‘Netanyahu opens a new era of Israeli-Iranian 'nuclear war'’ /
Ronen Bergman: ‘CENTCOM Commander Kurila led senior Israeli military officials to believe US would join attack, including with bunker-busters’
“Pain, exhaustion, and uncertainty define Israeli society right now” — Does Israel have an exit strategy? /
Israel opened, and opened impressively, but the US will have to finish the job /
Ronen Bergman: In the shadow of ‘preparations’ for Israel’s attack, "the Defense Establishment does not believe a word Netanyahu says"/
‘Netanyahu returns to his bunker. Without American aid, without nuclear destruction, without an exit strategy, without an economy. With destruction and terror in Israel outside the bunker’ /
Israel announces plan to evacuate & destroy civilian neighbourhoods in Tehran, “just like Beirut” /
IDF announces Gaza now a "secondary arena"; “Defeat of Hamas no longer a bedrock of our existence”
[These compilations are drawn from analysis & commentary by leading Israeli political and security commentators, predominantly published in Hebrew — as reports published in Hebrew often provide a different window on Israeli internal discourse].
Netanyahu has opened a new era in the Middle East. An era of Israeli-Iranian 'nuclear war' (Eran Etzion, former Israeli Deputy National Security Adviser, 13 June):
Initial analysis of the pre-emptive war declared by the Netanyahu government on Iran:
1. Going to a pre-emptive war, in a democratic country, requires an immediate and clear reason. The government and the IDF claim such a pretext, in the form of an "Iranian hack of a bomb in recent days." No evidence has been presented for this … Allegations are also being made about the production of ballistic missiles and the completion of a new underground facility. These are not acceptable claims in international law or in the international arena.
2. The truth is that Netanyahu was looking for an excuse to go to war, for personal and political reasons that every Israeli and every international player understands well. It remains to be seen whether the security and intelligence system played its role in the decision-making processes or was subdued and cooperated with foreign considerations of the political echelon. There is a serious concern that a "historic operational opportunity," and the need to forget 7/10 and the failed war in Gaza, also dictated the tone for the senior professional echelons.
3. The real goals of the war have not yet been revealed. But it can be assumed that they include a significant delay in the Iranian nuclear project (a year? two years?), damage to the production of missiles and UAVs, and - less clearly but apparently - destabilizing the regime to the point of overthrowing it.
4. It is still too early to assess the extent to which the nuclear and missile capabilities have been damaged, and it is certainly too early to guess whether and to what extent the regime has been destabilised …