“A clear and present danger to Israel’s very survival”

Well, the waiting is over. Early this morning, Israel launched a series of massive military strikes against targets in Iran—specifically targeting Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had been pressuring allied nations for support, arguing that immediate military action against Iran was necessary and that the world must never allow Iran to develop nuclear bombs. Adding to the pressure was a consensus among western intelligence agencies that Iran could be within days of developing as many as 15 usable nuclear warheads.

At the same time, President Donald Trump and his administration were not eager to join in any combined military action against Iran and the American president had expressed hope that he could reach some negotiated arrangement with Iran—probably in the form of combined sanctions and economic incentives. Netanyahu announced Israel’s strikes this morning and described Iran as “a clear and present danger to Israel’s very survival.” That assessment is almost certainly true. It is also true that Iran’s theocratic regime has long targeted the United States as “The Great Satan.”

Iran stands at the center of what strategists have called the “Axis of Resistance” to Israel and the West. That axis has extended to Iraq and Syria and Lebanon, with groups like Hezbollah. But it also includes Palestinian terror groups such as Hamas. The theocratic Islamic regime in Iran stands at the center of that axis, and it is one of the greatest threats to world peace. At the same time, American authorities do not want yet another major war in the Middle East and, even as Israel has formidable strengths, Iran is quite capable of inflicting harm on Israel and other nations in the region.

Israel seized the opportunity and launched the attacks this morning because Iran was so close to developing usable nuclear bombs (the “clear and present danger”) and because Israel’s strikes on Iran in recent exchanges were seen as quite successful in degrading Iran’s defenses against aerial attacks. And, make no mistake, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are quite adept at inflicting maximum damage through strategic attacks by air. Furthermore, the IDF has proved to be quite successful in eliminating other nuclear threats, as seen in its strategic bombing of a nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981.

Iran’s nuclear program dates back to the 1950s, when it was ruled by the Shah and was a close ally of Britain and the United States. The Americans wanted Iran as a showcase of western influence in the region and as a strategic base of operations. By the early 1970s the United States was helping Iran to develop nuclear power capacity. All that came to a screeching halt with the Islamic Revolution that seized control in 1979, toppling the Shah and declaring America to be the nation’s enemy. We now know that the ayatollahs who seized control also sought to sustain and extend the nuclear program, with the clear intention to develop nuclear weapons.

That is precisely what the United States and our allies, including Israel, have sought to prevent. Every U.S. president since Jimmy Carter has been faced with some form of an Iranian crisis. Israel has repeatedly taken matters into its own hands, sometimes assassinating senior research scientists in Iran or striking key targets with what the Iranians sometimes explained as “accidents.”

The strikes this morning are no accident, and Netanyahu has warned the people of Israel that this will not be a short effort with immediate success. Iran has promised severe retaliation, and senior IDF officers have warned that “unbroken success” cannot be promised. As a mark of Israel’s effectiveness, Iran confirmed today that one of the IDF’s first strikes in Iran has killed Gen. Hossein Salami, commander in chief of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. That targeted killing sends a very loud signal, and the United States and our allies are concerned about a widening war that would shake the entire region.

The White House and administration officials have made clear the fact that Israel has acted alone. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent the Iranians a direct message this morning. “Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel.”

More is at stake in this conflict than we can assess today, even as strikes continue and the world awakes to a new reality. One thing is certain—the secularists who declared theology to be outdated as a major factor in world events are faced with explaining how the Islamic theocratic regime and Israel, the Jewish state, are now effectively at war. Both sides know that theology matters. Sometimes it is a matter of life and death. The friends of Israel must hope and pray that the IDF is successful in this warfare.