There aren’t a lot of sureties in the world these days, especially in world geopolitics. If there’s anything that is certain, it’s that Iran’s hardline Islamic regime won’t get a nuclear weapon or the missile to deliver a nuclear weapon while Israel stands by and watches. Israel will do anything to prevent it.
The Jewish state has every reason to believe that Iran isn’t bluffing when it calls for the death of Israel. Historically, anti-semitic governments have never been blustering when they threaten the existence of the Jewish people. Aside from the biblical stories of persecution, Jews in Russia, Portugal and even Brooklyn, New York, have been the victims of anti-Jewish hate killings. Then, of course, there’s Nazi Germany.
Iran is just the latest to threaten the annihilation of the Jewish people, but this time, the Jewish people have a state of their own, a military that rivals anything in the region, and an intelligence service that is notoriously willing and able to do whatever it takes to protect the world’s Jews, especially those inside Israel.
Of course, this is also the first time where the enemies of the Jewish state are actively seeking the kind of weapon that might accomplish what those who came before failed to do. For around 20 years, with a brief stall during its compliance with the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal (JCPOA), Iran has been seeking to build facilities necessary to make a nuclear weapon, and for almost as long, Israel has been trying to prevent it.
The Iranian city of Isfahan is one of the major nerve centers of Iran’s quest to build a nuclear weapon and the means to deliver it. At the end of January 2023, a major military factory there exploded after what appeared to be a complex drone attack. The city produces components for the Shahab medium-range missile, which can put Israel in crosshairs.
American officials say the city also produces drones for sale to Russia and may be producing missiles for use in the ongoing war in Ukraine. The building in question, identified as an ammunition manufacturing plant, was attacked by a swarm of quadcopter drones, with at least one of the drones hitting its mark and exploding. Iran is blaming Israel’s intelligence service Mossad for the attack, which is not entirely unfounded.
Israel has been using exploding quadcopter drones to target Iran and Iranian proxies in the region since at least 2019, when it attacked a Hezbollah-dominated area of Beirut, Lebanon. This attack was also designed to destroy missile production capabilities. Two years later an Israeli drone attacked Iranian manufacturing facilities for its centrifuges, essential for creating the nuclear material necessary to build a weapon.
Last year, Israel launched a drone strike against a secret military facility near the Iranian capital of Tehran. The target there was a top-secret site where nuclear weapons, missile technology, and drone advances are designed. The latest strike in Isfahan did little damage, according to Iranian state media, but it may have been designed to do little damage. Some believe it was a message to Iranian leaders that Israel knows where they’re making their missile technology, and the targets can be hit anytime Israel chooses.
An upcoming YouTube video shared with the New York Times features former Israeli Prime minister Naftali Bennett declaring that there will be a “price tag” for attacks against the Jewish state and its people. If the Iranians strike an Israeli or Jewish person anywhere in the world, there will be swift retribution. Israel has already made good on the promise, with the assassination of Sayad Khodayee, who Israel claims is responsible for such killings worldwide.