Did Israel Miss a Golden Opportunity?

On Sunday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Israel’s Saturday morning air attack on Iran as successful, while Iranian officials have worked hard to downplay the damage caused. Netanyahu said:

"We promised we would respond to the Iranian attack and on Saturday we struck .
The attack in Iran was precise and powerful, achieving all of its objectives."

Various reports say that Israel did much damage to Iran’s air defence systems, its production facilities for ballistic missiles and other facilities that produce drones.

But some important figures in both Israel and the United States are disappointed that the attack was not larger. For them it represents a missed opportunity to remove the Iranian threat or decapitate ‘the octopus of terror’, as Naftali Bennett describes it.

Now there is much discussion as to whether Israel really missed ’a golden opportunity’ to set the Iranian nuclear programme back significantly or whether the government planned their response correctly.

Here is ILTV’s interview with Benny Sabti, an expert on the situation in Iran. He believes the Israelis have done a lot of damage to the Iranian military, giving them major problems for the future.