FINALLY! Someone made Iran pay for funding, training and orchestrating terrorism in the Middle East (and elsewhere)!
These excerpts from today’s editorial in the Wall Street Journal tell the story perfectly:
Iran paid the first real price Monday for its proxy warfare in the Middle East after Israel killed the leading Iranians sowing chaos in the region. “The most significant assassination since Soleimani” is how the missile strike in Damascus is being reported in Israel. That’s a reference to the January 2020 U.S. strike on Qassem Soleimani, the longtime mastermind of Iran’s foreign terrorism and proxy-war strategy.
Monday’s strike killed Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, Iran’s top Quds Force commander in Lebanon and Syria, as well as his deputy commander and his chief of general staff. Israel doesn’t claim responsibility for such attacks, but its Army Radio and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have confirmed the kills. The IRGC announced seven dead members.
As regional chief of the Quds Force, Zahedi was point man in Iran’s war on Israel. He was the boss of Hezbollah, the Iranian proxy that has fired more than 3,500 rockets, unprovoked, on Israel’s north since Oct. 7, and he gave orders to Syria’s Assad regime as well. Zahedi was responsible for Iran’s weapons transfers to Hezbollah and was believed to be in daily contact with its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
These are men with rivers of blood on their hands.
Monday’s strike is in contrast to the U.S. response after Iranian proxies killed three Americans near the Syrian border in January. The Biden Administration leaked news of its retaliation in advance, giving Iranian commanders in Syria ample time to flee. Not this time.
Iran has threatened a harsh response, but it can’t say it didn’t ask for escalation.
The stakes, as Iran considers its options, are high. Tehran needs to hear a clear message from the White House. Not criticism to undermine the Israeli government but steadfast support that makes the Ayatollahs think twice before giving an order they would come to regret.
Under Donald Trump, Iran was sanctioned every which way, and largely stifled in its efforts to foment terror worldwide, with a special emphasis on annihilating Israel.
Under Joe Biden, sanctions against Iran have been lifted, billions and billions of dollars unfrozen, and the result has been that its terrorist activities are in full operation.
But now, Israel has given Biden an undeserved opportunity to retrieve at least some semblance of competence regarding the international threat Iran poses. What will he – or, more exactly – the puppeteers running Biden’s presidency – go public and say about this attack? Do about it?
We’ll find out very quickly…and you can bet I’ll be blogging about the response when it happens.
