Israel’s Arch-Foe, Iran, Pursues a Course of Strategic Insanity

Talking to Politico, Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar said, “We are now confronting a huge attempt by Iran via money and weapons that are floating to what you call the West Bank.” He added that Iran’s aim was to “inflame these territories.”

Indeed, even as news of Gaza and hostage deals takes the spotlight, Israeli forces have been fighting an intensive miniwar against Palestinian terror hubs—heavily funded and supplied by Iran—in the West Bank towns of Jenin, Tubas, and Tulkarem. Tulkarem, in particular, borders on Israeli communities where people fear an October 7–type attack unless the terror is quelled.

The Iranian funds and weapons flow across Israel’s border with Jordan, where Israel is making another intensive, large-scale effort to beef up forces and try to stanch the smuggling.

On an evening two weeks ago, three bombs exploded prematurely on parked buses near Tel Aviv. The aim was a mass-casualty event on buses and other public transportation the next morning. At least one of the three prematurely exploded bombs bore the inscription in Arabic and Hebrew: “Revenge from Tulkarem Refugee Camp.”

Jason Brodsky, director of United Against Nuclear Iran, wrote at the time: “Worth noting the head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad has been visiting Iran this week.” The Jerusalem Post wrote:

The initial assessment from the security establishment is that the plan for the attack came from Iran, and was carried out by Hamas terrorists from the West Bank. Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) identified Iranian involvement in the West Bank by supplying weapons, training terrorists to carry out attacks, and assembling explosive devices, according to [the Israeli daily] Maariv.

Notable about this ongoing effort by Iran to inflict mass casualties in Israel is that it’s happening at a time when Iran is a severe economic crisis, has been gravely weakened strategically by Israeli attacks on Iran itself and Iran’s proxies, and a new administration has assumed office in Washington that—while possibly taking a more isolationist tack on other fronts—still appears hawkish regarding Iran.

One of President Trump’s first acts was to restore the heavy sanctions on Iran that marked his first term in office. Iran was already in dire economic straits, and now it’s in even worse shape.

The Iranian rial is now at a record low, trading at 42,000 to the dollar. It was reported in late February that

public services in 22 of Iran’s 31 provinces have been completely shut down, including government offices, courts, banks, and educational institutions…. [B[lackouts in Iran’s major cities have reached unprecedented levels, and the situation is even worse in smaller cities and rural areas…. Authorities in Greater Tehran have ordered the shutdown of all heating systems to conserve fuel…. In recent months, schools and offices have been repeatedly shut down due to air pollution, dust storms, cold weather, and fuel shortages.

And if Israel were not provoked enough by the ongoing terror and attempted terror in the territories and Israel itself, Israel is even more gravely concerned by Iran’s ongoing effort to go nuclear.

Foreign Minister Sa’ar, in the above-linked article, told Politico that

time was running out as Iran had enriched enough uranium for a “couple of bombs” and was “playing with ways” to weaponize its enriched nuclear material—an outcome he said would have a hugely destabilizing impact on the Middle East.

“So we don’t have much time,” he said. While Israel still wants to pursue a diplomatic path, Sa’ar added that the chances of such an approach being successful were “not huge,” and that failure to stop Iran’s nuclear program would be a “catastrophe for the security of Israel.”

Considering that, in its October 26 attack on Iran’s air-defense batteries, missile-production facilities, and a nuclear-fuel plant, Israel clearly demonstrated its military superiority to Iran, and that Israel now appears to have strong backing from the Trump administration, Iran’s continued devotion of resources to murderous aggression against Israel smacks of strategic insanity.

Hamas’s October 7 attack itself—to which Iran contributed funds, weapons, and training—was, however horrific and calamitous in itself, similarly irrational in that it led to Hamas’s decimation by vastly militarily more powerful Israel. And, in another case, in the latter stage of World War II Hitler’s regime went on allocating desperately needed resources to murdering vast numbers of Jews, helping speed the regime’s downfall.

Sometimes the urge to kill Jews outdoes all other considerations.