Yonah Jeremy Bob
Jerusalem Post, Apr. 23, 2025
“In order to be ready for a potentially broad military campaign with Iran, which could involve multiple rounds of exchanges of many hundreds of ballistic missiles more than before, top Israeli officials wanted to remove other threats from the board.”
On April 13-14, 2024, Iran changed the Middle East forever, ending a decades-long covert shadow war with Israel by openly and directly attacking Israel with 180 ballistic missiles, 170 drones, and dozens of cruise missiles.
Israel responded on April 19, 2024, by attacking one S-300 anti-aircraft defence system, which was protecting the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facility in Isfahan.
The Jewish state never seriously considered attacking Iran’s nuclear sites in April 2024 like it did in October 2024, but that first direct round between the sides set the stage for the more dramatic follow-up.
Although that end result is well-known, The Jerusalem Post now reveals for the first time the full extent of the debates between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then defense minister Yoav Gallant, and then IDF chief Herzi Halevi, then war cabinet ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, and Mossad Director David Barnea.
Similar but evolved debates came into play in October 2024 after Tehran attacked Israel directly a second time, this time with over 200 ballistic missiles on October 1, 2024.
This time a similar cast of characters debated the issues, but Gantz and Eisenkot were already out of the picture having exited the government on June 9, 2024.
And then there was a third round of the least reported debates after October 26, 2024, but before Donald Trump entered office, replacing Joe Biden as US president.
Here, Gallant was also mostly out of the picture, given that he was fired by Netanyahu on November 5, 2024, leaving Netanyahu along with defense chiefs Halevi, Barnea, and some of their top advisers….SOURCE