Posted on 04/15/2024 9:14:54 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Some 300 missiles and drones were dispatched by Iran towards Israel Saturday night, the largest such assault in history. The IDF say 99 percent of them were shot down by the air forces of Israel, the US, the UK and Jordan. So rather than weaken Israel, Iran’s attack has ended up convening showcasing an extraordinary military alliance — with Arabs, Israelis, Americans and British acting as one to neutralize the assault.
Not a single one of the 200 drones or cruise missiles made it into Israel. Only some faster-moving ballistic missiles hit their target and even they inflicted only light damage to the Nevatim air base. The only reported casualty from Saturday night’s unprecedented barrage is a seven-year-old girl from the Bedoin diaspora, who was hurt when shrapnel from the interception of a missile landed on her house in the Negev desert.
“More than thirty cruise missiles were fired,” said an IDF spokesman. “Zero penetrated the territory of Israel. More than 120 ballistic missiles were launched, a number penetrated and fell at the air force base in Nevatim, causing only minor damage. Iran thought that it would be able to paralyze the base and thereby damage the air capabilities, but failed.”
Iran has told the United Nations that no more attacks will be forthcoming and Israel has already delivered its response by hitting a Hezbollah base in Lebanon later on Saturday. British involvement (from the RAF base in Akrotiri) was not technically necessary but all countries wanted to make a show of a joint force — and one that includes the Saudis as well as the Americans. Even France contributed, by patrolling airspace.
Saturday exposed not just the strength of Israel’s alliance but Iran’s isolation, with worldwide condemnation. Egypt expressed “deep concern” and called for “maximum restraint.” China said it was “deeply concerned about the current escalation.” Qatar called on “all parties to stop.” Jordan said it helped fend off the Iranian attack for its own security as it does not want escalation — indeed, some of the shrapnel from the night’s intercepts fell on Jordanian soil. Jordan also condemned Israel’s campaign in Gaza. Only Hamas congratulated the mullahs on their attack: even Moscow, a major client of Iranian drones, had no words of support.
Given that the drones would have taken nine hours to reach Israel, it’s likely Tehran would have known its attack would flop. But if it was performative then there was political performance as well, with the Iranian parliament convening to chant “death to Israel” (video here ). The fact that none of the drones or cruise missiles hit their targets does not seem to have dampened the mood. Hossein Salami, head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, said Saturday night marked a new strategy where it will respond to “any aggression directly from Iranian territory” — so the triumph, in other words, is not that the attack caused damage but that it happened at all.
Given that the world has waited for almost two weeks to see how Iran would retaliate for the April 1 attack on its embassy by Israel (itself a response for Iran’s role in the October 7 attacks) this is far from the worst result. If anything, Israel has emerged looking stronger, both militarily and diplomatically. The UN Security Council meets later today, most likely to condemn Iran. But those words will matter a lot less than the fact that on Saturday night the world saw Arab pilots down drones heading to Israel. And Iran, which funds Hamas and Hezbollah, stood exposed as a pariah. Perhaps that is why in Tehran, Tel Aviv and Washington we hear the same message today: there will be no more. For now, at least.
Failed? It was a spectacular success. They spent $$ Pedo Joe gave them. Made Israel, the US and a few others waste more $$ shooting down or pretending to shoot down something all so the can rail on about their tremendous attack on the Jewish enemy. Good PR for the Mullahs especially when the Great Satan foots the bill.
What it tells us is that we’re betting on the right guy but then it’s like boxing where you never bet on the white guy.
In a regular criminal case, the intent to inflict harm is a felony and punishable by prison time.
The intent by Iran was to kill and injure thousands, with that much intent with missiles and drones.
That is wasn’t successful does not mean that Iran should not be punished. No punishment means that Iran will try again. Iran and their proxies have been trying to destroy Israel for many decades. They will not stop, even if they know that Israel has pretty good defense weapons, and allies that can come to their defense. A criminal will be emboldened by a failure to be punished.
The only casualty being an Arab.
Pretty typical for Persians. They consider Arabs cannon fodder. That’s actually why the “Palestinians” exist as a “people”.
I don’t think this was anything like the “failed attack” many are calling it.
Iran forced Israel to blow 1-2 BILLION dollars defending itself, money the country will be hard-pressed to recoup.
Iran gained ALL kinds of intel on mobilization, troop counts, gaps in defenses.
SIGINT data was also gathered from defense modalities used whether radio, radar via intercepts on the ground and likely on many of the drones relaying this data back to Iranian military intelligence.
The nexxt attack will be smaller, more focused, and most likely VERY effective.
Also, anyone reporting on background radiation counts increasing in the area of the downed drones? Just curious.
I was told over in Iraq, by our interpreter, that the locals believe that "The Americans have the watches, we have the time".
I think there may be some credibility to the idea that Iran knew they would do no damage, but were able to imply “solidarity” with the Gazans without bringing the wrath of Israel on them. Now they can walk away from Gaza with the excuse that they “tried”.
I’m not saying I believe that - or that I don’t. I’m just saying that something along those lines is actually happening here.
Tells me, like pre-ww2....everybody wants to test and strut their military technology and nobody wants to speak the truth nor be trustworthy with verification.
The world is full of schumers and bidens...gutless lying evil cowards. So we ruin everything. Abortion and gayness for the win.
And nothing will come of it but death and sorrow. A burden we permitted upon ourselves. Self-punishment. Sin does that. We must stop sinning on the individual level, those who are disgusted with all of this.
You are 100% right on!
Those who favor Palestine over Israel are not happy because of Iran’s failure to inflict more damage to Israel. This result will lead to more aid (military weapons and money) to Israel because this proves aid can protect Israel. More aid to Israel hurts Biden among those Democrats who hate Israel.
Second because Drones communicate to their controllers, information was gathered by Iran and its allies until the moment the drones were destroyed. This kind of data could be quite useful to the groups who can use this data, which includes signals of missiles used to kill the drones. Iran could also hand this information to Russia and China in exchange for oil and other goods. I’m sure Russia and China are busy studying this intelligence.
Think you’re on to something. Iran has a huge number of drones, shown by their supplying Putin. 100+ is miniscule, and yet they forced Israel to expend vital and costly munitions to defend the nation. How long can Israel, even with all the allied and Arab assistance keep these drones from Tel Aviv or Haifa and many civilian casualties.?
Someone I heard yesterday interpreted this as a successful plan to have a limited attack from Iran which will show up all the strengths and weaknesses of the defense systems as well as the locations of Israeli military defense coordination points. Today’s version of exposing the flak sites in earlier wars. Iran and others used up Israeli weapons and learned a lot to instruct other enemies of Israel.
And one Israeli airfield is out of commission now.
Keep up the good work.
You’re an excellent contributor to the site.
The Iranian Rial was absolutely obliterated immediately preceding the attack.
Yet, I read three dozen posts last night that the attack was all kabuki theater-despite my posting that the currency got smoked. Despite reaching grand delusion stage not one bothered to even proffer up any rationale for the stampede out of the Rial.
“””” one Israeli airfield is out of commission now””””
Which one is out of commission?
It was the Nevatim Air Base but now Israel has said the earlier reports of worse damage were not true. My mistake was believing anything in any media about this attack.
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-797064
I understand your post now, I didn’t know that there were early reports that it was out of commission.
I think it’s the SIGINT analysis that will prove most useful here; if Iran can figure out how to jam or otherwise avoid detection by Iron Dome or David’s Sling, Israel will have little choice but to exercise the “Samson option.”
Nevatim is huge. Might take a nuke to knock it offline.
A bunch of F-35s, tankers and transports stationed there. Also the new Oron intelligence gathering planes. State of the art, including AI.
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