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Israel has long fought a shadow war with Iran while avoiding all-out conflict. Now Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is risking it all in pursuit of a conclusive victory.
For years Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, oversaw a clandestine conflict with Iran, one in which every move was calibrated to avoid an all-out war between two of the region’s most powerful militaries. Even last year, when both sides openly attacked each other for the first time, Israel avoided strikes that risked igniting a drawn-out battle.
Now, Mr. Netanyahu has thrown caution to the wind with an astonishingly brazen and broad attack on Iran that will likely unleash weeks or more of turmoil across the region. On Mr. Netanyahu’s orders, Israel has targeted not only Iran’s nuclear sites but its air defences, its military bases and its most senior military leadership.
In doing so, analysts said, Mr. Netanyahu had short-term motivations: to derail diplomatic negotiations between the United States and Iran, and to prevent the immediate expansion of Iran’s nuclear program.
He also has far grander aspirations. For decades, Mr. Netanyahu has presented the Shiite Islamist regime in Iran as the greatest threat to Israel’s security, both because of its homegrown efforts to build a nuclear bomb, and because of Iran’s support for Palestinian militias and other Arab groups opposed to Israel.
