Dayenu and the Wonders of 613

The preemptive strike launched by Israel against Iran on June 13, 2025 will forever be remembered as a turning point in the Middle East. The Israeli strikes on that fateful day was intended to commence an operation to remove the danger to Israel posed by (i) Iran’s nuclear program and (ii) Iran’s pre-war estimated arsenal of over 2000 ballistic missiles capable of reaching Israel. These threats hung like the sword of Damocles over Israel — constituting an existential threat to Israel by a nation that has, for over 40 years, threatened to wipe Israel off the face the earth. This strike against Iran of June 13^th precipitated a war between Israel and Iran which continues as I write this Blog.[1]

The military campaign by Israel to achieve these aims was code-named Operation Rising Lion by the Israelis. Operation Rising Lion, as launched on June 13^th, was really a combination of five separate operations. Those operations of June 13^th can be summarized as follows:

1. Assassination of Iranian Nuclear Scientists – Israel, using pinpoint munitions, assassinated the leading Iranian nuclear scientists as they slept in their homes. While Israel has previously sought to knock off Iranian nuclear scientists one-by-one, this day one effort killed 14 of such scientists, most importantly Fereydoon Abbasi, who has been designated by the US Treasury Department and United Nations for his role in Iran’s uranium enrichment program. The Israeli goal here is to supplement the physical destruction of Iranian nuclear facilities (more on which below) with the elimination of the knowledge base for the reconstitution of Iran’s nuclear program once hostilities conclude.
2. Elimination of Military Leaders – There were two efforts on June 13^th to eliminate Iranian military leaders:

First, was the targeting of senior members of the Iranian air force. The Iranian air force controls, among other things, the country’s ballistic missile forces. 20 of the most senior commanders of Iranian air force were summoned (by Israeli intelligence!) in the early morning hours of June 13^th to an emergency meeting in a “secret” bunker. Once they assembled there (probably asking “who called this meeting”?), the bunker was destroyed by the Israel Air Force resulting in the elimination of all those commanders. Under normal circumstances, an Iranian response to Israeli aggression would have resulted in an immediate ballistic missile barrage against Israel. Yet, given the top-down nature of the Iranian military structure, there was no one to instruct the launch of some 1000 ballistic missiles pre-programmed to target Israel. This delayed their missile response by almost 24 hours, during which time (i) the Israeli antiballistic missile defense preparations and its civil defense plan was implemented (shelters, etc.) and (ii) a significant number of missiles and missile launchers were destroyed (as per item 4 below). Iran was only able to launch 175 missiles once they could reestablish a chain of command; this relatively small number was not a salvo that would overwhelm Israeli defenses, and the vast majority of the launched missiles were intercepted.

Second, was the targeting of the most senior echelons of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) leadership.  Six of them were killed by precision airstrikes in their homes, including the chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces and the commander in chief of the IRGC. This decapitation of Iran’s senior military command was achieved from an unparalleled combination of AI, intelligence (spies) and covert tracking of these officials. To be sure, with the Iranian leadership seeing the level of Israeli infiltration into their command-and-control hierarchy, one would suspect there developed a deep level of distrust within the ranks, further stymying the Iranian response.

3. Destruction of Iranian Antiaircraft Systems – While Israel had previously degraded significant portions of Iran’s antiaircraft systems in previous strikes following two earlier singular exchanges between Israel and Iran in October 2024 and April 2025, Israel needed to destroy the remaining remnants of Iranian air defense to achieve air superiority early on in this conflict. In an operation reportedly begun in 2006, Israel’s Mossad spy agency infiltrated large numbers of drones and other kinetic weapons by hiding them in trucks and assembled a factory in Iran to further assemble drones using commercially available components. Israeli intelligence operatives, Israeli commandos and locally recruited agents built remotely controlled guided missile systems in central Iran to target Iranian weapons systems. At the fateful launch of Operation Rising Lion in the early hours of June 13^th, Israel was able to launch from inside Iran swarms of drones and other munitions from mobile trucks and other vantage points against Iranian air defense systems. At least 50 sites were reportedly hit by such means, and Israel was well on its way to achieve air superiority.
4. Destruction of Iranian Ballistic Missiles and Launchers – As noted above, one of the stated goals of Israel’s Operation Rising Lion is to destroy Iran’s ballistic missile capability. Israel had previously degraded Iran’s ability to manufacture ballistic missiles in October 2024 in its counterstrike after Iran fired ballistic missiles at Israel. Israel built on that effort in the early morning hours of June 13^th when, with the air superiority achieved as per the preceding item 4 and using intelligence and AI, it destroyed numerous missiles and missile launchers before launch. With the Iranian ability to replace ballistic missiles compromised, Iran is depleting its limited arsenal of missiles every time it fires another one at Israel.
5. Destruction of Iran’s Nuclear Capabilities – The existential threat posed to Israel by Iran’s nuclear program was the final leg of the June 13^th At the start of that campaign, Israel attacked Iranian nuclear facilities in Isfahan and Natanz. Natanz is Iran’s premier nuclear enrichment facility, employing thousands of centrifuges to enrich uranium for weapons-grade nuclear fuel. There are reports, confirmed by the IAEA, that Israel’s surprise attack destroyed most of the centrifuges at Natanz when the centrifuges spun out of control; this occurred when Israel destroyed the electric power grid that ran the centrifuges. The interruption of power caused the centrifuges to spin out of control thereby severely damaging them.

Each of these five sub-operations was a stroke of genius and “exquisite” (to use a term repeatedly employed by Dana Stroul, a former deputy assistant secretary of Defense in the Pentagon and currently a scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy) in their operation. The level of coordination to pull each of them off at the same time was nothing short of extraordinary.

This brings me to the idea conveyed in the title of this Blog, dayenu. Dayenu is a Hebrew word meaning, when referring to a particular act, that such act would have been sufficient for us. During the Passover seder service, there is an ever-popular song known as Dayenu that is sung. The song recounts each of the wonderful (and wonderous) acts God had bestowed on the Jewish people as part of the exodus story. These acts of God range from His redemption of Israel from Egypt, His infliction of the ten plagues, His parting of the Red Sea and His giving of the Torah. According to the Dayenu song, each of these acts were by themselves magnificent and worthy of praise; each, alone, would have been sufficient in and of itself. Likewise, each of these five subparts of Operation Arising Lion would have been enough to generate awe-inspiring admiration. That those of us celebrating Israel’s accomplishments can celebrate each and every one of these operations is certainly a wonder and a blessing. And, much like other dates that have become renowned by its calendar equivalent number such as 911, 613 is destined to become such a date.[2]

Operation Red Lion is a military campaign orchestrated by Israel to show that the State of Israel is no longer willing to hope for the best while enemies sworn to its destruction accumulate the weapons necessary to achieve that goal. The many marvels displayed at the beginning of that campaign by Israel (and the marvels that are sure to follow) are of near biblical proportion – akin to Israel’s “Red Sea Moment”. We can only hope and pray that this campaign will be successful and culminates in a fashion to allow us to chant “Dayenu – that would be enough” as Israel’s war goals are achieved.

[1] Since I wrote this Blog and before submission, the United States has bombed three premier Iranian nuclear sites, including the deeply buried Frodow site.

[2] I would be remiss to not also mention the numerological significance of this date. Certain numbers in Jewish custom are cherished. The best known one is the number 18, which is the numeric equivalent of the Hebrew word chai which means “life.” 613 is also a revered number, being the number of commandments in the Torah. For example, hanging from the rafters in Madison Square Garden is the retired team jersey of New York Knicks basketball star and coach Red Holtzman bearing the number of 613. Also, the “handle” of one of Israel’s preeminent war reporters on “X” is OSINT613.