Netanyahu's silence sign of strategic headache from Iran's strike
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According to Haaretz, after decades of meaningless rhetoric, the moment of reality arrived, and Benjamin Netanyahu had nothing to show.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on April 14, 2019. (AFP)
The confrontation between "Israel" and Iran cannot be easily forgotten, according to Israeli news publication Haaretz.
The publication detailed that five days of wrangling in the war council, leaks, counter-briefings, and even rabbinical briefings appear to have resulted in a limited and calculated strike that "Israel" maintained silence about.
In addition, Washington's silence also suggests that the Biden administration knew about the strike. For the next few days, Haaretz believes there will be partial and uncorroborated stories on what happened above Isfahan, just as there was this week about the Iranian strike.
The Israeli publication added that the Prime Minister's near-complete silence this week reflects the strategic and political challenges generated by the Iranian strike. After all, the man who has built a career out of exaggerating the Iranian danger has said nothing about a real Iranian strike on "Israel", it maintained.
Not only has his famed indecision kept him from speaking up, but after decades of meaningless rhetoric, the moment of reality arrived, and he had nothing to show.
Read more: 10 countries failed in intercepting Iranian drones, missiles: Raisi
The Iranian leadership modified its strategy, launching a strike directly from Iran, startling Netanyahu and the intelligence community. His approach, which had been developed over 40 years, was in no way prepared for this.
On his part, Israeli Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir sparked a social media outrage after mocking the Israeli attack on Iran, which reportedly took place during the early hours of Friday and targeted Tabriz and Isfahan.
Iranian officials confirmed that the attack was carried out with several small drones, launched from inside Iran, all of which were shot down by the air defenses.
In a post on X, the Minister posted a single word: "Farce!," in reference to the aggression.
Top Israeli officials, media personnel, and settlers, in addition to supporters of the entity worldwide, attacked his posts in the comments, with some saying that this word describes "his tenure as a Knesset member."
'Israel' has just handed Iran a major victory: The Telegraph
What was supposed to be an attack to restore deterrence, the Israeli attack on Iran managed to do the opposite; it further proved to the Islamic Republic that the United States, "Israel", and their allies are "alien to this concept," an op-ed published in The Telegraph on Friday concluded.
The piece titled, "Israel has just handed Iran a major victory," considered that the early Friday attack on Isfahan and Tabriz, which according to latest reports included several small drones that were launched from within Iran and were shot down by the country's air defenses, has emboldened Iran even more to carry out a larger strike against the occupation entity any time in the future.
The writer accused the entity's international allies of "muting" its attack and trying to contain it by attaching "limited" to it in fear of escalation, pointing out that this "would hardly strike fear in the heart" of the Islamic Republic. Additionally, by not publicly claiming responsibility, "Israel" stuck to "deniability with an inbuilt exit from the spiral of escalation."
He expressed frustration over the scope and extent of the Israeli aggression, comparing it to Iran's massive operation.
![In a 2021 interview with Frontline by former US special representative James Jeffrey, he says he had "engaged with [HTS] via backchannels while serving in President Trump’s State Department. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)](https://alpha-en-media.almayadeen.net/media/image/2024/12/21/b4a69f2e-8682-43e4-9d37-49482b304ab3/3.png?v=2&format=webp "In a 2021 interview with Frontline by former US special representative James Jeffrey, he says he had \"engaged with [HTS] via backchannels while serving in President Trump’s State Department. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)")
