More events are occurring which indicate that a major shooting war will occur between Israel and Iran in the foreseeable future. Both sides are escalating the stakes and the Israelis may have a new strategy for releasing the Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
The first link reports that the Houthis, an Iranian proxy force in Yemen, fired a hypersonic missile at Israeli territory from the south and that the missile was not intercepted by the Israeli air defense system. The missile attack reportedly required two million residents in the Tel Aviv region to flee for emergency air raid shelters. However, the second link reports that the missile fired by the Houthis at Israel was not a hypersonic missile. It also reports that the Houthi-fired missile disintegrated in the air at a high altitude. This allows for the possibility that the missile had not yet reached a location where it was identified as a threat to any important target area. This allows for the possibility that the Israeli air defense system had not failed to successfully intercept it; it may only mean that the trajectory of the Houthi-fired missile was not close enough to any Israel target to justify activating the air defense system. It is expensive to fire an interceptor missile and they should be saved for countering incoming missiles whose trajectories indicate they have a real probability of hitting an important Israeli target.
This firing of a long-range ballistic missile by the Houthis, an Iranian proxy force, constitutes an important escalation by the Iranian side. That Iran can hit Israeli targets from a southern firing point means that Israel has another front to worry about in defending the nation. That the Iranian proxies only fired one missile indicates it was possibly a test of a new model of Iranian missile. Iran wanted to see if it worked properly, and–if it disintegrated at a high altitude–it did not work right.
Israel also took action that was a clear escalation and challenge to Iran. Israel launched a major air raid versus targets in Syria, but that is not unusual. Israel has done many such raids in the past–mostly toward Iranian weapons facilities inside Syria. However, this time the air raid was accompanied by a helicopter assault ferrying elite Israeli commandos who made a ground attack on a “secret” Iranian weapons facility inside Syria. This assault did something new. The Israelis captured a number of Iranian scientists working at that weapons facility and they also captured an unknown amount of sensitive military information concerning such likely subjects as Iranian weapons and strategies (third link). Since these captured Iranian scientists know about Iranian secret projects and their locations, they will surely be interrogated by Israeli intelligence agents to determine how much information the Israelis can learn from them. Given the stakes in the Mideast at present, the interrogation of these scientists could offer game-changing information to give to the Israelis. This may also be a new Israeli strategy to liberate Israeli hostages in Gaza. Israel could let the peace negotiators know that the Iranian scientists will be treated just as harshly as Israel suspects its hostage citizens are being treated in Gaza. Iran now has a motivation to tell Hamas to release the Israeli hostages and bodies in exchange for the Iranian scientists held by Israel. The Iranian scientists doubtless have very valuable information to give to the Israelis and they will likely surrender it to Israel if they are held in captivity under conditions as harsh as Hamas has administered to Israeli hostages in Gaza. Unless Iran is willing to risk having the Iranian scientists give up all the military secrets they know to the Israelis, Iran needs to arrange a prisoner exchange quickly. The longer such an exchange is delayed, the more secret Iranian military information will be extracted by the Israeli interrogators.
Another indicator that Israeli attacks may be imminent against Hezbollah in South Lebanon is Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s statement that the Israeli government intends to return Israeli civilians to their cities and towns in Northern Israel (fourth link). I have seen estimates that 60,000 Israelis have been evacuated from Israel’s northern cities due to the Hezbollah threat. Obviously, Israel cannot do this until they have effectively eliminated the Hezbollah missile and rocket threat from Hezbollah in South Lebanon. This argues that Israel has plans to eliminate the Hezbollah threat once and for all in a blitzkrieg type of attack. It is a real drag on the Israeli economy to have the factories, shops and tourist sites in Northern Israel closed indefinitely due to the Hezbollah threat. Israel’s economy needs those 60,000 Israelis back to work and the businesses in Northern Israel reopened.
In case a major war erupts in the Mideast, Israel has a strategic/tactical weapons advantage that gets very little press coverage. Israel has a way to attack Iran’s nuclear and oil facilities, its military bases, etc, without using warplanes which include the risk of losing pilots to anti-aircraft fire. Israel has six top-of-the-line diesel submarines made in Germany’s shipyards. At least some of these submarines have the reported capability to fire cruise missiles with conventional warheads or with nuclear warheads. In the event of an attack by Israel vs Iran itself, these submarines can launch many cruise missiles at Iranian targets from hidden locations in the Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf and Mediterranean Sea. Such attacks would likely destroy the Iranian oil-loading facilities at Iran’s Kharg Island, all known Iranian nuclear facilities, military airfields, etc. The destruction of Iran’s oil-shipping facilities would wreck Iran’s ability to sell oil, which would end the use of their oil revenues to fund terrorism and their proxies. Details about the Israeli submarine fleet are in the fifth link.
As long-time readers of my blog realize, I expect any Israel vs. Iran all-out war to be an Israeli victory, based on biblical prophecies in Genesis 49:8-9, Zephaniah 2:1-11 and Zechariah 12:1-9 which foretell that the Israelis (called “Judah” in biblical prophecies) will be militarily victorious in the “latter days” of our age. For abundant evidence that we are living in those prophesied biblical times, please read my article, Are We Living in the Biblical Latter Days?
- https://virtualjerusalem.com/
houthi-missile-strikes- central-israel-exposing- defense-gaps/ - https://www.jpost.com/israel-
hamas-war/article-820207 - https://virtualjerusalem.com/
commandos-seize-iranian- scientists-in-daring-syrian- raid/ - https://www.ynetnews.com/
article/b1bxzte6r - https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=wjByX0_u1r0
