The story of the Middle East in the last year might be summed up by the word “poof.” That is, after a decade in which Iran’s expanding power and influence seemed irreversible, they were in fact reversed by Israel — with last-minute help from American B-2 bombers. What’s left is a much weakened Hezbollah (Iran’s key proxy), Syria free of Assad (a Russian and Iranian ally), and an Iran without air defenses or an advanced nuclear-weapons program.
This change was the product of three attacks: Hamas’s barbaric invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, and Iran’s direct missile and drone attacks in April and October 2024. The Hamas attack caught Israel by surprise because its security elite thought there was a modus vivendi with the terror group: as long as it could rule Gaza, with Qatari money flowing in, Hamas was satisfied. It was viewed almost as a status quo power, bought off and no longer serious about its murderous ideology. October 7 taught the Israelis to stop psychoanalyzing their enemies, to look at those enemies’ capabilities, and to assume that whatever capabilities exist will eventually be used to kill Jews.
Comments