Iran’s 30-Year War for the Destruction of Israel
In order to understand the decision of Israel’s leadership to attack Iran on June 13th, we have to look at the combination of two factors. One, is the immediate threat of Iran’s race to develop nuclear weapons and its rapidly expanding ballistic missile program. Second, is the historical context: Iran’s 30-year war for the destruction of Israel.
Since the 1990s, the leaders of the Iranian regime have been obsessed with the destruction of Israel. This obsession is symbolized by the “countdown clock” in a square in Tehran that predicts the destruction of Israel.
Based on a statement in 2015, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei predicted that after 25 years — by 2040 — Israel will no longer exist.
Yet, these are no empty threats.
The rapid expansion of Iran’s nuclear program and their production of ballistic missiles were imminent threats to the existence of Israel.
According to a report by David Albright, America's leading expert on Iran's nuclear program, Iran was weeks away from the ability to produce weapons grade uranium. That is the key component for producing a nuclear bomb.
For a civilian nuclear program, you only need to enrich uranium to less than 5%. Iran was enriching uranium to 60% which put it three weeks away from the ability to enrich uranium to 90%- weapons grade uranium.
According to Albright, “Iran has no civilian use or justification for its production of 60 percent enriched uranium…”
In addition to the nuclear weapons program, Iran was rapidly expanding its production of ballistic missiles which also pose an existential threat to Israel.
To fully comprehend the Israeli decision to attack Iran, we have to look at Iran’s strategy for the destruction of Israel.
Iran’s military strategy toward Israel was to build a “Ring of Fire” around Israel. For three decades, Iran armed its terror proxies with rockets and missiles. They include Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, proxy forces in Iraq and Syria and the Houthis in Yemen. Together, they are called the “Axis of Resistance” by Iran.
Through this strategy, Iran actively worked to terrorize and demoralize the citizens of Israel with constant attacks.
Since 2007, the year Hamas took control of Gaza, nearly 20,000 rockets have been fired from Gaza at Israeli civilians. All this was before the brutal attack by Hamas on October 7th, 2023.
We have seen the psychological impact of these attacks on our Israeli grandchildren who live in Rehovot. When Iran was launching missiles at Israel, our ten-year-old grandson said he didn’t want to go to sleep because he knew there would be sirens that would send them to shelter.
Ten years ago, our granddaughter, who is now age 14, visited us in America. When she was at the mall one day, out of the blue she asked her mother, “Mommy, where will we go if the sirens go off?”
There is no doubt that Iran is the main source of the threat to Israeli civilians.
In a virulent speech given by Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar in June 2019 about the long-range rockets of Hamas that can reach Tel Aviv, he said: “Let me reiterate. If not for Iran’s support for the resistance in Palestine, we would not have obtained these capabilities… Iran has supported us with weapons, equipment, and expertise.”
Since the Hamas attack on 10/7/23, we saw Iran’s “ring of fire” activated in full force.
This included the firing of more than 12,000 rockets and drones from Hezbollah in Lebanon, more than 19,000 rockets from Hamas in Gaza, and hundreds of ballistic missiles from Iran itself, all being fired at civilians in Israel. In addition, the Houthis in Yemen also fired more than 200 missiles and drones at Israel.
Then there is the historical context. In pursuit of its goal for the destruction of Israel, Iran has done everything possible to sabotage the hopes for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
With the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, there was a real hope for peace between Israelis and Palestinians through the two-state solution. In order to destroy the Oslo peace process, Iran began to provide weapons, funding and training to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The years 2000-2005 are a prime example.
In December 2000, Israel agreed to the Clinton Plan for peace through the two-state solution with the Palestinians. The Clinton Plan would have created a Palestinian state in all of Gaza, 95% of the West Bank and Jerusalem as a shared capital of the two states.
Unfortunately, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat rejected the Clinton plan.
To fully destroy the peace process, between 2000 and 2005 Iran helped Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other groups send more than 110 Palestinian suicide bombers into Israel to blow themselves up on Israeli buses, in restaurants, and in shopping malls.
These suicide bombings and other terror attacks murdered more than 1,000 Israeli civilians and wounded thousands more in a period that became known as the Second Intifada.
This brings us back to the brutal Hamas attack on 10/7/23. This attack was a transformative shock to Israeli society. It explains the national consensus supporting the decision of Israel’s leadership to attack Iran.
Israeli journalist Nadav Eyal best explained the Israeli decision to attack Iran. In an important interview he said, “There’s a threat out there and the Israel Air Force was sent to take out what Israel sees as an existential threat, specifically after October 7th”.
Since 10/7/23, thanks to the courage and professionalism of the men and women of the Israel Defense Forces and the Mossad, Israel has greatly decimated Iran’s Axis of Resistance.
Let us hope that we are seeing the beginning of the end of Iran’s 30-year war for the destruction of Israel that can open the door for peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
Bob Feferman
Director of Community Relations
Jewish Federation of St. Joseph Valley