LOS ANGELES.–Hitting Iran back for its April 13 drone and missile strike, 74-year-old Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a measured strike on an Isfahan military base, letting the Ayatollah know that Israel responds to attacks on its territory. World leaders, attending G7 summit on Italy’s Island of Capri, were surprised by the Israeli strike but not 61-year-old Secretary of State Antony Blinken who go the heads up sometime before the actual strike. Israel’s War Cabinet struggled with how and when to respond to Iran’s brazen attack on Israeli territory, an apparent retaliation for Israel’s April 1 strike on the Iranian embassy compound, housing the Al Quds force, in Damascus, Syria, killing two generals and five others. Israel apparently took out Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi who worked with Hamas on the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre that killed 1,200 Israelis, taking 250 hostages.
Iran’s shadow war has been going on against Israel for years, using Iran’s 1979 Revolution as an Islamic rally crying around the Middle East and the world. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei returned from exile and toppled the U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, hijacking the Palestinian cause to launch his own Islamic revolution. Seizing the U.S. embassy Nov. 4, 1979, holding 53 U.S. hostages until Jan. 20, 1981, Inauguration Day for President Ronald Reagan, Iran broke off diplomatic relations with the U.S. Whether admitted to or not, its state-sponsored terrorism against Israel allows Tehran to obliquely attack the United States. But let there be no mistake, Iran attacks Israel to get back at the U.S. for putting the Shah in power in 1954 CIA-coup against Iranian socialist Prime Minister Mohammed Mossaddegh. Mossaddegh proposed to nationalize the Iranian oil industry.
Whatever the distrust and hatred toward the United States, Khomenei hijacked the Palestinian cause, knowing that Israel was a singular U.S. ally in the Middle East. So, whatever Khomenei and now Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei does to attack Israel through its terrorist network, it’s really an attack on U.S. interests. So, when Israel struck back at Iran yesterday, the Ayatollah considers it a strike by the U.S. since Israel is considered by Iran a U.S. satellite. “Israel tried to calibrate between the need to respond and a desire not to enter into a cycle of action and counter reaction that would just escalate endlessly,” aid Itamar Rabinovich, former Israeli Amb. to Washington. “There is a huge relief across the Gulf region. It looks like the attack was limited and proportionate and caused limited damage. I see it a de-escalation,” said veteran Saudi analyst Abdelrahman al-Rashed said.
State Department officials were concerned that any retaliation by Israel could stoke a forceful response for Iran, after Iran’s 62-year-old President Ibrahim Raisi said Iran would respond to the slightest provocation with overwhelming force. Netanyahu doesn’t take Iranian threats against Israel seriously, doing whatever he must to defend Israeli national security. Israel’s Cabinet members Beni Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot wanted a more immediate response without going through 81-year-old President Joe Biden. “We should also be listening to our partners, to our friends in the world. I say this clearly. I see no shame or weakness in doing so,” said Aryeh Deri, head of one of Israel’s ultra-orthodox parties. Responding to Iran became a high priority for Israel’s War Cabinet, knowing that anything less would be seen as a sign of weakness by the Ayatollah’s regime.
Israel’s symbolic response brought a sigh of relief to the oil-rich Gulf States like Saud Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Qatar. “A grave regional conflagration which might be beyond anyone’s control or ability to contain,” said Abdelazis al-Sagher, head of Saudi-based Gulf Research Center, expressing relief over Israel’s restrained response. Arab Gulf states all sought to avoid any escalation, considering they’ve been reliable donors to Gaza’s reconstruction over the years. Gulf State donors are reluctant to supply any cash to Hamas, knowing the reconstruction funds would be used for military purposes, or even more corrupt, to enrich Hamas leadership, something that turned former Hamas leaders Isamail Haniyeh, Khaled Meshaal and Mousa Mazouk into billionaires, stealing Gulf State donor cash. Gulf States want new leadership in Gaza and the West Bank.
Israel did what it had to do to let the Ayatollah know he can’t get away with murder, constantly attacking Israel and U.S. interests in the Middle East and Horn of Africa. Israel simply couldn’t let the indiscriminate drone and missile attacks go without consequences, especially the brazen April 13 hijacking in the Red Sea of an Israeli-linked freighter by the Iranian Republican Guard Corps Special Forces. Iran has allowed its Houthi rebels to attack commercial shipping in the Red Sea, making global shipping more difficult and costly, forcing Maersk to send its ships around the Cape of Good Hope, costing untold millions in shipping time and shipping expenses. Without some kind response and world attention on Iran’s state-sponsored terrorism, the Ayatollah’s malign actions go unpunished. Israel’s pinprick strike at least sends some message to the Ayatollah.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
