Israel attacks Iran: a 'limited' retaliation
Iran's humiliated leaders must decide how to respond to Netanyahu's measured strike
It took 25 days to act, said Arash Azizi in The Atlantic, but last Saturday Israel finally responded to the salvo of missiles fired at it by Iran. The operation – named "Days of Repentance" – involved more than 100 Israeli fighter jets, and targeted air-defence systems, radars, military bases and missile production factories across Iran, including on the outskirts of Tehran.
It was the "most significant attack on Iran by any country since the 1980s", but fell a long way short of the apocalyptic strike some had feared. Israel didn't target Iran's nuclear or energy infrastructure, nor did it assassinate any political or military leaders. According to insiders, Israel even used intermediaries to give Tehran a day's warning, to avoid mass casualties (Iran said four soldiers died in the strikes). Given the limited nature of the attack, Iran has an opportunity to de-escalate the conflict by calling it quits.
What this strike shows, said Yossi Melman in Haaretz, is that, for all his bluster, Israel's PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, is "well aware of the limitation of Israel's power and its dependence on the US". He knew better than to push his luck days before America's election. Still, the attacks were a devastating display of Israel's aerial and intelligence superiority, showing it has the capacity to attack any Iranian site it wishes. The strikes were far from cosmetic, said Arieh Kovler in The Spectator. According to the Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, Israel targeted all of Iran's rocket-fuel mixers. Destroying them could cripple Iran's missile production "for months or years". That's bad for Tehran, and for Russia, which wants to use some of those missiles in Ukraine.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The question now is how Iran's humiliated leaders will respond, said The Economist. Israel's attack signals the failure of Tehran's national-security doctrine, which was based on outsourcing the job of fighting Israel to local proxies such as Hamas and Hezbollah. Iran's options are now limited. To regain a measure of deterrence, it could try to rebuild those militias, but that would mean "doubling down on a failed strategy". It could seek to boost its own military capabilities, but it lacks money. As for racing to create a nuclear bomb, that would invite further Israeli attacks that Iran, following the destruction of several of its air-defence batteries, is in no position to fend off. Another option, of course, would be to "pursue a less ideological foreign policy". But while most Iranians would welcome that, their 85-year-old supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, would never countenance it. We'll have to wait to see if his successor is more "pragmatic".
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Band Aid 40: time to change the tune?
In the Spotlight Band Aid's massively popular 1984 hit raised around £8m for famine relief in Ethiopia and the charity has generated over £140m in total
By Rebekah Evans, The Week UK Published
-
Starmer vs the farmers: who will win?
Today's Big Question As farmers and rural groups descend on Westminster to protest at tax changes, parallels have been drawn with the miners' strike 40 years ago
By The Week UK Published
-
How secure are royal palaces?
The Explainer Royal family's safety is back in the spotlight after the latest security breach at Windsor
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Funeral in Berlin: Scholz pulls the plug on his coalition
Talking Point In the midst of Germany's economic crisis, the 'traffic-light' coalition comes to a 'ignoble end'
By The Week UK Published
-
Did the Covid virus leak from a lab?
The Explainer Once dismissed as a conspiracy theory, the idea that Covid-19 originated in a virology lab in Wuhan now has many adherents
By The Week UK Published
-
Exodus: the desperate rush to get out of Lebanon
Talking Point As the Israel-Hezbollah conflict escalates Lebanon faces an 'unprecedented' refugee crisis
By The Week UK Published
-
A storm of lies: the politics of hurricane season
Talking Point Trump and allies weaponise hurricane season, falsely accusing Biden-Harris administration of misusing relief funds
By The Week UK Published
-
The death of Hassan Nasrallah
In the Spotlight The killing of Hezbollah's leader is 'seismic event' in the conflict igniting in the Middle East
By The Week UK Published
-
Politicising the judiciary: Mexico's radical reform
Talking Points Is controversial move towards elected judges an antidote to corruption in the courts or a 'coup d'état' for the ruling party?
By The Week UK Published
-
Israel's suspected mobile device offensive pushes region closer to chaos
In the Spotlight After the mass explosion of pagers and walkie-talkies assigned to Hezbollah operatives across Lebanon, is all-out regional war next, or will Israel and its neighbors step back from the brink?
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Drugs and death threats: Venezuelan gangs in Colorado
In the Spotlight 'Troubling signs' that Latin American gangs are penetrating into the American heartland
By The Week UK Published