Photo courtesy of Israel Security Defense Forum (ISDF)
“Iran is the head of the venomous octopus, which stretches its hands all over the globe, in fact, all the way into South America, Central America, and the U.S. soil itself,” former Ambassador Yoram Ettinger.
Since the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel, the FBI has warned that the threat from Iran-backed terrorist cells in the U.S. has increased.
The anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protests across the country are an example of hybrid warfare, with Iran, China, and Russia pushing anti-U.S. rhetoric online and activating sleeper agents inside the U.S.
These agents organize and support the protests, radicalizing American youth to hate their own country and government, and to support Islamic extremism over the freedoms they currently enjoy as U.S. citizens.
Iran is at the center of the terrorist threat to the U.S., backing groups in the Middle East that are attacking U.S. interests and allies, including Israel. Among these groups are Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and others.
Apart from supporting terrorism, Iran is guilty of drug trafficking, money laundering, and nuclear weapons proliferation.
Until now, the U.S. has largely relied on diplomatic solutions to address the terrorist and nuclear threats in the Middle East, while Israel has seemingly adopted a strategy of “enough is enough,” launching military offensives and clandestine missions to eliminate the terrorists.
Over the past seven decades, U.S. cooperation with Israel has been crucial to counterterrorism efforts and policy objectives in the Middle East, as well as in protecting the U.S. homeland from Islamic extremist terrorists.
While the U.S. supports Israel diplomatically and with weapons, as well as various forms of collaboration, the relationship is a two-way street.
Israel provides the U.S. with intelligence and the benefit of its experience in dealing with terrorists—on the battlefield, within their own borders, and beyond.
Additionally, Israel’s intelligence agencies, particularly Mossad, are among the best in the world, offering the U.S. crucial information that would otherwise be unobtainable.
For example, in 2017, Israeli intelligence helped thwart a major ISIS plot to use explosive devices disguised as laptop batteries on passenger planes. This level of cooperation, especially in cyber and human intelligence, has proven invaluable in protecting the U.S. from terrorism.
The most pressing threats to both U.S. and Israeli national security are Iran’s ballistic missile program and its support for terrorist organizations. Israel’s intelligence network has been pivotal in monitoring and countering Iranian military and nuclear ambitions.
Israel’s position on the front lines of the Middle East makes its intelligence and defense collaboration with the U.S. indispensable in addressing Iranian threats to U.S. homeland security. Additionally, Israeli covert operations, such as the targeted assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists, have hampered Iran’s nuclear advancement.
In 2018, Israeli intelligence executed a high-stakes operation to retrieve Iran’s secret nuclear archive, exposing the full extent of Tehran’s nuclear weapons ambitions.
Over the course of six hours, 24 Mossad agents infiltrated a warehouse in Tehran, extracting a massive trove of documents detailing Iran’s covert Project Amad, which aimed to develop nuclear weapons.
The agents cracked safes and removed approximately half a ton of files, including handwritten notes, blueprints, and digital records, providing undeniable evidence that Iran had been lying about the scope of its nuclear activities.
In April 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly unveiled the findings, revealing that Iran had misled the world about its nuclear program, even after the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA).
This disclosure influenced then-President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the JCPOA just a month later. The operation was a turning point, increasing international scrutiny of Iran and solidifying Israel’s role in countering nuclear threats in the region.
Iran’s backing of Islamic extremist terrorist groups is another area where Israel’s experience is vital to U.S. homeland security. Israel has been combating Islamic extremist terrorists both within and outside its borders since its establishment.
The intelligence and experience Israel shares with the U.S. are essential not only for U.S. homeland security but also for the Department of Defense and the broader intelligence community.
Israel uses American combat aircraft—F-15, F-16, and F-35—in its war against Hamas terrorists, Hezbollah terrorists, and Iranian installations in Syria, extending operations as far as Iran and Yemen.
In addition to eliminating terrorists and hindering the creation of an extremist caliphate across the region, Israeli Air Force officers regularly share critical insights with CENTCOM (American Central Command in the Persian Gulf) and the aircraft manufacturers.
These lessons are integrated as upgrades in the next generations of the F-15, F-16, and F-35. U.S. observers gain real-time lessons from watching Israeli operations, similar to the lessons learned from the war in Ukraine. This information is used to inform U.S. military training, strategy, and weapon and equipment modifications.
It is curious that while the U.S. utilizes Israeli experience in counterterrorism and battlefield operations to adjust its own strategy, it has not adopted Israel’s approach to dealing with terrorist groups and Iran.
Despite the success of Israel’s proactive methods, the U.S. continues to rely on diplomacy rather than shifting to a more assertive stance in addressing the threats posed by Iran and its terrorist proxies.
The U.S. State Department has been attempting to negotiate with Iran for decades, yet these efforts have done little to curb Iran’s ambitions or alter the behavior of the Ayatollahs who continue to threaten the U.S.
Iran has supported attacks on American installations in the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, Syria, and Jordan, while the U.S. response has largely remained diplomatic rather than full-scale military.
Efforts to change the regime in Iran have all failed. Perhaps it’s time for the U.S. to take a cue from Israel in how to effectively deal with Iran.
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