In twelve days this past June, Israeli fighter jets flew 1500 miles to Iran, and managed to “obliterate” Iran’s nuclear program, as well as destroy most of its arsenal of ballistic missiles and its ballistic missile plants. Three American generals were tasked with studying how Israel’s Operation Rising Lion was conducted and how it became such a spectacular success. More on their report on Operation Rising Lion can be found here: “How Israel’s 12-day war on Iran achieved remarkable military success – analysis,” by Seth J. Frantzman, Jerusalem Post, November 22, 2025:
Israel achieved extraordinary successes in its strikes on Iran in the 12-day war in June. This was hammered home in a new report at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA). The report is titled “Operation Rising Lion: Insights from Israel’s 12-Day War against Iran,” and it came out on Thursday, November 20.
In a discussion about the report, the three authors, who are key former US military officers, spoke about the 12-day war.
The authors are Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Robert Ashley, the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency; Charles Wald, a former general in the United States Air Force and once deputy commander of the US European Command (EUCOM); and V.-Adm. (ret.) Mark Fox of the US Navy, who was also the former deputy commander of the United States Central Command.
Wald said that “in the report, beyond presenting an operational and tactical account of Israel’s remarkable military success that I would go so far as to say is probably the most impressive military operation I’ve ever seen or been part of against Iran, we highlight some of the differences that the United States and Israel have from a strategic standpoint.”
“And there are a lot of lessons learned that we can take away from that that I think are still being sorted out,” he continued.
What were some of the key discussions in the report?
This is an important point. Operation Rising Lion is being examined worldwide. In contrast to Hamas’s October 7 invasion, where Israel’s impressive military failed to protect civilians and then took time to figure out what to do in Gaza, the war with Iran was well planned.
During the war, Israel displayed an incredible intelligence capability. This goes beyond what most US allies can accomplish and shows how important Israel is in the region. The war achieved US interests.
For years, Mossad has been recruiting agents in Iran, as well as smuggling many into Iran from Israel. There are a large number of Iranian Jews in Israel who help in both the recruitment and the smuggling. No other country has such an ability to penetrate Iran as Israel. Think of how Israel located the uranium enrichment facilities built underground at Natanz and Fordow, or of how it used the Stuxnet computer worm to cause arrays of centrifuges to speed up so fast that they self-destructed. Think of how the Israelis managed to pinpoint the nondescript warehouse where the Iranians had hidden their nuclear archive, and within a few hours in the middle of the night, managed to make off with tens of thousands of documents, some of which disclosed nuclear sites that had until then not been known about in the West.
A September Times of Israel report disclosed that “Israel’s Mossad spy agency deployed some 100 foreign agents in Iran ahead of the start of June’s 12-day war, with the spies tasked with destroying many of Iran’s missile launchers and air defense systems at the start of the war. The specially trained agents placed and operated heavy missile systems that had been smuggled into Iran, and were then used to target the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile launchers and anti-aircraft missile systems in order to assist the Israeli military in its campaign….”
Israel sent 200 fighter jets into Iran. If things went wrong — for example, if the Mossad agents on the ground had failed to destroy so many of Iran’s ballistic missiles, so that they were available to shoot down many Israeli planes, Operation Rising Lion could have ended in disaster.
Another important point was how Israel’s friends helped it during the war.
It was not only friendly countries that helped Israel. So did Arab states, including Jordan and Saudi Arabia, that rightly regarded Iran as the greater threat to their well- being.
Iran is now trying to revive its nuclear program, but the IDF is monitoring its progress and should again be able, once it concludes that the time is ripe, to bomb it to smithereens. The same monitoring, and the same possible bombing, applies to Iran’s ballistic missile program. The one thing Israel needs is to replace its aging fleet of refuelers with new ones. Otherwise, Israel is an even better position than it was in June, because its laser-based Iron Beam anti-missile defense system is now being deployed, providing an extrordinarily low-cost (a few dollars for each laser burst) and speed-of-light protective shield for all of Israel.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I’d call that war a stalemate at best: Trump snatched a draw from the jaws of victory. Israel could have completed a victory if allowed to topple the islamic regime and help Reza Pahlavi establish a transitional set-up. Instead, Trump going postal on them put paid to such hopes: he essentially emulated President Bush 41 in Iraq in 1991
A real Israeli victory would require the toppling of this regime. Some things more, nothing less
Tony says
More importantly, Israel must understand that Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the other Muslim Countries around Israel are also greater enemies than Iran as taught in Islam’s Qur’an(Qur’an 9:5, 28, 111; 5:51, etc.).
Allah’s Islam, a CRIMINAL-TERRORIST-GANG ENTERPRISE and a MURDEROUS-DEMONIC CULT OF BELIEVERS, Terrorist Muslim Soldiers for satanic Allah, continually fund, promote, and practice ideological subversion, propaganda, bigotry, discrimination, deceit, industrial-scale slavery, human trafficking, intimidation, supremacy, segregation, hatred, incitement to violence, criminality, genocide, victimhood, censorship, and terrorism as taught in Islamic Law, Sharia, and in Islam’s Qur’an(Qur’an 5:14,35; 8:60; 9:41, 88, etc.).
Deceitful Allah stirs hatred against Christians until the resurrection day when Qur’an 5:14 instructs, “And some of those who say, ‘Surely we are Nasara (Christians),’ we took their covenant. So they have forgotten a part of what they were reminded of, so we have stirred up ENMITY and HATRED among them until the resurrection day. And Allah will inform them of what they were doing.” See also Qur’an 60:4.
As taught by Allah, Muslims are supremacist terrorists for Allah with their MONEY and with their LIVES while undermining a society from within using the man-made book of lies and deceit, the Qur’an. Allah in Qur’an 49:15 states, “Surely the believers[Muslims] are only those who believed in Allah and his messenger. They do not doubt, and they performed jihad with their MONEY and their LIVES for the sake of Allah. Those are the truthful.” Allah in Qur’an 4:101 says, “…Surely the infidels(Non-Muslims) were your clear enemies.”
ALLAH’S MUSLIMS are a greater TERROR than diabolical Allah. Allah in Qur’an 59:13 says, “You[Muslims] are a greater terror in their chests than Allah. This is because they[Jews & Christians] are people who do not understand.” Islam must be banned as illegal, and we have the legal right to defend ourselves from Muslim violence. As a result, Non-Muslims are marked for death by Islam and its Muslims. Allah in Qur’an 9:29 commands, “Engage in war with those who do not believe in Allah nor in the last day. Nor forbid what Allah and his messenger forbid, nor believe in the religion of the truth among those who have given the book until they pay the jizyah out of hand and they are subdued.”
Again, Islam is a totalitarian and supremacist system of lies and deceit because Allah, the best deceiver, is the actual source of Muslim deceit. Allah in Qur’an 3:54 says, “And they deceived, and Allah deceived. And Allah is the best deceiver.” Allah in Qur’an 8:30 says, “…And Allah is the best deceiver.” Allah in Qur’an 13:42 says, “And indeed, those before them deceived, so to Allah all the deception…”
Michael says
“MOAB the bastards till their fillings fly out their ass.”
– British member of a forum I was once part of, 2003
Michael says
כָּל הַכָּבוֹד