The Week: Israel Wages War Against Iran

• That Little Satan sure does pack a big punch.

• Israel’s remarkable early success in its campaign against Iran has clearly won over President Trump, who has now taken to using the term “we” when discussing the operation. This has increased the debate over whether — and to what extent — the U.S. should join the effort. In under a week, Israel has achieved complete air supremacy; it has degraded Iran’s ballistic missile production, its stockpiles of missiles, and its rocket launchers; it has damaged or destroyed its air bases and planes; it has struck Iran’s major oil refineries; and it has taken out dozens of top Iranian military leaders and nuclear scientists. But the nuclear facilities are harder targets, especially Fordow, the deeply fortified nuclear-enrichment facility built into the side of a mountain. If Fordow is not destroyed, or at least rendered inoperable by destruction of the infrastructure necessary to operate it, Iran could move whatever stockpiles of uranium it still has and race to enrich it at the facility — an unacceptable conclusion to the current conflict. If Israel can’t destroy Fordow under its own power, the U.S. should take on the challenge itself. Israel may be on the cusp of ending an Iranian nuclear threat that has bedeviled it and the West for decades. It is imperative to finish the job.

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Iran

• That Little Satan sure does pack a big punch.

• Israel’s remarkable early success in its campaign against Iran has clearly won over President Trump, who has now taken to using the term “we” when discussing the operation. This has increased the debate over whether — and to what extent — the U.S. should join the effort. In under a week, Israel has achieved complete air supremacy; it has degraded Iran’s ballistic missile production, its stockpiles of missiles, and its rocket launchers; it has damaged or destroyed its air bases and planes; it has struck Iran’s major oil refineries; and it has taken out dozens of top Iranian military leaders and nuclear scientists. But the nuclear facilities are harder targets, especially Fordow, the deeply fortified nuclear-enrichment facility built into the side of a mountain. If Fordow is not destroyed, or at least rendered inoperable by destruction of the infrastructure necessary to operate it, Iran could move whatever stockpiles of uranium it still has and race to enrich it at the facility — an unacceptable conclusion to the current conflict. If Israel can’t destroy Fordow under its own power, the U.S. should take on the challenge itself. Israel may be on the cusp of ending an Iranian nuclear threat that has bedeviled it and the West for decades. It is imperative to finish the job.