After Missile Attack on Israel, Khamenei Is a Dead Man Walking

Biden, Harris face choice as Netanyahu targets Islamic Republic of Iran for toppling

The late, great, scholar of the Middle East Bernard Lewis often warned that for the Iranian regime, mutual assured destruction was not a deterrent but an inducement.

The wisdom of that insight was on full display today as the Islamic Republic launched a missile attack and terrorist attack on Israel. It will almost certainly send Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to his death, in a pattern similar to what befell other Iranian and Iranian-backed terrorist leaders such as Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah and Imad Mughniyeh, Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh and Ahmed Yassin, and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani.

With Israeli strength, luck, God’s help, and any semblance of sanity from Washington, the Iranian Islamic Republic will perish along with Khamenei.

What Iran did today is like what Hamas did on October 7, 2023, or what Al Qaeda did to the U.S. on September 11, 2001. After September 11, there was no peaceful resolution or settlement scenario possible that included Al Qaeda or Osama Bin Laden surviving the war. After October 7, there was no peaceful resolution or settlement scenario possible that included Hamas surviving the war. After today, even though there appear to have been fewer casualties thanks to impressive missile defense (including by the U.S. Navy) and civil defense measures, Israel cannot stop short of total victory against Iran and all of its proxies. Anything less is the end of the Zionist dream of a Jewish people secure in their own land.

President Biden and Vice President Harris are now on the spot.