Following Iran’s retaliatory strike, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can start a war of his own, a war to destroy the regime in Tehran, which will naturally be waged with U.S. help, money and using the most modern U.S. technology.

A new Iranian tactic

The Iranian attack on October 2 was only the second time Tehran directly attacked Israel. The first was in April, when Iran fired about 300 missiles and drones. These weapons were not the most effective and the Israeli Iron Dome air defence system, together with the U.S., British and Jordanian militaries, intercepted many of them. It was a performance – which many people figured out – but this time it was different. There were fewer missiles, about 180 according to the Israelis, but they were among the most modern in Iran’s arsenal: hypersonic Fattah-1 missiles five times faster than the speed of sound. Phone videos posted on the internet show them flying through the sky at an incredible speed. They are still quite inaccurate, and those that did not explode in the air fell into unpopulated areas. The only victim, as the Israeli press sarcastically notes, was allegedly a Palestinian worker from Gaza, killed by the falling tail of a rocket as he crossed a desert road in the West Bank. The IDF, though, has not published any pictures of the military bases that were attacked, but the U.S. media has, and they show large damaged and destroyed military equipment. So it is not as simple as the official Israeli authorities are trying to make it out.

Shortly after the Iranian attack, Netanyahu said in a video released by his office: “Iran has made a big mistake tonight and will pay for it”. Behind all the tough talk – and no doubt that is what Netanyahu meant – there was a moment of indecision or at least hesitation. When the first wave of ballistic missiles headed towards Israel, the Israeli Cabinet was meeting in a bunker near Jerusalem. It was reported that the discussion ended without deciding what form Israel’s retaliatory strike should take. The Israeli media was informed that the final plan........

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