columnIsrael at War

The lull before the storm

Israelis alternate between bracing for a blitz from Iran and suspecting the response to Haniyeh’s assassination in Tehran will elicit the same kind of sound-and-light show as the one that took place on April 14.

Sunset at Banana Beach, Tel Aviv. Photo by Matthew Hechter/Flash90.
Sunset at Banana Beach, Tel Aviv. Photo by Matthew Hechter/Flash90.
Ruthie Blum. Photo by Ariel Jerozolomski.
Ruthie Blum
Ruthie Blum, a former adviser at the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is an award-winning columnist and a senior contributing editor at JNS. Co-host, with Amb. Mark Regev, of the JNS-TV podcast “Israel Undiplomatic,” she writes on Israeli politics and U.S.-Israel relations. Originally from New York, she moved to Israel in 1977. She is a regular guest on national and international media outlets, including FOX, Sky News, i24News, ILTV, WION and Scripps TV.

Targeted killings over the past few weeks in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, as well as a series of strikes on Houthi bases in Yemen’s port city of Hudeidah, are causing Israelis a mixture of relief and anxiety.

On one hand, the successful operations carried out by the Israel Defense Forces since July 13—when Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, now confirmed dead, was hit in Khan Yunis—have restored faith in the country’s ability to win the war against the Islamic Republic-backed terrorists threatening its survival.

On the other, the assassination on Tuesday night of Hezbollah chief of staff Fuad Shukr in the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, and that of Hamas political bureau head Ismail Haniyeh mere hours later in Tehran, have Israelis bracing for a massive, multi-front offensive that catapults the entire public into bomb shelters.

Though Israel hasn’t officially acknowledged the latter operation, there’s little doubt about which entity was behind the explosion that resulted in his “martyrdom for Allah.”

Following the assassination—which took place after Haniyeh attended the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian—head ayatollah Ali Khamenei hosted an emergency meeting of the Supreme National Security Council, in the presence of Quds Force commander Esmail Ghaani.

During the gathering, Khamenei reportedly ordered the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iranian army to initiate a direct confrontation with Israel and prepare defense capabilities in the event of an expansion of the war that could involve U.S. cooperation with Israel.

Then, on Thursday, a Hamas official told Russia’s state-run network Sputnik, “The attack on Israel may begin in the next few hours, and it will be a very strong and painful response.”

Meanwhile, Israel’s Home Front Command is insisting that there’s no change in the usual directives that have been in place throughout the war. This isn’t preventing some of those Israelis who failed to stock up on generators, bottled water, batteries and canned goods the last time Iran issued such a threat from doing so now.

The time in question was four months ago, when Tehran warned it would retaliate for the April 1 strike in Damascus that killed seven IRGC honchos, and on a Saturday night nearly two weeks later launched hundreds of drones and precision missiles at Israel. By Sunday morning, after 99% of the projectiles had been intercepted, Iran announced that its blitz was over, and the United States—along with other countries that participated in the downing of the deadly aerial weapons—urged Israel to consider the incident closed.

“Take the win,” said U.S. President Joe Biden to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, basically advising him to adopt Washington’s policy of de-escalation, so as not to disrupt “regional stability.”

The same inane talk is rampant today. As the Financial Times reported on Wednesday night, American and European diplomats are in a flurry of hysterical activity to fend off a full-scale regional war.

According to the report, Enrique Mora—chief of staff of E.U. High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell (you know, the guy who accused Israel of using hunger as a weapon against the Palestinians)—spoke with his buddies in Tehran. Mora was there, after all, attending Pezeshkian’s swearing-in ceremony.

Then there’s Biden’s Mideast envoy, Brett McGurk, who hurried to schmooze with the Saudis. The purpose of all these huddles, the FT said, is to persuade the powers-that-be in Iran to limit their assault on Israel to a “symbolic” display.

Judging by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah’s speech on Thursday, however, the global jihadists have other ideas.

Addressing mourners via video at Shukr’s funeral in south Beirut, Nasrallah declared, “We are facing a major battle that has gone beyond the issue of support fronts, whose battlefields include Yemen, Iraq, Syria and the Gaza Strip. I say to the enemy [Israel]: ‘Laugh a little now, but you will soon be crying a lot, because you do not know which lines you have crossed.’”

Between quipping about imminent annihilation and suspecting that we’re in for a repeat of the sound-and-light show of April 14, Israelis are bracing for a weekend spent in the vicinity of fortified rooms.

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