Iran’s Unprecedented Attack on Israel

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I'm, Isabel Kirschner, in Jerusalem. It's coming up to about 5.30am, at the end of a very long and surreal night here. For the first time in Israel's history, the country came under a direct attack from Iran.

Wow, wow, wow, look, look, can't you see? Here, now, wait.

My apartment building woke up, it came to life, the neighbours were sitting on the stairs, in the stairwell. Everybody in this country is used to incoming rocket fire.

From the New York Times, I'm Sabrina Tavernissi, and this is The Daily.

At around nine o'clock, Israel time, we started to get intelligence that the Iranians had launched a first wave of attack drones.

So where do these missiles actually hit?

So you have some damage to this air base in the Naguib Desert. You have military targets in the Golan Heights. You have some injuries on the ground. About a dozen or so civilians are injured. And it's unclear whether it's, you know, from the blasts themselves or, more likely, from kind of some of the shrapnel and debris that's falling from the sky.

And Eric, walk me through why this Iranian attack was so clearly repelled.

Well, there's several main reasons. One is that the Israelis have a very sophisticated layer of defenses. The best known of them is called Iron Dome. But it seems here it was another defense technology called Arrow System that shoots down ballistic missiles. that was particularly effective.

So, Eric, it seems like really, at the end of the day, this attack, despite its unprecedented nature, was actually really not nearly as bad as it could have been from the Israeli perspective. But why did Iran attack Israel to begin with?

Yeah, I mean, as you said, this is really, from the U.S. and Israeli perspective, given the vast number of drones and missiles that were launched at Israel, this was a win that they were able to get out of this crisis with relatively little damage on the ground and all that. But for the Iranians, you have to understand, well, what prompted this in the first place? The latest now from the Middle East. Syrian state media reporting that an airstrike hit Iran's consular building in Syria today.

Damascus has reportedly killed seven members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Among the dead pulled from the rubble a high-ranking Iranian military leader.

And even though the Israelis haven't come out and formally acknowledged this, it's clear that Israel is behind this.

Mohammad Zahidi, one of the leaders of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, a commander that was involved in the weapon shipments to groups like Hezbollah and Iran-backed Syrian Shia militias, has been targeted in an Israeli airstrike this afternoon.

These weren't just any old Iranian officers. These were a couple of their top generals and other senior officials from a group called the Quds Force. It's a wing of the Iranian security services that carries out covert operations across the region in places like Gaza, in places like Lebanon. These are the actors that organize the attacks against Israel.

Israel has long targeted Iranian military installations in Syria. Monday's attack marked the first time Iran's embassy compound itself had been hit.

But the other important thing, these guys weren't killed on some dusty road, in a military truck, in some battlefield or anything like this. They were in a diplomatic facility. This is essentially their sovereign soil in a foreign country. If that's violated, it's a big deal.

Because carrying out an attack on Iranian soil, effectively, was really an audacious thing to do.

Absolutely. And this was so audacious that the Israelis didn't tell their closest ally, the United States, until about five minutes before the strike is going to hit. American officials were not happy. Not only does it create this diplomatic and security challenge, but it also, for Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, it presents a very serious problem about what will the response be, and what kind of threats now would this pose to American troops in the Middle East. So the U.S.

Interesting. So the Americans are basically saying, look, Israel, we're in the middle of a pretty high-stakes situation. here. There's this war in Gaza. Proxies are firing rockets into your territory.

Well, the Israelis are saying, look, these are the people that are planning attacks on us through their proxies, and we are in a war of survival with them, and they are the root of the problem that we are facing, not just in Gaza, with Hamas, but with Hezbollah, with the Houthis in Yemen, with these militias in Iraq and Syria. Iran is behind all of these groups, these partners and proxies that they have, and they're willing to take the risk, despite the blowback that they almost certainly know will happen once they strike these Iranians in Syria. They're willing to take it, because they just don't get opportunities like this very often. And they feel pretty confident that they can take a step like this, as risky as it is and audacious as it is, because they've seen it work before.

We'll be right back.

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a blanket with Melissa Clark. And we're having a picnic using recipes that feature some of our favorite summer produce. Yuande, what'd you bring? So this is a cucumber.

agua fresca. It's made with.

fresh cucumbers, ginger, and lime.

How did you get it so?

green? I kept the cucumber skins on and pureed the entire thing. It's.

really easy to put together, and it's something that you can do in advance. Oh, it is so.

refreshing. What'd you bring, Melissa?

Well, strawberries are extra delicious this time of year, so I brought my little.

strawberry almond cakes. Oh, yum.

I roast the strawberries before I mix them into.

the batter. It helps condense the berries' juices and stops them from leaking all over and getting the crumb too soft.

You get little pockets of concentrated.

strawberry flavor. It tastes amazing. Oh, thanks.

New York Times Cooking has so many easy recipes to fit your summer plans.

Find them all at nytcooking.com. I have sticky strawberry juice all over my fingers.

So, Eric, why were the Israelis so confident that engaging with Iran in this kind of risky way was something they were willing to gamble on? I mean, it resulted in this historic Iranian attack, so why risk something like that?

So the Israelis had been involved in a shadow war with Iran for years, where each side took shots at some of their senior military people or other operatives. But it's always been kind of below the radar, if you will. The Israeli strike on April 1st that precipitated this attack from Iran was a clear departure from that shadow war. And I think one reason why Israel had that change in approach was because it was looking to a specific American action against Iran as a kind of a model.

I remember the strike because everybody was saying this is going to be the beginning of the end. I mean, this guy is the most important guy in many ways in Iran, and the United States just killed him.

Well, Trump said he was plotting imminent and sinister attacks against American interests. That was his reasoning after the strike. But everybody was just waiting, holding their breath for what's going to happen next. What will be Iran's response to the death of their top general? And sure enough, five days later,

In fact, the Iranians come out looking kind of restrained in the response.

Iran did not want a full-scale war with the United States at this point, despite their public remarks, despite the loss of this revered general. When push came to shove at that point, they did not want to cross that line.

So what is the lesson in this Soleimani example for what we saw this past weekend, Eric? I mean, is it fair to say that perhaps the Israelis were right in their assumptions? You know, that what we saw in how Iran prosecuted this attack on Saturday, the advanced warning, the slow rollout, the targeting of remote bases rather than urban centers, that all of this seems to have been done to send a signal. And that that signal was that Iran is only willing to go so far.

Yes, they're essentially maneuvering themselves to give them a way out. It's an off-ramp here by basically saying, okay, look, we're done for these strikes for now. This has been a defensive measure. That's how they're calling it. That's how they're casting it.

Okay, so what do we know about what Israel's thinking? What's going to be Israel's response?

So that's the question everyone is asking right now. Israel's closest and strongest ally, the United States, is pushing Israel to basically stop here. President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu and told him, hey, you got everything you wanted. You killed the generals. You staved off this massive Iranian attack.

for now. Look, we.

came to your aid when you were in need. We put our planes and our ships in harm's way and helped knock down these missiles and drones, but we will not help you retaliate against Iran if that's the decision you decide to make.

Eric, this strikes me as a pretty tricky moment for President Biden, right? Because, you know, he's asking Netanyahu not to escalate, but at the end of the day, you know, Netanyahu has lots of constituencies he's dealing with. He's under lots of pressure. And now that Iran has attacked like this directly, it's going to be harder for Biden to use his leverage against Israel. So I guess the next question, then, is, will Netanyahu actually take the win, as the Americans are advising him to do?

Well, and that's the open question. You've got, in one ear, the Americans are telling him, stop. Take the win. Don't make this any worse. But in the other ear, you've got the far-right cabinet members saying, you cannot let this stand.

choosing. It's sort of international speak, for, we're going to do something, but we're going to do it later. That's right. And of course, were the hardliners in Netanyahu's cabinet to win out, that, of course, would potentially spark the regional war that we've long been worrying about and have been talking to you for a long time about, Eric.

That's right. And of course, that would have multiple effects. I mean, think about it. Just as there's this huge debate before all this happened over the Israeli operation in Rafah and southern Gaza. now.

I guess the question is, you know, will Israel bring us into one? Or will Iran lose patience and bring us into one from that side?

Yes. In the United States and Iran, they're saying here, is this the line we're willing to walk up to? And the question is whether Israel is willing to set that line or go further.

Eric,

thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for listening.

That's it for The Daily. I'm Sabrina Tavernisi. See you tomorrow.

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