By Howard Bloom
Iran has mounted the biggest ballistic missile attack in history.
It claims it launched 200 ballistic missiles at Israel Tuesday night, October 1st. 181 appeared in the night skies over Israel. They were shot out of the heavens by Israel’s Arrow3 missiles, a part of Israel’s remarkable air defense system, the Iron Dome.
There was only one death, ironically of an Arab from Gaza working near Jericho. And Israel reports that the damage to three military bases and to buildings near Israel’s nuclear facility at Dimona was minor.
Says Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Iranian attack was a failure.
But the rocket barrage leaves two big questions: number one, how will Israel respond, and number two, will that response lead to an all-out war?
But first, a word of warning. Israel’s big problem could be Joe Biden.
On Wednesday, October 2nd, Joe Biden convened a conference call with the G7 nations—the United States, Japan, England, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The G7 members all committed their support to Israel and said Israel has a right to respond to Iran’s ballistic missile attack. That’s terrific.
There was only one problem. Joe Biden has given magnificent support to the Ukraine and Israel. But he never lets these allies of ours achieve a decisive win. He holds them back when they should be charging forward.
President Biden’s primary concern is preventing world war three. A noble goal.
Joe Biden’s security advisor, Jake Sullivan, has said that Israel’s response to Iran will be “severe.” But Biden has called for that response to be measured and proportionate. Which means that he sees his job as holding Israel back.
Israel has made it clear that its response to Iran’s ballistic missile assault will be “precise and surprising.” As surprising as the 5,000 pagers and walkie talkies Israel exploded in the hands and pockets of Hezbollah terrorists on September 17th and 18th, two weeks ago. Or as surprising as the assassination of Hezbollah’s head, Hassan Nasrallah, and seven of his top commanders six stories underground in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut.
Israeli sources have suggested that to shock and awe Iran, Israel might attack Iran’s oil facilities. Or it might assassinate a key Iranian figure the way it assassinated one of the highest ranking leaders of Hamas in Iran’s capital,Tehran, on July 31st.
But the biggest response of all would be to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. And taking out those nuclear facilities will be an absolute necessity if Israel is going to survive. Why?
Israel is a tiny country. It is only nine miles wide at its narrowest point. And Israel’s life is concentrated in just three cities—Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa. Take those cities out, and you wipe Israel off the face of the map.
Since the establishment of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, Iran’s goal has been to exterminate Israel and to topple what it calls The Great Satan, the United States. In fact, for years Iran has painted a slogan calling for Israel’s destruction on its missiles.
It is said that Iran does not yet have nuclear warheads but could put them together on two-weeks’ notice. I suspect that’s not true, and that Iran may already be assembling nuclear warheads.
Iran demonstrated with its 200 ballistic missiles fired at Israel October 1st that it will be able to reach Israel with its nuclear warheads as soon as it can mount them on enough rockets to penetrate Israel’s Iron Dome. But there’s a problem. Iran has also shown that it can’t get through the Iron Dome.
However you can sail nuclear warheads into Haifa’s harbor on commercial ships. Or land them on the beaches of Tel Aviv.
But the real problem is that you can use a nuclear warhead on the United States. How? By putting your nuke on an intercontinental ballistic missile and aiming it at Washington.
Does Iran have an intercontinental missile? You bet. It’s the Qaem-100 a three stage rocket Iran used to launch a satellite into orbit on September 14th, just two weeks ago.
But this means that Iran’s nuclear program is not just a threat to Israel. It is a threat to you and me.
Remember, Iranians take to the streets several times a year to chant the slogan that has been central to Iran’s Islamic Revolution ever since 1979, “Death to America.” Once Iran has enough nukes, that chant may no longer be a matter of mere words.
However when he was asked today if he would approve of an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Joe Biden said no.
References:
Iran
https://en.irna.ir/news/85616127/President-Pezeshkian-lran-does-not-seek-war
https://en.irna.ir/news/85615515/US-Europe-root-cause-of-problems-in-region-Supreme-Leader
Saudi Arabia
https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5066958-iranian-president-says-israel-must-cease-
Israel
Zaka Tel Aviv 10-01-2024
UK
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70w1j0l488o
India
The United States
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-assesses-damage-from-irans-missile-barrage-27c26e5e
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/israel-iran-hezbollah-conflict
Jake Braunstein, Corey Meyer, Israel at War: Today’s Update, AIPAC, 9/28/2024-10/2/2024
https://www.jns.org/israels-response-to-iranian-attack-will-be-precise-and-surprising
https://www.jns.org/idf-launches-targeted-strike- in-beirut/
https://www.jns.org/idf-adds-troops-to-ground-op-as-hezbollah- rains-rockets-on-north/
https://www.jns.org/biden-opposes-israeli-strike-on-iran-nuclear-sites
https://worldisraelnews com/eight-killed-in-jaffa-terror-shooting/
https://unitedwithisrael org/watch-lebanese-man-calls-to-make-sure-hezbollah-is-destroved-for-good/
https://www.axios.com/2024/10/02/israel-iran-arrow-missiles-iai
https://nextspaceflight.com/launches/details/7632
| Qaem 100 | Chamran-1 A Qaem 100 rocket launched with Chamran-1 from Launch Platform, Shahrud Missile Test Site, Iran on Saturday Sep … |
______
Howard Bloom of the Howard Bloom Institute has been called the Einstein, Newton, Darwin, and Freud of the 21st century by Britain’s Channel 4 TV. One of his eight books–Global Brain—was the subject of a symposium thrown by the Office of the Secretary of Defense including representatives from the State Department, the Energy Department, DARPA, IBM, and MIT. Bloom’s work has been published in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Psychology Today, and the Scientific American. He has appeared on Saudi and Iranian television over forty times. Bloom does news commentary at 1:06 am Eastern Time every Wednesday night on 545 radio stations on the highest-rated overnight syndicated talk radio show in North America, Coast to Coast AM. Bloom’s new book, coming out in January, 2025, is The Case of the Sexual Cosmos: Everything You Know About Nature is wrong. For more, see http://howardbloom.net.