With war raging in the Middle East, we want to bring you as many trusted voices on the news as we can. One such voice is the Israeli journalist Amit Segal. He writes a daily newsletter, It’s Noon in Israel, which we’re pleased to publish in The Free Press.
“If you had a time machine,” I asked a senior Israeli minister, “and you knew a month ago that this is what would happen, would you still vote in favor of war?”
“First of all, yes,” he replied. “You have to understand, this was a cold and calculated gamble. The Iranians were planning to move their entire nuclear and missile industry underground, in a way that would have made it nearly impenetrable. In any case, we would have attacked this year—but with the Americans by our side, there was no question.”
“The main achievements of the war are the severe damage to ballistic missiles and their production. This time, after hitting the entire production chain, it will be much harder for them to recover.”
“It’s also worth remembering,” the official added, “that for years, the nightmare scenario in Israel was a multifront war with hundreds of casualties on the home front. Last year, in Rising Lion, in 12 days of war against Iran alone, there were 30 [Israeli] fatalities. Now, in a war with three times as many fronts and three times as many enemies, there are 20. What is that if not proof that Rising Lion was not in vain—and neither was Roaring Lion?”
