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At least five dead in attack in central Beirut as Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah

At least five dead in attack in central Beirut as Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah

Iran appeared to want to cause serious damage – so how will Israel respond?

Jeremy Bowen
International publisher

When Iran attacked Israel in April, it seemed like they were making their intentions clear – but they effectively announced it, and everything was all but shot out of the air by Israeli and American defenses.

This time it was different. They looked like they wanted to do some serious damage and took a much more aggressive stance.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it would retaliate for the killings of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and warned that it would retaliate if Israel retaliated.

Last time, Joe Biden told Netanyahu, “take victory,” don’t mount a big response, and they didn’t.

This time the mood in Israel is completely different.

Look at former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s tweet last night in which he said in very strong language: “This is the biggest opportunity in 50 years to change the face of the Middle East.” He said Israel should fight the Iran’s nuclear facilities are being used to “lethally weaken this terrorist regime.”

Now, he’s not prime minister (although he’s widely seen as a future prime minister, so he wanted to show he’s tough), but it does reflect a certain mood in the country.

I wouldn’t rule out Israeli attacks on anything right now – nuclear facilities, petrochemical facilities, anything that could harm the Iranian economy.

The scenario was always that Iran had a forward defense in the form of Hezbollah in Lebanon, which had a huge arsenal of sophisticated weapons that could theoretically be used if Iran and its nuclear facilities were attacked.

But in recent weeks, Israel has beheaded the Hezbollah organization, destroyed half of its weapons, according to American and Israeli authorities, and invaded Lebanon.

One could argue that the deterrent Iran had is not just gone – it is shattered into a thousand pieces.

So I think Israelis now feel freer to act. And Joe Biden is moving another aircraft carrier battle group to the Mediterranean, signaling to the Iranians that if they hit Israel, they will also hit the US.

That’s why people talked about the fear of war spreading: the instability, the turmoil resulting from everything that happened – now we’re seeing it play out, and it leaves very little room for that at the moment Diplomacy.