Waiting for the drones and the missiles, at the opening of a regional conflict
Iran has never previously directly attacked Israel in this way. The prime minister says the IDF is prepared for any scenario. Let’s hope so
David Horovitz is the founding editor of The Times of Israel. He is the author of "Still Life with Bombers" (2004) and "A Little Too Close to God" (2000), and co-author of "Shalom Friend: The Life and Legacy of Yitzhak Rabin" (1996). He previously edited The Jerusalem Post (2004-2011) and The Jerusalem Report (1998-2004).
In the surreal circumstances in which I write these lines, waves of drones have been launched from Iran at Israel, and the nation is now waiting to see whether its air defenses will prove capable of intercepting them over the next few hours.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has assured Israelis in a brief video message that Israel has been readying for weeks for precisely such an eventuality, and “we are prepared for any scenario.” The IDF Spokesman, Daniel Hagari, has told the public that every effort will be made to intercept the drones en route. A former IDF intelligence chief, Amos Yadlin, has said on national television that the drones carry a payload that “the simplest bomb shelter” can protect against, and that he believes Iran is aiming for military rather than civilian targets.
Iran has never previously directly attacked Israel in this way. And its attack marks the transition from the Israel-Hamas war, along with heavy violence on the northern front, to a regional conflict. It will be very interesting to see what Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah does next.
Israeli officials consider this to be an “escalation” of conflict by Iran — which hitherto has utilized its proxies — but not, at this stage, a war. They also anticipate, however, that the current attack will not constitute a one-off.
Right now, the precise dimensions of the Iranian attack are, unsurprisingly, not clear: Reports in the last few minutes say cruise missiles may also be en route.
In the days and hours before this attack, the Biden administration attempted to deter Iran, underlining that it will fight at Israel’s side as necessary — evidently to no avail. The deadly airstrike two weeks ago, allegedly by Israel, on commanders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps inside Iran’s embassy compound in Damascus was apparently too painful for the regime to allow to pass without a significant response.
The Islamic Republic’s attack represents a victory for Gaza’s Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who hoped that his terror-government’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel would trigger a multi-front war against Israel. Six months later, on a day that also saw an escalation of violence in the West Bank, that hope may be coming to fruition.
At the same time, the Biden administration’s overt rallying to Israel’s side, coordinating and participating in Israel’s defense against the incoming drones, shows that the alliance holds when it matters, for all the growing bilateral strains in recent months over Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza.
Israel was unconscionably unprepared for October 7 — insistently blind to all the early warnings. Its border defenses proved utterly inadequate, and Hamas’s scrambling of its communications systems deeply hampered its initial response to the invasion.
Israel and those who care for it should be hoping that it is genuinely “prepared for any scenario” this time.
