In attacking numerous military targets in Iran on June 13, 2025 as part of its Operation Rising Lion, Israel made good on a 1981 policy announced by then Prime Minister Menachem Begin:

‘We shall defend our people with all the means at our disposal. We will not allow any enemy to obtain weapons of mass destruction that can be turned against us.’

While we hear international criticism of Israel for the attack, long forgotten is that Tehran’s mullahs actually recognized this same need a year before the Israelis announced their doctrine.

By 1976, Saddam Hussein had become the de facto leader of Iraq, officially becoming president in 1979. Both Iran and Iraq had majority Shiite populations—but the regimes were not friendly as Hussein was Sunni.

Iraq purchased a nuclear reactor in 1976, known as the Osirak reactor, after entering into a nuclear cooperation agreement with France. Situated just eleven miles southeast of Baghdad, the reactor was supposedly for research only. However, it raised concerns about Iraq eventually developing nuclear weapons—a source of concern for both Iran and Israel.

Iran attempted to eliminate that threat in September 1980—eight days after Hussein invaded the country. Its air attack against Osirak, unfortunately for the mullahs, only caused minimal damage and was easily repaired with French assistance.

No international criticism of Iran’s attempt to hit the Osirak reactor followed, undoubtedly because a state of war existed between the two countries. A year later, however, in 1981, Israel conducted its own attack against Osirak, destroying the facility and leading to the declaration of the Begin Doctrine. Hussein never attempted to rebuild it.

Israel’s attack against the Osirak reactor received widespread international criticism, including the UN Security Council and General Assembly with the media providing negative coverage as well. Even conservative diehards like England’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and U.S. President Ronald Reagan were critical.

However, nine years later, every member of the U.S.-headed 35-nation coalition that went to war with Hussein during the Persian Gulf War was thankful Israel had removed Iraq’s nuclear capability. We were grateful then and should be grateful now.

In 2007, Iran was quietly financing the building of a nuclear reactor in Syria. Israel—recognizing this as an effort by Tehran to build a reactor by proxy—again launched a surprise attack, destroying it. Criticism of Israel again followed, although not on the level raised after Osirak’s destruction. Again, like Osirak, no effort was ever made to rebuild. Israel’s enemies were learning the lesson the hard way that the Begin Doctrine was here to stay.

No one can claim Israel did not endeavor to destroy Iran’s nuclear program with a “peaceful weapon.” In 2010, the centrifuges that Tehran was using to enrich uranium gas at its Natanz facility were failing at an unprecedented rate. Only later was it learned Israel had created the world’s first digital weapon by developing a malware, known as Stuxnet, to disrupt the program. Iran was close enough to its nuclear goal back then that its then president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was actually prepping for the reappearance of the Twelfth Iman (the Shiite messiah) and the “cataclysmic events” which would lead to Islam’s eventual global rule.

Unsurprisingly, Israel’s current campaign to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities has again triggered international criticism. Just like Iraq started a war with Iran in 1980, Iran has been at war with Israel ever since the mullahs came to power in 1979. Tehran clearly has been conducting a proxy war against Israel using terrorist groups like Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis while its foreign policy doctrine refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist, calling for its destruction. Thus, an ongoing state of war—at Iran’s sole initiation—has existed for decades.

As Operation Rising Lion continues, the Israelis have demonstrated what extensive detailed planning can accomplish. In an attack that quickly negated Iran’s air defense capability and allowed Israel to establish air superiority within 48 hours, it has severely damaged Tehran’s nuclear assets and major military sites. It has destroyed one-third of all Iran’s missile launchers. Additionally, in an effort comparable to cutting off the head of a snake before it can strike, Israel took out several key high-ranking military and government officials.

Ukraine succeeded in its recent devastating attack against Russia by pre-positioning drones on Russian soil. Israel succeeded in doing the same thing in Iran, giving it the ability to knock out its air defenses at close range. In typical fashion, while Israel focuses strictly on targeting Iranian military targets, Iran, in its counter-attacks, focuses on Israeli population centers. Israel warns Khamenei he could meet the same fate Iraq’s Saddam Hussein did for committing such war crimes.

Key to destroying Iran’s nuclear program is the Fordow enrichment facility, housing centrifuges and located a half mile underground, built with reinforced concrete. Unfortunately, it still remains intact. While the US has 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs which could do the job, Israel says it has contingency plans so as not to require U.S. assistance.

In a clear indication that Iran is being pummeled, it has reached out to President Donald Trump to force Israel into a ceasefire. However, it is not a ceasefire Trump wants but “a real end” to Iran’s war against Israel. Realistically, that is only possible with a new regime. But should a ceasefire be negotiated, it should be contingent upon Iran ordering Hamas to release all remaining Israeli hostages it kidnapped during its October 7, 2023 raid into Israel as well as the bodies of those it still holds.

A June 16 post on social media by the White House surprisingly suggests the U.S. may be considering more involvement in the conflict. It read, “we now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran” and called for Iran’s “unconditional surrender.” It also threatened Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, stating we know “exactly where” you are and that you are an “easy target,” ending with “at least for now” he would be spared. By “we,” does Trump mean Israel, or us? Meanwhile, U.S. military assets are heading to the Middle East.

Any U.S. direct involvement undoubtedly would trigger the usual international criticism. However, such criticism fails to grasp the fact that, failing to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons now, will leave a sword of Damocles hanging not only over Israel but the rest of the world as well. We cannot forget that what prevented a nuclear exchange during the Cold War would not deter a nuclear-armed Iran.

It was the concept of Mutual Assured Destruction—i.e., a surprise nuclear strike by one side would trigger an equally devastating retaliatory strike by the other—that kept nuclear swords sheathed on both sides during the Cold War. However, the late Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini has disabused the world of that concern, having declared this: “I say let this land (Iran) go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world.”

Image: Free image, Pixabay license.

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