Perspective on the Iranian US – Israeli War |
Like many Arabs, Jews, and Christians in Israel, I now divide my days between ordinary life and repeated trips to our safe room. The rockets fired at us make no distinction between ethnic or religious backgrounds. And despite Iranian claims that their missiles are aimed only at strategic targets, there are no such targets in northern Israel where I live, yet we endure double‑digit rocket volleys on most days. The recent use of cluster munitions has only intensified the danger. I count myself among the fortunate; our home has a reinforced safe room, sparing us the need to run outside or downstairs to a shelter whenever the alarms sound.
Not only are we under attack, but from more than one source. A missile launched from Iran is a massive ballistic weapon, weighing up to 1,500 kilograms. The distance, more than two thousand kilometers, gives us a bit more time to reach shelter. Hezbollah rockets from Lebanon cause less direct and blast damage, but they arrive far more quickly, leaving little time for our interceptors to bring them down. Over time, some people have learned to identify the type of missile simply by the sound of the interceptor’s collision. For me, it is enough to hear the reassuring thud of interception and feel grateful for Israel’s defense systems. The reality remains stark though: if even ten percent of Iranian missiles were to strike their intended, mostly civilian, targets, the consequences could be catastrophic.
A frequent misunderstanding is the way the conflict is framed in cause‑and‑effect terms. Israel and Iran are often depicted as two regional superpowers locked in a struggle for dominance, each seeking to expand its political and military influence across the Middle East. The reality is asymmetrically different. Unlike Iran, Israel has no inherent interest in exerting control over other Middle Eastern countries including Iran. Its actions are reactive, responses to the aggressive policies pursued by Iran and its network of proxies. Comparing Israel to Iran is like comparing a victim’s response to a thief’s actions with Iran representing the thief who started the fracas, and Israel, the victim who responded. Israel has been drawn into a conflict it has no desire for. If Iran were to shift its........