After TACO, now BDCO: Bibi Doesn’t Chicken Out.
Early Friday morning, Israel launched a historic wave of attacks against Iran—the latest phase of the Israel-Iran war that effectively began on October 7, 2023.
Israel’s Operation Rising Lion included both air strikes and a wave of Mossad-run assassinations across Iran that effectively decapitated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Israel Defense Forces claim to have executed hundreds of strikes spread over five waves in the first phase of the operation, targeting Iran’s military infrastructure, its nuclear sites, and its command structure. As many as 200 fighter jets were involved. The Israelis built a drone base inside Iran to strike the enemy from within, as if to say: Anything Ukraine can do, we can do better.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei declared that Israel would receive a “bitter, painful” response and that has now begun. As of this writing, Israelis were in their bomb shelters. At least one missile has exploded in downtown Tel Aviv.
How to interpret this seismic event—and unfolding war?