Unfair to blame Israel for retaliatory attacks on Iran

Tel Aviv’s announcement that it would ‘hit hard’ after Iran fired more than 300 missiles and drones against Israel, rattled the West, which took a rather confusing stand. The US, for example, said that it would continue to support the defence of Israel, but added that it would not ‘partake in any counter-offensive’ against Iran. Germany condemned Iran’s action but also said in the same breath that Israel should play a role in ‘de-escalating’ the situation. Equally ambiguous was the stance of the United Kingdom; it stated that while Israel had the right to respond, the UK did not support ‘a retaliatory strike.’ The European Union advised that the best way out was to move away from the cliff; ‘step on the brakes and reverse gear.’

In sum, these countries acknowledged that Israel had been unfairly attacked by Iran, but suggested that the victim nation should do nothing about being assaulted. The justification for a pacifist approach was that Israel’s retaliation could trigger a war-like situation in the Middle East, which would not be in anybody’s interests.

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But Israel did respond, though in a limited manner; explosions were heard in Isfahan, near a major airport and air base. The idea was to send across a message that Tel Aviv would not remain silent and would escalate if need be — it still reserved the right to ‘hit hard’.

The countries advising restraint should realise that it is against Israel’s grain to not respond. When it comes to the security of Israel or its people anywhere in the world, the country has never shied away from taking the bull by the horns, at times even defying advice from its friends and allies such as the US. All governments in power in Tel Aviv, have followed this policy. Since its inception in 1948, Israel has faced many military strikes by neighbours — at times its rivals grouped together to launch combined attacks — but has always emerged stronger and more determined. It is unlikely to change its spots now. As for Iran, it has repeatedly vowed to obliterate Israel from the face of earth.

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Israel’s track record of going after its enemy and securing justice by unleashing its intelligence agencies and special forces, even if it meant conducting operations on foreign soil, is known to all. At times, in doing so, it has done a favour on the West as well, since some of the targets it neutralised also posed a threat to the safety and security of Western countries.

Take one example. On 12 November, 2011, a massive explosion ripped to pieces a secret missile base near Teheran. Dozens of missiles were destroyed and some members of the Revolutionary Guards were killed; among the dead also was General Hassan Moghaddam, the ‘father’ of Iran’s nuclear missile programme. The real target, though, was a solid fuel rocket engine that had the capacity to take a nuclear missile more than six thousand miles across the globe—right into the US mainland. The explosion, allegedly engineered by Israel and executed by its famed intelligence agency, the Mossad, set Iran’s project back by many months.

But this was not the only attack supposedly executed by Israel against Iran’s missile and nuclear programmes. In July 2011, Darioush Rezaei Najad, considered to be an important figure in the development of Iran’s secret nuclear programme, was shot dead by a gunman (who disappeared soon after) outside his home. A few months before this incident, Majid Shahriyari, scientific head of Iran’s nuclear project, was killed in an explosion by a device that had been planted on his vehicle by a passing motorcyclist. In January 2010, an advisor to Iran’s nuclear programme, Professor Masoud Ali Mohammadi, was blown to pieces in an explosion that happened when he tried to unlock his car.

Israel did not own up to any of the above incidents. But there was one that it was openly proud of having achieved: Bringing Adolf Eichmann to justice. The high-profile and notorious Nazi war criminal, was tracked by the Mossad to Buenos Aires in Argentina in 1960, captured by Israel’s special forces and brought to Israel to stand trial. The trail began on 11 April, 1961, in which more than a hundred victims of the holocaust testified. Eichmann was sentenced to death eight months later and executed. His body was then incinerated and the ashes cast off in the Mediterranean. Israel managed to do what other countries, who were on the lookout for the Nazi criminal, had failed in. Because, Israel never forgets, not does it forgive.

The missions that Israel has undertaken through Mossad and its special forces should give an idea to the West that it is barking up the wrong tree when it asks that country to forget and de-escalate. It’s not that Israel wants to always create war-like situations in the region, but it does not mind an escalation when there is a threat to its security. When it comes to the safety of its people and the prestige of Israel, it has been willing to push the envelope. The legendary Entebbe mission is a good example.

In June 1976, an Airbus flight from Tel Avi to Paris, was hijacked once it was airborne after a brief stopover at Athens. The plane was taken to Entebbe, outside Kampala, in Uganda, where the terrorists were warmly welcomed by its dictator, Idi Amin. The Israeli government of the day decided to secure the release of the passengers, with commandoes of the Israeli Defences Forces (IDF) storming Entebbe. It was an audacious plan, as Uganda was hardly in the neighbourhood. A reconnaissance aircraft was despatched, which studied the location and took pictures. In the dark of night, an Israeli aircraft packed with special forces personnel landed at Entebbe and after a brief conflict, secured the release of the hostages from the airport’s terminal, and flew away with them to safety in Israel. One Israeli commando and a few hostages were killed in the crossfire.

There are several such daring acts that the Mossad and the IDF have undertaken to protect Israel’s interests, regardless of the criticism they faced from others—often from friends, even. On the matter of the current crisis, it is not Israel’s doing. It all started after Hamas terrorists killed more than a thousand people, including several civilian Israelis and foreign nationals as well as security personnel, in October last year. Many were taken hostages, and they included women and children. Israel vowed revenge and launched attacks on Hamas across the border, and the conflict has escalated to reach the present level.

It would be unfair, therefore, to blame Israel for the counteractions that it has launched or may launch if it believes the situation so demands.

The writer is an author and a public affairs analyst. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.