Israel Saved the World

Towards the US:

·       Iran plotted to assassinate President Donald Trump while he was running for re-election. Given that there were two nearly successful attempts on President Trump’s life that we know about, that appears more than just fearmongering.

·       This is especially concerning because Iran already plotted to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the US—within the United States—and attack the Saudi and Israeli embassies in the US, back in 2011.

·       Iran supported terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq killing US soldiers, not only actively undermining the US-led democracy building there, but doing so with American blood on their hands.

·       An Iranian backed terror group in Iraq used a drone to attack a US base in Jordan in 2024, killing three US soldiers.

·       Iran funded and ordered the Hezbollah terrorist bombing of the US Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983, killing hundreds of US soldiers.

·       Iran kidnapped members of the US embassy in Iran in 1979 and held them for 444 days before releasing them.

·       Iranian leaders lead their people in regular chants of “Death to America.”

In Europe:

·       Iranian provides funding for the Hezbollah terrorist group that bombed a bus in Bulgaria in 2012, which killed Israeli tourists and the bus driver.

·       Just since 2022 Iran has been behind 20 “potentially lethal” plots to attack Iranian opposition members and dissidents, including journalists, living in the UK, according to UK Security Minister Dan Jarvis.

·       Iran also was behind multiple terror plots to attack Iranian opposition, Jewish and Israeli targets in Germany over the last decade.

·       Iran has strongly supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by arming Moscow with drones and giving Russians the know-how to produce their own versions, which have been used to attack civilian targets and contributed to extending the conflict.

·       Iran built missiles capable of reaching southeastern Europe.

The World:

·       Iran funded and armed Yemen’s Houthi terrorists—if not ordering them directly—to attack international shipping. The US and United Kingdom had to intervene militarily to protect the global economy.

·       Iran launched a sizable attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil network in 2019, shutting it down temporarily and threatening the global oil supply.

·       Iranian supported—if not directed—Hezbollah terrorists who killed over 100 people and wounded hundreds more in bombings of a Jewish community center and an Israeli embassy in Argentina in the 1990s.

·       Iranian supported Hezbollah terrorists who plotted to attack Jewish or Israeli targets in Africa and across the Middle East.

·       Iran backed Syria’s brutal dictator Bashar Assad in a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands, as well as the Houthi in Yemen’s civil war, and Hezbollah in their armed coup in Lebanon.

The Answer

With all that in the background, and Iranian leaders regularly and literally proclaiming Israel be wiped off the map, the threat of this radical jihadist theocracy obtaining nuclear weapons was a danger perhaps never seen before—but not anymore.

It will likely take time to confirm how effective the Israeli-US strikes on Iran ultimately were, but what we do know is:

·       Israel killed over a dozen of Iran’s top nuclear scientists.

·       Israel neutered Iranian air defenses.

·       Israel decapitated the Iranian military and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp, in particular devastating the leadership of IRGC’s air force and missile group.

·       The Iranian missile program was significantly set back, with estimates—such as one from the Jewish Institute for National Security of America—saying at least half their launchers and potentially more than half their missiles were destroyed or spent.

·       Israel destroyed or severely damaged all of Iran’s above ground nuclear facilities and their nuclear research headquarters. The US finished the job.

·       The US, after Israel cleared the way, destroyed or notably damaged Iran’s main underground nuclear facility and hit at least one more.

With all that destruction, Iran has much to rebuild to get back to being “weeks away” again from a nuclear weapon, and this time with their guise of civilian nuclear-use obliterated. In fact, Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell told reporters on July 2 that Iran’s program was set back by at least one and probably closer to two years.

It will cost Iran billions to rebuild their nuclear and missile programs, billions they won’t soon see without a firm nuclear deal with the world powers that sets back Iranian nuclear ambitions even more—and verifies it stays that way. Those are billions of dollars Iran cannot spend on terrorism or meddling in other nations’ politics or wars. And Israel has already defanged what Iran had in Hezbollah by devastating that group’s leadership, missiles and militant army.

Not to be discounted: The Middle East has no reason to fear Iran any longer. The hegemonic power that once controlled an arc of territory from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean does so no more. The mythos of Iran is gone and already the US is hoping that will inspire more regional peace deals. Who knows what impact will come from watching a powerful threat disintegrate in days.

The world—literally the entire world—is a safer place thanks to Israel. And all we have to do is secure that safety—and thank them for it.