Israel needs a new Iran policy. Here it is.
Israel, with the aid of its regional allies, must start taking a way more aggressive posture against the Iranian regime — on Iranian soil — to create a safer, more stable, less war-torn Middle East.
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The “Five Why’s” is a famous problem-solving and decision-making mechanism originally developed by Sakichi Toyoda, a Japanese industrialist, inventor, and the founder of Toyota Industries.
This method became a foundational part of the Toyota Production System, which later influenced the broader “Lean” manufacturing movement.
Toyoda believed that by asking “Why?” five times — or as many times until you arrive at the actual root cause of a problem — it would be more advantageous to identify this root cause and address it effectively.
The “Five Why’s” starts with a clear statement of the issue or decision at hand, for example: Some 80,000 Israelis have been displaced from their homes in northern Israel, far away from the Gaza Strip, since October 7th.
From here, we need to ask “why” five times, each time in response to the most recent answer, to figure out the root cause of this problem and then address it effectively.
So, why have some 80,000 Israelis been displaced from their homes in northern Israel, far away from the Gaza Strip, since October 7th?
Answer: Because Hezbollah has been attacking northern Israel on a daily basis since October 8th, or 24 hours after the Hamas-led massacres, pogroms, and kidnappings.
Why has Hezbollah been attacking northern Israel on a daily basis since October 8th?
Answer: To take some of Israel’s military and security focus away from Gaza.
Why does Hezbollah want to take some of Israel’s military and security focus away from Gaza?
Answer: To make it more challenging for the Israelis to defeat Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Strip.
Why does Hezbollah want to make it more challenging for the Israelis to defeat Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Strip?
Answer: Because Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s chief sponsor, the Islamic Republic of Iran, does not want to lose two of its proxies — Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad — in its forever-war against the Jewish state.
Why does Iran not want to lose two of its proxies in its forever-war against the Jewish state?
Answer: Because the Iranian regime — unlike most of its people — wants to build a Caliphate across the Middle East as part of its imperialist, hegemonic, Islam-inspired masterplan that involves ridding all non-Muslims from the region by death, exile, or conversion.
In other words, Hezbollah is not the root cause of this problem, that some 80,000 Israelis have been displaced from their homes in northern Israel, far away from the Gaza Strip, since October 7th.
The Iranian regime is the root cause of this problem.
Yet, for the last several years, Israel has been engaged in what feels like a tit-for-tat children’s game every time Hezbollah attacks Israel. Hence, the attacks keep mounting while Iran, which is ultimately behind and approves of these attacks, sits pretty, almost completely absolved from any direct military conflicts and the consequences that come with them.
For this Iranian regime, the situation is nearly perfect: These proxies attack Israel (a win for Iran) and Israel attacks these proxies back (which mostly does not affect anyone or anything on Iranian soil).
Plus, God knows these Jihadists do not give a single damn about whatever collateral damage emanates from any of these tit-for-tat attacks. In fact, the more damage, the better, according to the disgusting, inhumane arithmetic of these Islamists. When Israel and Israelis are attacked, the Jewish state feels less safe, which is one strategy the Iranians employ to get more Israelis to leave the region and relocate elsewhere.
And when Israel attacks these proxies in response to being attacked, the Iranian propaganda machine disseminates (oftentimes fake) images of the “big, bad Zionist wolf” harming “innocent” civilians and civilian infrastructure (which these Jihadists purposely hide behind).
Acting through proxies is also a method of eluding responsibility and shielding Iran from international sanctions, and surely a more efficient way to expand Iranian imperialism. After all, it makes far less sense to build bases in other countries and then ship your troops to babysit them, when you could piggyback on local groups who already have plenty of manpower and even political influence in the places they operate, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian Territories.
That is why I say it is well past time for Israel to change or update its Iran policy, fast, to this: Whenever Israel is attacked by any one of Iran’s proxies, Israel responds by attacking within Iranian soil according to the same calculus that the Israelis have long pursued: exacting far more harm than Israel endures. Or as I like to call it: You try to take out one of Israel’s eyes, Israel comes for your entire head.
Surely, Israel has the capacity and intelligence to do significant damage to Iran in a very short period of time, and it has (quietly) willing partners in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain — all of which multiple times have allowed Israel to use their airspace and other military means.
In addition to going after Iran’s precious military targets, no less its nuclear infrastructure, which are all fair game, Israel could wipe out as much as 30 percent of the Iranian oil fields. This would instantly cripple Iran’s already-dismal economy. Suddenly, much of the funding that goes to these dirtbag proxies would dry up like a lonely grape in the summertime Negev Desert, making them far less effective.
A common rebuttal to this admittedly aggressive Israeli doctrine is that it would ignite a regional war, since Iran would instantly have its proxies rain down missiles and rockets on Israel, as well as on any other Middle Eastern countries that collaborate with it. Such a war would likely have instantaneous effects on oil and gas prices, which in turn would affect nearly every industry across the world.
That may be true, but let’s recall that in 1981, Israel conducted airstrikes against an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor named Osiraq, located 17 kilometers (11 miles) southeast of Baghdad, in what is known as Operation Opera — and that did not lead to a war.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton even expressed support for Israel’s attack, saying:
“Everybody talks about what the Israelis did at Osiraq, in 1981, which, I think, in retrospect, was a really good thing. You know, it kept Saddam from developing nuclear power.”
Let’s also be clear about something: Israel taking a more aggressive posture against Iran would certainly be risky and inflammatory, but allowing Iran use its proxies to continue fighting genocidal wars against the Jewish state without being harmed is just as risky and inflammatory, if not more.
And Israel’s current policy — we return fire to whomever fires at us, even if they are being told by someone else to fire at us — does not seem to be working so well. What’s that saying? Doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results? What’s that called? Insanity?
When the Jews returned to their indigenous homeland en masse beginning in the 1800s and continuing more heavily in the 1900s, leading to the Jewish state’s declaration of independence in 1948, most everyone knew that this neck of the woods was not exactly one that you would want to get lost in, especially as a Jew.
Well before 1948, as early as the 1930s and possibly prior, the Jews were preparing for war because they knew that as soon as they staked their statehood claim — while simultaneously being very open to two states for two peoples in this land — the neighbors would not welcome them with open arms, a bottle of Merlot, and homemade cookies.
This was obviously a critical part of the Jewish calculation, and it showed that Jews are willing to fight and die for freedom, dignity, and the ability to call our own shots. Every generation of Israelis since then has lived with tremendous cognitive dissonance: praying that there will be no more wars to send their children to fight in, while knowing deep down that this is the unfortunate-but-necessary price of modern-day Jewish self-determination.
Whereas many people in the West are inherently “anti-war” because it sounds cool and makes for a feel-good bumper sticker, Israelis are not warmongers, but they are also not going to back down from a fight that some Jew-haters start.
The chief Jew-hater in the region, these days, is this despicable Iranian regime — yet Iran is immune from most of the fights that it effectively picks. Now is the time, especially after October 7th, for Israel to recalibrate its Middle East doctrine accordingly.
Wise words! Take the stand, go for it!
If I may be so bold, perhaps it's time for a history lesson. Not just an American history lesson; but, a world history lesson. I am old enough (that is scary in and of itself) to remember what has been called the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. If you are unfamiliar with the event, please feel free to Google the background. To summarize, the Soviet Union (Russia at that time) thought that it was a good idea to place offensive nuclear missiles in Cuba, 90 miles from the tip of Florida, to intimidate the U.S. into withdrawing their nuclear missiles from Europe. The Kennedy Administration, at a time when America displayed some backbone, stated that these missiles in Cuba were unacceptable. They furthermore stated that an attack from Cuba on the U.S., or any other nation in the Western hemisphere, would be interpreted as a direct attack on the U.S. by the Soviet Union and there would be retaliation not only on Cuba, but on the Soviet Union itself. For a week in October of 1962, the world came close to all out nuclear war. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and the missiles were removed. Unfortunately in the case of Iran, there are no cooler heads. If they develop a nuclear weapon, the same calculus that worked with the Soviet Union will not work here. Iran does not yet have a nuclear weapon (I hope), their proxies continue to attack, they themselves have attacked Israel, now is the time.