Imagine how much worse October 7th would have been if Iran had nukes. For that reason, Operation Rising Lion must succeed.
By Rachel Avraham
About one week ago, the State of Israel began a preemptive strike against Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons program. This decision came after the International Atomic Energy Commission announced that Iran had enough hard material to produce 10 nuclear bombs, with the final stages to achieve weapons grade possible within two weeks. The decision for Israel to strike Iran also came after it was revealed that Iran possessed missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. The State of Israel felt that this posed an existential threat to the Jewish state’s survival and therefore decided to take preemptive action.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is a regime that routinely chants “death to Israel” and “death to America.” In the center of Tehran, there is literally a clock that counts down till the destruction of the State of Israel. Ayatollah Khomeini declared the last Friday of Ramadan to be Quds Day, which the Iranian regime annually celebrates as a day of protests against Israel.
However, for Iran, seeking the destruction of Israel is not just a slogan. The Islamic Republic of Iran has been working to destroy the country that it refers to as “the little Satan” and the “cancerous tumor” since 1979. Iran stands directly behind the1992 suicide bomb attack against the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 22 people; and the 1994 suicide bomb attack targeting a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people. More recently, Iran stood behind a 2012 suicide bombing in Burges, Bulgaria that killed 5 Israelis citizens and a Bulgarian Muslim. 30 other Israelis were wounded in that terror attack. In January 2021, IRGC Aerospace Force commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh stated, “All the missiles you might see in Gaza and Lebanon were created with Iran’s support.”
However, as horrific as these past acts were, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been fighting against Israel with renewed intensity since the October 7th massacre, where Iran funded and armed the slaughter of 1,200 Israelis and the abduction of 251 others. The Islamic Republic of Iran has funded and armed murderous proxies such as Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, the Houthis, Hezbollah, the Shia militias in Iraq, and the Assad regime, which all worked together for the destruction of Israel.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz told Yedioth Achronot that Hamas terror leaders Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif requested $500 million from Iran’s Quds Force commander to fund efforts “to annihilate Israel and confront the United States”—a request that, according to Katz, was granted. Despite acknowledging severe economic hardship and pressure on the Iranian population, the official wrote that Iran would continue transferring funds because “the struggle against Israel and the U.S. remains the regime’s top priority.”
After these internal documents between Hamas and the Iranian regime were published, Katz concluded, “The conclusion is clear: Iran is the head of the snake. Despite all its denials, it continues to fund and promote terrorism across all fronts—from Gaza to Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and now Yemen, under the banner of its desire to destroy Israel.”
If Iran has caused Israel so much damage from 1979 till the present via its proxies without having nuclear weapons, one can only imagine what kind of damage that Iran will cause Israel if they obtain nuclear weapons. After all, these are radical Shia Islamists who idealize martyrdom as a sacred value. They sacrificed countless Iranian children during the Iran-Iraq War, while handing out plastic keys to these children, promising them that it will open up the gates of paradise for them.
A leadership that could slaughter their own children in this way would have zero hesitation about committing a nuclear holocaust, as evidenced by the fact that Iran recently just used cluster bombs in order to target Soroka Hospital and a Beersheva kindergarten. Believe me, if they had nuclear weapons, they would have blown up the hospital and the kindergarten with nukes, not just cluster bombs. For the Iranians, mutually-assured destruction does not work. Even if Israel were to say that it had nuclear weapons too, this would not stop Iran from firing nuclear warheads at the Jewish state. The mullahs who glorify martyrdom are not rational people like the Soviets were.
For the Soviet Union, mutually assured destruction worked because nobody in the Soviet Union wanted to die. To the contrary, the Soviet Union produced many highly educated people, who very much wanted to live a good life. My father was one of 11 Americans in the Soviet Union during the heights of the Cold War. He described to me how it was impossible for an average Soviet to buy a winter coat except during certain parts of the year, but high end luxury fur coats were available for the higher echelon in the Communist Party in special storerooms throughout the year.
Thus, even though they were Communists opposed to the United States, mutually assured destruction was more than enough to deter them from ever using their nuclear bombs, as the higher echelon in the Communist Party very much wanted to stay alive and to live well. They were also smart enough to not share their nuclear know-how with any of their communist proxies, understanding that would not be a wise idea. This is not the case for the Iranians, who not only would use their nukes on Israel, but would also share their nuclear knowledge with their proxies.
We all remember how brutal October 7th was, with people getting massacred, burned alive, mutilated, tortured, gang raped and abducted. Hamas did not even spare children, pregnant women and elderly people from their cruelty. Imagine how much worse October 7th would have been if Hamas and the Islamic Jihad had access to nuclear weapons. For this reason, Israel had no choice but to wage a preemptive strike on Iran. To date, our very lives depend upon the success of Operation Rising Lion.
Photo from sayyed shahab-o- din vajedi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Revolutionary_Guard_Corps#/media/File:IRGC_naval_exercise-2015_(11).jpg