escalating tensions; it’s eliminating a threat to the entire global village.