Rising Lion Shows the U.S. Needs More Allies Like Israel

"In less than a fortnight, Israel brought to its knees a major regional adversary, geographically nearly 75 times its size and 1,000 miles away. As we learned on a recent trip to Israel with the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, Israel-with crucial U.S. support-crippled Iran's nuclear and missile capabilities, dismantled its air defenses, and decapitated its command and control. At the Pentagon's request, Israeli pilots cleared the way for U.S. B-2 bombers."

"Since first exposing Iran's nuclear weapons program in 1994, Israel knew that it might need to take military action. Yet, June's attack was only seven months in the making. At the end of 2024, a narrower plan based on precision strikes against a few nuclear facilities was shelved and a far broader campaign was developed from scratch-targeting not only the entirety of Iran's nuclear supply chain, but its ballistic missiles, top generals, and leading nuclear scientists as well."

"What made that sweeping operation feasible was an extraordinary string of Israeli successes since the brutal Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. Israel defeated Hamas, decimated Hezbollah, defended itself against hundreds of Iranian-launched ballistic missiles and thousands of drones, eliminated Syrian anti-air batteries, and knocked out Iran's advanced Russian S-300 air defenses, opening an unimpeded corridor to Iran. Suddenly, Iran was more exposed than at any point in the last forty years."

Israel's Operation Rising Lion degraded Iran's nuclear, missile, air defense, and command-and-control capabilities within weeks, enabled by critical U.S. support including coordination that cleared the way for U.S. B-2 bombers. A comprehensive campaign replaced an earlier narrower plan at the end of 2024 and was developed over seven months to target Iran's nuclear supply chain, ballistic missiles, senior military leaders, and leading nuclear scientists. Preparatory Israeli successes since October 7, 2023 included defeating Hamas, severe strikes on Hezbollah, neutralizing Syrian anti-air batteries, and disabling Iran's S-300 systems, which opened an unimpeded corridor for strikes. Iran accelerated its weapons programs as exposure increased.

Read at The Cipher Brief