To build on its successful attacks on Iran in June, Israel must think, as it did in Syria, in terms of a “campaign between the wars” that includes “preemptive military force alongside diplomatic, intelligence and economic measures,” and it and the United States ought to share important defense capability with Arab partners in the region.
That’s according to a report that the Jewish Institute for National Security of America released this month. Israel’s Operation Rising Lion achieved a “strategic resetting, a reassertion of Israeli strength and diminution of Iranian power, but one that will not last without concerted political will and military might to maintain it,” according to the report.
It added that the U.S. and Israeli “between the wars” approach, which would be defensive and offensive, could “maintain active pressure on Iran to deter and prevent it from rebuilding its military and nuclear capabilities.”
...“This time must be used productively,” it says. “Neither Israel nor the United States can afford to rest on the laurels of their success in defending against Iranian missiles in 2024 and 2025.”
...It also found that Israelis worry about Iran’s expanded ballistic missile program, as global media attention focused mainly on the regime’s nuclear ambitions.
...“The distance from Iran to Israel was not 1,000 miles but rather the nine minutes it takes for a ballistic missile to reach Tel Aviv,” the report states. “This made clear the cost and limitations of playing defense against Iran’s missile threat.”
...Mark Fox, a retired vice admiral of the U.S. Navy and former CENTCOM commander who is one of the report authors, told reporters at a briefing on Nov. 20 that “even with the capability of conventional ballistic missile attacks, you can overwhelm a defense if you have enough missiles.”That was what the Iranian regime was trying to do, and it “was part of the calculus of the Israelis to affect this campaign when they did,” he said. (Read More)
