The Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei may not be having a happy 85th birthday—Israel responded to the hundreds of drones, cruise, and ballistic missiles fired by the Islamic terrorist state into Israel with attacks of its own.
This from frontpagemag.com.
Details of the attack are still pending as of late EDT Friday, but reportedly the targets were Iranian air bases and the attack scope was limited.
Israel had wanted to retaliate immediately, however, there was immediate pressure from [The Obama/Biden Regime] not to ‘escalate’ by fighting back.
As reported by Washington Examiner:
Iranian officials claim that the country was not the target of a ‘foreign aerial attack,’ as a dispute erupted inside Israel about whether Iran has faced sufficient punishment for last week’s missile attack.
Iranian Space Agency spokesman Hossein Dalirian wrote Friday on social media:
No foreign aerial attack has been carried out so far against Isfahan or other areas of the country.
Further:
[A]ir defense systems shot down a number of small drones.
Per the Tehran Times, Iranian Army Gen. Siavash Mihandoost said Friday:
The sound was related to Isfahan’s air defense systems firing at suspicious objects and we have not had any damage or accident.
This is a rather placid tone, “relative to the range of possibilities that came into view Thursday evening” when reports of explosions at Isfahan and other cities associated with Iran’s nuclear program made international headlines.
In the complex symbology of military retaliation and diplomatic communication, an Israeli drone attack orchestrated from inside Iran would be considered a less significant operation than an airstrike conducted from Israeli territory.
Iran’s public posture would suggest the regime aims to avoid a continuance of the direct attacks that have raised, in recent days, the specter of a regional war.
Israeli officials, for their part, have signaled:
[T]hey designed the strike to send a pointed message about Iranian vulnerability without inflicting the kind of damage that would necessitate a major response.
An Israeli source told the Jerusalem Post:
The operation was designed to communicate that we chose not to hit your nuclear sites this time, but we could have done worse right here.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced pressure from The Regime and other U.S. allies who argued:
Israel need not retaliate against the Iranian strike, given the success of a multinational effort to intercept the bombardment.
Netanyahu maintained that Israel would have to respond to avoid setting a precedent in which Iran can launch direct attacks on Israel with impunity, but a hard-right Israeli politician denounced the overnight explosions as a weak response.
“Lame!” Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote on social media.
Ben-Gvir, a lightning rod in Israel and around the world for his harsh treatment of Palestinian prisoners and stated desire to drive Palestinians out of Gaza, wanted Netanyahu to authorize a ‘crushing attack’ on Iran.
His criticism outraged other Israeli lawmakers, who faulted him for simultaneously undercutting Israel’s plausible deniability and mocking the operation.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote on social media:
Never before has a minister done such heavy damage to the country’s security, its image, and its international status.
In an unforgivable tweet of one word, Ben Gvir managed to sneer and shame Israel from Tehran to Washington.
Were the attacks deliberately timed for Khamenei’s birthday? It’s possible but the window was also on the narrow side. The Sabbath is coming up and soon afterward the holiday of Passover. Reports were that the retaliatory attacks were going to happen after Passover, but seemingly they were moved forward.
