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Source: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-828654
Ayatollah Khamenei Committed a Major Strategic Blunder
(Jerusalem Post) Neville Teller - It is Iran that seeks to destroy Israel, not the other way around. For 45 years, since the Islamic Republic of Iran's founding in 1979, the Iranian regime had pursued its self-imposed mission of the destruction of Israel and its people through funding, arming, and supporting groups and militias prepared to attack the Jewish state. On April 13, 2024, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei decided that the time had arrived to change tactics and launched Iran's first direct onslaught on Israel - an aerial assault that involved hundreds of drones, and cruise and ballistic missiles. Khamenei committed a major strategic blunder. His anticipated military and propaganda triumph turned into a humiliation. His failure was to underestimate the effectiveness of Israel's security and armed forces. Within a week, Israel had responded with airstrikes on Iranian military sites in Syria and Iran. Israel also pursued its hunt for Hamas and Hizbullah leaders. Khamenei then opted for a second, bigger, and more focused attempt, using 200 advanced Fattah-1 and Kheibar Shekan missiles, targeting military and intelligence locations. This second Iranian attack, on Oct. 1, was only marginally more damaging than the first. Most missiles were intercepted by Israeli and U.S. defense systems. Israel responded on Oct. 25 in a manner that respected President Biden's wishes, with heavy air strikes on Iranian military targets. Khamenei has affirmed repeatedly that the very purpose of his revolution was to destroy Western-style democracy and its way of life and to impose Shi'ite Islam on the whole world. He identified the U.S. and Israel as his prime targets. Whether the West wishes to acknowledge it or not, in combating Iran, Israel is fighting for the free world as a whole. The writer is the Middle East correspondent for Eurasia Review.