We have reached a dire moment.
At 2 am Sunday morning, March 14, Iran launched a swarm of between 300 and 350 suicide drones, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles at Israel. Israel’s Stunner missiles, Arrow missiles, and Iron Dome missiles, with help from the French and Americans, knocked 99% of these weapons out of the sky.
The missile barrage was Iran’s revenge for an Israeli bombing of an Iranian embassy compound in Damascus, Syria, in April that killed five Iranian military officers and two Iranian generals. Those generals were leading an Iranian war against Israel, a proxy war in which Iran’s puppet armies–Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Shiite militias in Syria and Iraq–were attacking Israel with over fifty missiles a day.
Yes, the generals were leading an Iranian proxy war that was carried out by what Iran calls its ring of fire and its ring of resistance around Israel. The war was started by Iran’s proxy, Hamas, when it attacked southern Israel and killed 1,200 men, women, and children on October 7th.
Let’s be blunt, Iran not only started a regional war, it answered Israel’s embassy bombing with over 300 missiles. Which means Iran was guilty of a massive escalation.
Now the world is waiting for Israel’s response. It is waiting in fear of a war that could spread uncontrollably, and could become world war iii, a nuclear war.
To understand how crucial this moment is for Israel’s very existence, you have to remember that Iran is 70 times the size of Israel and has eight times as many people. An attack on Israel with over 300 missiles is as if China were to swear for 45 years to wipe the United States off the map. Then as if Beijing were to launch 13,200 missiles at our cities and military bases all at once.
Yes, you heard that right. It’s as if over thirteen thousand missiles were rained on America. Simultaneously.
How would we respond? Iran has sworn that if Israel answers its attack, Iran will use weapons it has never used before. And Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi told an annual military parade Wednesday, April 18th, that Iran will answer Israel with an even bigger attack, and “nothing” will “remain from the Zionist regime.”
In fact, Raisi warned of a “massive” response if Israel launches even the “tiniest invasion.” In other words, Iran is trying to establish a new normal: it can attack Israel but Israel can’t attack it.
The warning that Iran would use weapons of a kind it has never used before is phrasing directly from Iran’s ally, Vladimir Putin. Putin, who said he is ready for nuclear war just this past Saturday, April 13th, uses these words to mean nuclear weapons. And it is possible that Iran has roughly six nuclear warheads with which it could annihilate Israel.
However Iran must use missiles to launch these warheads, and Israel demonstrated over the weekend that it could almost certainly swat down whatever nuclear tipped missile Iran used before it could ever reach Israeli soil.
In the face of Iran’s 300-missile barrage, would it be wise for Israel to follow Joe Biden’s advice and simply “take the victory” and stand down?
Not at all. That would establish the new normal Iran wants. The normal in which Iran can attack Israel whenever it pleases, but Israel can’t attack back. For Israel, that could be suicidal.
Remember, Iran helped start the current war on October 7th when its proxy force, Hamas, invaded southern Israel and killed 1,200 Israelis. Hamas launched this attack during a cease fire. Which means that the sort of ceasefire that protesters in the streets of western cities demand is simply an invitation to slaughter.
And the rape and torture Hamas inflicted was almost impossible to describe: cutting off women’s breasts at their breakfast tables in front of their husbands and children, driving spikes into their vaginas, then gang raping them, and roasting their living, crying babies in their own kitchen ovens.
Hamas has vowed to repeat October 7th over and over again. That is why Israel vows to go into Rafah in southern Gaze and wipe out the six remaining battalions of Hamas terrorists hiding in tunnels under mosques, churches, humanitarian headquarters, and schools before ending the Gaza war.
And that is why Israel must respond to Iran’s attack. And why it must consider attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities. Before those facilities can build more nuclear bombs. Bombs that will soon be aimed at America.
And Israel must do all this even though Iran has nuclear backup. Iran has its nuclear allies in the Axis of Evil: China, Russia, and North Korea. Not to mention the Axis of Evil’s non-nuclear nations, Syria, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba. All of these nations could easily come to fight at Iran’s side.
Which would mean World War III.
References:
https://isis-online.org/isis-reports/detail/how-quickly-could-iran-make-nuclear-weapons-today
https://www.cfr.org/event/virtual-media-briefing-irans-attack-israel-and-threat-escalation
https://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2024/mar/11/2024-us-intelligence-report-iran
https://apnews.com/article/israel-iran-hamas-latest-04-17-2024-7e4ba24fbb150f020a2d240dad9d462f
https://apnews.com/article/israel-syria-airstrike-iranian-embassy-edca34c52d38c8bc57281e4ebf33b240
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/h18og9cl0
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Newsletter, Zaka Tel Aviv, 04-16-2024
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/04/13/world/israel-iran-gaza-war-news
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-israel-attack-what-weapons-launched-how-air-defenses-worked/
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Howard Bloom of the Howard Bloom Institute has been called the Einstein, Newton, and Freud of the 21st century by Britain’s Channel 4 TV. One of his eight books–Global Brain—was the subject of a symposium thrown by the Office of the Secretary of Defense including representatives from the State Department, the Energy Department, DARPA, IBM, and MIT. His work has been published in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Psychology Today, and the Scientific American. He does news commentary at 1:06 am Eastern Time every Wednesday night on 545 radio stations on Coast to Coast AM. For more, see http://howardbloom.institute.