“Deterrence was no longer enough to contain the threat”

“The reasons for the American and Israeli military action against Iran are at the center of the debates of European observers. The questions are legitimate. Democracies do not choose the war option lightly and Israel is no exception.” Jonathan Peled, Israel’s ambassador to Italy, chose the newspaper ‘La Ragione’ to explain Israel’s reasons for military intervention in Iran. “Deterrence alone was no longer enough to contain the Iranian threat to Israel. This is for at least two fundamental reasons. The first is the nature of the Iranian regime and its nuclear and missile capabilities. As denounced by the IAEA itself, the Iranian nuclear program is a de facto reality, not a declaration of intent: once the critical enrichment thresholds have been exceeded, the atomic weapon constitutes a concrete scenario. At stake, for Israel, there is not an abstract danger. There is the threat to its own existence – it observation – At the same time, Tehran continues to develop its enormous missile arsenal which, increasingly advanced, has long been capable of inflicting blows far beyond the Middle East. Iran’s desire to strike Western civilization is unmistakable.

Finally, he continues, “the Iranian regime has for years been a central player in the financing and promotion of international terrorism”. “Through militias and proxies, Iran has destabilized entire regions of the world, fueling conflicts and repressing democratic aspirations. A-bomb, missiles and terror: this combination constitutes a systemic threat,” he adds.

“The second reason concerns the aims of the military operation – he continues – It is not a ‘regime change’ in the traditional sense, imposed from outside or imposed from above: Israel does not intend to decide the political future of Iran. The exact objectives of the operation in Iran are fear, violence and repression, the mechanisms through which the regime has maintained control. The strategists have been neutralised, including Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, Ali Larijani, key figure in the architecture of power, and the commander of the Basij militia, Gholamreza Soleimani, head of the paramilitary apparatus for the repression of popular protests. The surgical elimination of the repressive heart of the regime, its eleven thousand command structures, the coercive apparatus and the suffocation of dissent, wants to create the conditions so that the courageous Iranian civil society, which continues to find death in the streets in demanding freedom and dignity, has the concrete possibility of taking its destiny into its own hands, free from the yoke of terror and torture. and arbitrary arrests. The conditions for Iran to one day finally return to being a different country: stable, peaceful and respectful of the freedom and rights of its people.”