By David Parsons, ICEJ Senior Vice President & Spokesman

One of the most ‘surprising’ aspects of Israel’s surprise attack on Iran last Friday night is why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not order such an operation years earlier. Most astute observers of his long stay in power assess he has always felt a very personal and historic duty to protect the Jewish nation from another Holocaust at the hands of a nuclear Iran. Yet during his 16 years at the helm of Israel’s government, some doubted that he had the inner resolve to pull the trigger. Well, that moment of reckoning finally came!

So, why now? It appears Netanyahu concluded that a window of both opportunity and urgency has opened to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, its ballistic missile capabilities, and all the key figures in charge of both threats.

The window of opportunity first involves Israel’s weakening over the past 20 months of Iran’s network of proxy terror militias in the region, which were always designed foremost to serve as a first line of defense and deterrence against Israeli strikes on its ever-expanding nuclear facilities. With Hizbullah and Hamas battered, and the collaborative Assad regime in Syria gone, Iran no longer has that outer perimeter of protection.

In addition, Iran’s own air defense systems were crippled by IAF sorties after Iranian missile barrages in April and October of last year. This left Iran much more vulnerable to attack, and Israel had to act now, since Tehran was frantically trying to rebuild those air defenses with Russian help.

Further, the opportunity was present because the current US administration is the most supportive Netanyahu could ever hope for.

The window of urgency revolves around a recent “breakthrough” by the Mossad and IDF military intelligence in collecting evidence that Iran had made a strategic decision post-October 7 to advance on all fronts towards weaponization of its nuclear program. With the world’s attention fully diverted to the fighting in Gaza and Lebanon, the Ayatollahs sought to use the war as cover for a final mad dash to nuclear weaponry. Sometime in late 2023 or early 2024, their nuclear scientists scattered into specific groups and went underground to complete all the various steps needed to produce nuclear armaments. The most troubling proof was Iran’s recent work on nuclear detonation triggers and the conversion of uranium into metal for the unique shaping of an atomic warhead.

Even the International Atomic Energy Agency warned in its latest official report that Tehran has now accumulated enough enriched uranium at near military-grade levels to build at least nine nuclear warheads. The IAEA also concluded that Iran is in serious violation of its commitments and obligations to the world community concerning uranium enrichment activities and safeguards against nuclear arms proliferation.

Thus, as IDF Chief-of-Staff Eyal Zamir stated on Friday, Iran had “reached the point of no return” in its efforts to develop nuclear warheads, leaving Israel no choice but to act. President Isaac Herzog described Israel’s actions as a “targeted operation to neutralize an immediate and existential threat to our people.”

Meanwhile, Netanyahu explained that “Operation Rising Lion” would involve “precision, pre-emptive strikes” not only against the threat posed by Iran’s numerous nuclear facilities, but also by its ballistic missile assembly and storage sites. This came after Israeli intelligence had concluded that the Islamic regime in Tehran has accelerated its ballistic missile production for the express purpose of overwhelming Israel’s multi-tiered air defense network, which amounted to an intolerable threat in itself.

The IDF operation so far has been more successful than anticipated from Israel’s perspective. The IAF, along with Mossad agents on the ground inside Iran, have quickly eliminated some 20 senior military officers and at least 14 leading nuclear scientists in charge of Iran’s renegade nuclear program. They have destroyed Iran’s air defenses to the point that Israeli jets now have full freedom of action over the skies of Tehran. Many of its missile factories and storage sites, and one-third of its launch platforms, also have been targeted. In addition, most of Iran’s known nuclear sites have been seriously damaged, although the critical underground Fordo site, where much of the near weapons-grade uranium stockpile is believed to be stored, may be out of reach of Israeli weaponry for now – with only American heavy bunker-busters able to penetrate the fortress carved inside a mountain.

Israel also has begun to target leading symbols of the regime, such as the Defense Ministry building and Revolutionary Guard Corps command center in Tehran. And Iran’s key economic infrastructure is also coming under assault, such as its vital oil and gas production and storage facilities.

The result is that most Iranians feel the Islamic regime can no longer protect them and is bringing their country to ruin.

The Iranian response has come in the form of large missile and drone barrages which have claimed 21 Israeli lives so far – nearly all elderly, women and children. But Israeli authorities assess that Tehran’s reprisals thus far are far less destructive than expected. Due to the IDF’s pre-emptive actions, many of Iran’s missiles and one-third of its launchers have been demolished and its command structure is in disarray, so the waves of rockets on Israel’s civilian heartland are not coming at the rate once feared.

The Israeli operation has come after decades of Iran’s relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons capabilities, as well as the Iranian regime’s official, open and persistent genocidal threats to wipe Israel off the map. Israeli leaders have known of Iran’s nuclear program aimed at the Jewish state since at least the time of the Rabin government in the early 1990s. Yet even then, Israel was clear in its firm policy never to allow a regional adversary to acquire weapons of mass destruction to use against the Jewish state born out of the ashes of the Holocaust. Israel proved its willingness to uphold this declared policy by striking the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak in 1981, and the secret Khyber nuclear plant in Syria in 2007. Israeli leaders have now demonstrated their determination once again to strip any regional foe of the means to perpetrate a genocidal attack against the Jewish nation and people. So, what is happening right now should surprise no one. It was just a matter of whether and when Netanyahu himself would find the right moment to launch this pre-emptive operation.

Iran is trying to re-set the narrative by claiming it is a peace-loving nation that was close to a major agreement with the Trump administration over its nuclear program, and that Israel blew up that chance for a landmark deal. But Iran was very intransigent in the recent talks with the US, insisting it would never concede its right to enrich uranium (there is no such right). Tehran also was stringing out those talks and using them as further cover for its fanatical dash across the nuclear threshold.

US President Donald Trump confirmed on Friday that he had told Iranian leaders back on April 12 they had 60 days to make a deal or face the consequences. American negotiators then tested Iran’s nuclear intentions, only to hit a brick wall. So, Netanyahu led Israel into finally taking action on day 61!

Main photo: Israeli jets ready for takeoff in ‘Operation Rising Lion’. (IDF photo)