Book review – Target Tehran

Mark Twain said that “truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; truth isn’t.” Imagine a scenario where an adversary penetrates the defenses of their enemy and extracts half a ton of hard-copy documents, incriminating them in what they have long denied. They then drive hundreds of miles to another country to load the documents and return to their country.

While that sounds like something straight out of Jason Bourne, that is what Israel did in 2018 when they stole over 50,000 pages of documents and hundreds of compact discs of memos, videos, and plans from Iran’s clandestine nuclear archives.

In Target Tehran: How Israel Is Using Sabotage, Cyberwarfare, Assassination – and Secret Diplomacy – to Stop a Nuclear Iran and Create a New Middle East (Simon & Schuster), authors Yonah Jeremy Bob and Ilan Evyatar have written a fascinating book that reads as Tom Clancy wrote it.

Make no mistake, Iran has made it eminently clear that they fully believe that Israel is indeed the great Satan. They have sunk billions of dollars into the effort and will spare no effort to do that. Israel had no other option than to deal with the threat head-on.

In this fascinating read, the authors detail how Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency, has made it a priority to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power. Contrary to what Iran has stated and made clear in the documentation trove, Iran would use nuclear weapons to attack Israel.

While Israel’s efforts to prevent Iran from getting the bomb are laudatory, the authors write that some observers, including some Israelis, have argued that Israel’s war against Iran is, in fact, counterproductive and, in the end, bound to fail.

They posit that if a tiny country like Israel could develop a nuclear weapon despite the opposition of the United States, then an enormous country like Iran, with a population of over 80 million people, will surely be able to do so as well.

Others express the view that even if Israel’s nuclear program deters potential invaders, paradoxically, it also gives an incentive to countries like Iran to develop nuclear weapons of their own. That conflict is inherent throughout the book.

It’s long been said that the Israel battle fights are also those of the West. Interestingly, the authors show that while Israel is terrified of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, the Sunni Arab states are even more terrified than Israel is. Because sitting just across the Persian Gulf, they border Iran, which Israel does not. Analysts and academics consider the sectarian rivalry between Shiite Iran and the Arab-Sunni Gulf states as deeper than that between Israel and Iran.

The authors, both military correspondents, bring a deep and broad understanding of the myriad topics. While the Iran/Israel conflict is often presented as being black and white, they show the complexities involved and the countless conflicts within Israel’s military and intelligence on how to deal with the Iranian threat.

The authors cite interviews with leaders from the highest ranks of the Israeli and US governments, military, and intelligence agencies.

The book concludes that after all of Israel’s military and intelligence work against Iran, the Abraham Accords might be the most powerful tool in deterring Iran. The new alliance between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain is a hugely powerful tool to deal with the Iranian threat.

While Target Tehran is in the nonfiction section, it reads like an action thriller. This fascinating and engaging book will certainly enlighten every reader.