Editor’s Note: Michael Oren was formerly Israeli ambassador to the United States, a member of Knesset, and a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office. The views expressed in this commentary belong to the author. View more opinions on CNN.
While denounced by many as a dangerous escalation of tensions that could lead to war, the killing of Iran’s Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani was welcomed in Israel and throughout the Middle East. Justice was done for the thousands of people killed under Soleimani’s command, and he helped prop up Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, which was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Following a period of non-response to Iranian attacks and provocations, American deterrence was restored. Israelis say this knowing full well that the Iranian regime is almost certain to seek revenge and that its first target could be Israel.
No one in Israel wants war. Predictions for the next conflict are apocalyptic: our cities and towns targeted by thousands of rockets daily, our forces compelled to fight in heavily-populated areas where Iran and its proxies have hidden their missiles, and Israel once again condemned for supposed war crimes.
“It must be known and recognized that in the next war … heavy fire will be directed against our home front,” Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. General Aviv Kochavi said last week in a speech that addressed Iran’s growing threat. “We have to prepare for this militarily … and we have to prepare for this mentally.”
Yet, despite the agonizing costs of war, Israelis across the political spectrum are united on the need to confront Iran. Israelis support the efforts of our armed forces to prevent the Iranian military buildup around us. The goal is to break the entrenchment of Iran and its proxies around our borders before the Islamic Republic can produce nuclear bombs. For Israel and much of the Arab world, the countdown to war began not with Friday’s assassination of Soleimani, but five years ago, with the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Iran nuclear deal.
Signed with the hope of strengthening Iranian moderates and transforming the Islamic Republic into a responsible regional power, the JCPOA had exactly the opposite effect. Enriched and legitimized by the deal, Iran deepened its hegemony over Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, and provided long-range missiles to its proxies in Gaza and Yemen.
As long as Tehran complied with the JCPOA, the world raised no objection to the ethnic cleansing of Syrian Sunnis by Iran’s Shiite militiamen from as far away as Pakistan and Afghanistan. And it emboldened Iran to try to expand Hezbollah’s arsenal of some 130,000 rockets to include cruise missiles capable of hitting Israel’s critical infrastructure and airfields. Finally, Iran took the unprecedented step of stationing troops in Syria and elsewhere.
The JCPOA, which should not have included sunset provisions allowing limitations on uranium-enrichment activities to expire between 10 to 15 years, also enabled Iran to conduct ballistic missile tests and retain most of its nuclear infrastructure as well as blueprints for making nuclear weapons. The speed with which Iran has recently resumed high-level uranium enrichment revealed the flimsiness of the deal’s restrictions.
Opinion: What Iran strike means for the US
For this reason, Israelis supported America’s withdrawal from the JCPOA and the re-imposition of economic sanctions on Iran. While Israelis are aware of the charged partisan debate surrounding that decision in America, our fundamental security is at stake. Iran, according to Revolutionary Guards commander Hossein Salami has already developed the “strategic capacity” to destroy Israel, and a new war would “result in Israel’s defeat within three days, in a way that they will not find enough graves to bury their dead,” he said.
Israelis must take these threats seriously and be ready to meet them. Yet we must also be sensitive to the understandable aversion Americans may have in getting involved in another Middle East war. So, too, as the Jewish State, Israel must take into account the fears of American Jews facing a sharp rise in anti-Semitic attacks. That anxiety is likely to rise with the killing of Soleimani, the commander of the same Quds Force Argentinian prosecutors believed was responsible for the 1994 bombing of the Buenos Aires Jewish Community Center that killed 85 and wounded hundreds.
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In the face of Iranian threats of revenge, Israel must restate its determination to defend itself against any Middle Eastern adversary. We will meet Iranian aggression with our own formidable power, asking the United States only to resupply us with vital munitions as it has in the past and oppose anti-Israel resolutions in the UN.
We ask Americans to rise above partisan divisions and recognize the Iranian threat for what is a ruthless regime determined to conquer the region, which has caused unspeakable suffering and is committed to Israel’s destruction. We ask that Americans understand that while Soleimani’s death may increase tensions in the short run, ultimately the Middle East and the world as a whole will be a safer place.
