The sirens in Israel have become so familiar that people know which room to run to before they’re fully awake – the neighborhood bombshelter. Or if you’re lucky, a safe room at home. Either way – this is not normal. That’s what forty years of Iranian investment in terror looks like from our Israeli point of view.

For years, people asked when the Iran threat would finally be addressed. The answer came in stages. In June 2025, Israel and the United States struck Iranian nuclear sites for twelve days, a move Netanyahu later called a historic victory over Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions. But Iran did not stop. It rebuilt what it could, kept its proxies armed, and continued advancing its program in underground facilities the IAEA could no longer access. So this winter, the next phase began. Nearly 900 strikes in twelve hours targeted Iranian missiles, air defenses, military infrastructure, and leadership. This was not a provocation. It was the most decisive move yet in a confrontation that is not over.

And it was not Israel’s fight alone. It never was.

What made this winter’s operation possible was not just military capability. It was a partnership built over generations. American and Israeli pilots trained together, planned together, and flew together. Intelligence was shared in real time. The trust required to coordinate strikes across dozens of targets in a single night does not come from a memo or a phone call. It comes from years of joint exercises, shared doctrine, and a common understanding of what is at stake. This is what a real alliance looks like. Not a transactional relationship, but two democracies that see the world the same way and act on it together.

Americans should understand something clearly: Iran was never just Israel’s problem. The immediate concerns leading into this winter included Iran’s nuclear program, its ballistic missiles, its military reach across the Middle East, and the repeated failure to renegotiate any nuclear agreement after the collapse of the JCPOA. Iran’s missiles were not aimed only at Tel Aviv. They were aimed at US bases across the region. Its proxies were not only killing Israelis. They were killing Americans. And a nuclear-armed Iran would not only threaten the Middle East. It would redraw the entire global security map in ways that reach every American ally and every American interest. The little Satan and the big Satan.

Iran built a network of proxies: Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, militias across Syria and Iraq, all funded, trained, and directed by Tehran. October 7 was not a Hamas operation in isolation. It was the leading edge of a strategy designed in Iran. But the Houthis closing the Red Sea, disrupting American shipping and trade, was also part of that same strategy. Iran does not distinguish between its war on Israel and its war on American influence. Americans would be wise to stop making that distinction too.

By the time this winter’s strikes began, Iran was at arguably its weakest point in years. Its economy was hollowed out by sanctions. Its allies had been significantly degraded by Israeli military action. The protests that erupted showed how badly the regime had lost legitimacy at home. Iranian security forces killed tens of thousands of those protesters in the most significant uprising since the revolution. A government that massacres its own people to survive is not a government that will respond to diplomatic pressure alone.

Iran’s response to the strikes confirmed this. It launched retaliatory missile and drone strikes targeting US embassies, military installations, and oil infrastructure throughout the Middle East, and closed the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting global trade. When Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, it was not squeezing Israel. Israel has no oil tankers in the Gulf. It was squeezing the United States, its allies in Europe and Asia, and the global economy that American prosperity depends on. That is who Iran is. That is what it does when it feels cornered.

A two-week ceasefire brokered by Pakistan has been declared, but it is already buckling. Talks in Islamabad collapsed without an agreement. The United States announced it would blockade ships entering or exiting Iranian ports. Iran claims victory. Iran always claims victory. What it cannot claim is that its nuclear ambitions are intact, that its supreme leader is alive, or that its proxies are as powerful as they were two years ago.

Israel’s position has been consistent throughout. The ceasefire with Iran does not apply to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Netanyahu made clear that Israel supports suspending strikes against Iran but will not halt operations against Hezbollah. This is not a contradiction. Hezbollah spent months firing rockets at Israeli civilians. It does not get a ceasefire dividend because diplomats are meeting in Islamabad.

By day ten of the war, Iranian missile attacks on Israel had dropped by more than 90%. Sustained pressure works. But it requires sustained will. The question now is whether American public opinion understands enough about what is actually at stake to support that will.

This is the right moment to be clear. The United States did not go to war this winter as a favor to Israel. It went because Iran had spent decades building the capacity to threaten American forces, American allies, American trade routes, and eventually American cities. Israel was on the front line of that threat because geography put it there. But the threat itself was always bigger than any one country. And it certainly is not about the price of gasoline.

Israel is not the aggressor in this story. It is a country that watched its civilians killed and kidnapped, watched its northern towns emptied by rockets for months, watched Iran fund the violence and then retreat behind diplomatic processes whenever the pressure rose. It acted when it had the capability, the intelligence, and the partnership to do so. So did the United States.

The question was never whether this reckoning would come. The question was always whether both countries would be ready when it did. They were. Together. But readiness for one operation is not the same as finishing the job. Iran still has nuclear potential. The regime has not fallen. The ceasefire is fragile and the talks have collapsed. What comes next will determine whether this winter was a turning point or just the most dramatic chapter so far in a war that began long before the first strike flew.

The families who ran to their safe rooms this winter will run again if they have to. They know it. They are not broken by this knowledge. They are steeled by it. That is the reality of life in a country that has been fighting for its existence since the day it was born. Iran still has nuclear potential. The regime has not fallen. The ceasefire is holding by a thread. But Israel has never confused a pause with a victory, and it has never mistaken exhaustion for defeat. We will do what we must. We always have.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)