Despite continued efforts by Tel Aviv and its supporters in Washington to push the United States to join Israel in launching direct attacks on Iran, political sources said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and military commanders decided to continue Israel’s military operations and in full force, even without the US direct involvement.
The Maariv newspaper said Friday that the US is aware of the Israeli position and has approved it.
It said US Vice President JD Vance held a virtual meeting with Netanyahu, in the presence military commanders on both sides, and discussed details of developments in the Israel-Iran war.
“All participants agreed there is an unprecedented, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attack Iran, and therefore, must not be missed,” the newspaper quoted Israeli officials as saying.
The officials are aware that Iran is currently vulnerable and will have a hard time defending itself and responding on multiple fronts in a way that affects Israel, it said.
Experts agree that it would be almost impossible for Israel to destroy alone Iran’s nuclear program. They state that the destruction of Iran's most heavily fortified nuclear site, Fordow, which was built deep inside a mountain to protect it from an attack, would require a Massive Ordnance Penetrator, that only the US military possesses. The GBU-57, a 30,000-pound earth-penetrating bomb, can only be delivered by the US B-2 bomber.
According to Maariv, even if Israel does not obtain the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, it still has enough weapons to strike hard Iran’s nuclear program, including the Fordow facility.
When the newspaper insisted on learning how Israel would carry such strikes, a senior source in Tel Aviv said, “Israel’s firepower is hellish.”
Meanwhile, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said on Friday that the Israeli military operations in Iran could last more than two weeks if the US decides not to join.
However, it said the strikes on Iran will achieve historic results, reducing and destroying the foundations of the nuclear project.
Yedioth Ahronoth said some 20 officers from the country’s Military Intelligence (Aman), have been working since the end of 2022, on a target bank of sites to strike Iran’s nuclear program.
The group of officers was dubbed the “Head Cutting Forum” because it planned to assassinate a list of top Iranian scientists who work at the nuclear program.
According to Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel mainly focused on assassinating nuclear scientists working under the leadership of top Iranian nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was killed by Israel in November 2020.
“Israel began assassinating a number of these scientists, early last decade, through secret units recruited in Iran and trained to become clandestine agents,” the newspaper wrote.
