Iran-Israel war: The best analysis

Why Israel finally attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities (David Horoviz, Times of Israel)

The IDF, in an official statement issued soon after Israel began attacking Iran’s nuclear program, described the resort to force as a “pre-emptive strike.”

Why pre-emptive? Because in the assessment of Israel’s security chiefs, Iran’s nuclear weapons program had advanced to the point of existential threat, from a regime avowedly seeking to bring about Israel’s destruction. After years of vows to take military action, the IDF’s Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, in a statement to the nation, declared that the situation had “reached the point of no return.’

The UN’s nuclear watchdog has highlighted Iran’s accelerated uranium enrichment program. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a prerecorded video address issued when the Israeli attack was under way, specified that the regime now has enough enriched uranium for nine nuclear weapons…

The aim of the Israeli strikes is to deeply damage Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities — including key facilities and key commanders — and thus avert that perceived existential threat. The assessment in the security establishment is that this was the right and necessary moment to strike — before Iran has rebuilt defenses destroyed in Israel’s far less dramatic attack last October, and at a time when intel on the Iranian program is regarded as particularly strong.

Can Israel destroy Iran’s nuclear program? (Richard Nephew, Foreign Affairs)