(Day 617) Swords of Iron – “Iran Bombards Israel”

Chaim starts by introducing himself for those who haven’t seen the videos before, and the reason they might not have is that the topic of Iran’s attack on Israel is massively increasing the number of people watching the videos. Chaim talks at length about these issues, starting with a direct hit taken by a residential high-rise apartment building in Bat Yam from an Iranian-launched ballistic missile. Several people were killed and wounded in the strike, which also included over 150 other ballistic missiles that Iran launched at Israel in this barrage.

Chaim explains that this is only part of the Iranian commitment to terrorism and violence, since they also sponsored Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, Hamas in the Gaza Strip and many other terrorist groups and criminal syndicates all over the Middle East and beyond for decades.

Israel is fighting back, and Iran just keeps trying to destroy it, but it will not succeed.

Chaim then gives a short recap of the recent events, starting with Israel hitting Iran with a pre-emptive strike, similar to what Israel did to Egypt, Syria and Jordan in the opening hours of the Six Day War in 1967. This was necessary because Iran was on the verge of producing enough material for several nuclear weapons, and that was considered to be an unacceptable risk. In addition to nuclear sites, the Israeli Air Force also destroyed many of Iran’s air-defense systems, ballistic missile launchers, military high command and nuclear scientists, all of which are critical to the ability of Iran to hit Israel and advance their nuclear program.

Because of this, Iran’s retaliatory strikes have been manageable, although Israel has suffered some damage and casualties.

Chaim recalls that the threat from Hezbollah was smashed very quickly, but this is a bigger threat and it might take a bit longer to neutralize. However, there is an estimate that the airport will re-open in a week or possibly less. In the meantime, the population is advised that it just needs to stay near bomb shelters and not take any unnecessary risks. 

Also, the initial successes of the Israeli Operation Rising Lion have been spectacular. The Mossad sent agents into Iran to execute decapitation strikes, set up a drone base that was used to destroy many of the missile launchers and other infrastructure necessary for Iran to launch a big counter-strike, many of Iran’s most highly trained, experienced and competent militaty and scientific leadership, and some of the top aides and officials of the regime.

Of course, Iran did strike back, but their strikes were relatively small and ineffective. They’ve also got many internal problems and there is open talk of opposition groups rising up and overthrowing what’s left of the regime.