Why Iran's Retaliatory Attack On Israel Was Justified

Written b Robert Inlakesh

Following Iran's retaliatory attack against Israel on Monday, the governments of the collective West and their corporate media wings have piled on with condemnation and countless unsubstantiated allegations against Tehran. Examining the evidence reveals that Iran's strikes achieved successes, were justified, and that there was no indication that civilians were an intended target, or even hit.

If we are to believe the Western/Israeli narrative, then the "Iranian terrorist regime", as the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calls it, "launched over 200 ballistic missiles at civilian targets in Israel" according to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Then, in the words of US Vice President, Kamala Harris, "initial indications are that Israel, with our assistance, was able to defeat this attack", explaining that "successful cooperation saved many innocent lives". The Israeli military said that "approximately 10 million civilians are the targets of Iranian projectiles". But rest assured that according to Israeli army spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, there were only "a small number of hits in the centre of Israeli and other hits in the southern Israel [sic]" and "the majority of the incoming missiles were intercepted".

"Millions of people could've died yesterday...but we defended our country", said the Israeli military. The corporate media asked "what would you do if missiles were fired at your country" with no sense of their own hypocrisy as they ignore how this has been the Palestinian reality for decades, as well as Syria, Lebanon, etc. Western leaders repeated the same illegitimate claim that "Israel has the right to defend itself" (which is not the case as an occupying force) and "we stand with Israel" despite its actions being objectively illegal.

To sum things up, Israel would have you believe that it was about to suffer a second Holocaust, had it not valiantly defended its people from the Iranian terror death attack (that they were of course publicly forewarned about) demonstrating perhaps the greatest military defense in human history! 

What Really Happened

Now that we've outlined the fairytale story where the victim is also the hero once again, we can critically analyze the evidence and context that the corporate media and pro-Israeli government officials will not tell you.

First of all, there are several videos from all different angles showing dozens of ballistic missiles making direct impacts, while a handful of those missiles fell in random areas and caused some damage to civilian infrastructure such as roads and buildings, there were no Israeli civilian deaths or even direct injuries recorded. The video evidence appears to show volleys of dozens of missiles directly impacting the Nevatim and Netzarim military air bases, which house squadrons of F-35 and F-15 fighter jets, in addition to the Tel Nof air base.

Although the video evidence is a more objective source of information, the Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) also noted that its targets were the three military bases noted above and that this attack was a response to Israel's illegal assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Hanniyeh in Tehran, in addition to murder of Hezbollah's Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian Brigadier General Abbas Nilforushan in Beirut. While Iran's IRGC claims the retaliatory attack (dubbed Operation True Promise 2) to be 90% successful, there is no way to verify such a claim, which could have been stated in order to poke fun at the Israeli/US claims to have shot down 99% of Iran's retaliatory attack in April, before lowering their claim to 90%.

Putting aside claims of percentages, video evidence provides us with proof of dozens of missiles falling in concentrated bunches on military sites, there is even some video evidence of a destroyed structure in one of the bases. Errant missiles also fell in open areas, but did so alone and not as part of a concentrated group of missiles that would indicate a target, they also fell close to Israeli military targets, which again indicate that there was no intention to specifically target civilian areas; which clearly would have been more simple given how many missiles managed to impact the more heavily guarded Israeli air bases.

All of this being said, the claim that Iran targeted civilians is without any merit. Iran argued to the United Nations that based upon Article 51 of its Charter, it had taken retaliatory action in self defense and against military sites, not targeting civilians. So there is no evidence of intent to harm civilians. Iran's President, Masoud Pezeshkian, for instance stated that,

“in accordance with the legitimate rights and with the goal of ensuring peace and security for Iran and the region, a decisive response was delivered to the Zionist regime’s aggression”.

Then, as of course the words of State officials should never be relied upon as a soul source of evidence, there was not even a single Israeli civilian killed, the only civilian killed was a Palestinian man in the West Bank city of Ariha (Jericho) who was struck by shrapnel after an Israeli interceptor missile took down one of Iran's missiles. To assert that civilians were targeted is completely without merit.

As for the success of Iran's ballistic missile attack, Iran claims that it inflicted roughly 2 billion dollars worth of damage and that the strikes achieved their goals of hitting key assets at Israeli air bases. There are also a number of claims floating around in the Iranian and Arabic media alleging that Nevatim air base was completely destroyed and that roughly half of Israel's F-35 fighter jets were wiped out, these allegations are yet to be substantiated. It is also unlikely that we will know the true extent of the damage without whistleblowers, as Israel imposes a military censor on its own media's reporting on such issues, even redacting articles written about Palestinian prisoners, let alone the largest ballistic missile attack in its history. Therefore, it is a useless endeavor to try and pursue truth from an Israeli government/military that lies about almost every single event it publishes information on.

Instead, what we can assess is the fact that this attack dealt an absolutely devastating blow to the credibility of Israel's famed air defense systems, like Arrow 1/2 and David's Sling, as the whole world just witnessed dozens of ballistic missiles directly impacting sensitive military areas. This time there were no success rate percentages published to try and back up the Israeli/US assertions that they somehow foiled the Iranian attack, instead Israeli spokespeople speak in generalities.

What the strike also achieved was victory in the ongoing information war between both sides, as it managed to change the tide and put Iran's Axis of Resistance on the front foot again. It was an operation that has now shifted the strategic initiative and built momentum for Lebanese Hezbollah as it works to combat an Israeli invasion of its country. The whole region erupted with celebrations, including across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where Palestinians in refugee camps jumped with joy at the sight of Iranian missiles falling on their targets. In southern Beirut, where hundreds of civilians have been massacred and dozens of residential buildings pulverized by Israel's relentless carpet bombing of the area, civilians shot fireworks into the sky and danced in the streets.

After the slaughter of at least 42,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the thousands killed in Lebanon, combined with hundreds killed in both Syria and Yemen, the Iranian missile attack provided a moment of relief. Finally, the bombs had stopped falling and they felt as if the Israelis were being held accountable of their actions. The psychological warfare effect of Iran's Operation True Promise 2 cannot be ignored.

Context And Where This Is Going

Even if we were to pretend that this started on October 7, 2023, which would mean ignoring decades of Israeli extrajudicial killings of Iranians -- civilians and senior officials -- on Iranian soil and in neighboring countries, it is undeniable that Tehran has repeatedly sought de-escalation and conflict management, opposed to reckless escalation.

To begin with, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been under pressure from a portion of its own public to act in defense of the Palestinian people and to punish Israel, using the justification that the Zionist regime is violating the genocide convention inside Gaza. A big component of Iran's popular narrative is that it stands as the primary backer of the Palestinian resistance to Israeli settler colonialism and that it supports a just solution that will free the Palestinians from occupation, apartheid, and genocide. This point is often overlooked in almost every analysis of Iran's actions, as it has often acted in a restrained and pragmatic manner even when provoked by Israel.

Keeping this in mind, in December of 2023, the Israelis started an assassination campaign against top ranking members of the IRGC in Syria. The first senior official they killed in Damascus was commander Sayyed Razi Mousavi. After this extrajudicial killing, the IRGC ordered a retaliatory missile on a Mossad headquarters located in northern Iraq.

However, the Israelis decided that they would not stop there. In January, Israel launched another attack on the Syrian Capital city, hitting the densely populated al-Mezzeh Neighborhood, killing 5 IRGC officials along with both Syrian civilians and soldiers. Notably, Iran did not respond to this Israeli provocation at all.

After a number of explosions occurred across Iran, damaging critical civilian infrastructure and widely seen to have been the doing of Israeli Mossad, airstrikes then struck the consular section of Iran's Embassy in Damascus and killed 7 people. The attack was not only a flagrant violation of international law, a violation of Iranian sovereignty, and a de-facto declaration of war, but was also a historically unprecedented attack. Following this, an emergency United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting was called over the issue. Yet Iran failed to find any legal recourse, as the US and British governments both gave speeches condemning Iran, later blocking a resolution from passing that would condemn Israel for its actions.

This is what then triggered Iran to launch its retaliatory operation, which it called 'True Promise'. It is important to note that Tehran notified everyone 72 hours prior to the strike, before launching 300 drones and missiles at two Israeli military bases. Operation True Promise was not intended to do much more beyond sending a message to the Israelis, letting them know that they are capable of hitting them.

Then we had the assassination of Hamas political leader, Ismail Hanniyeh, in Tehran on July 31, only hours after the Israeli assassination of Hezbollah Commander, Fouad Shukr, in Beirut. It is important to understand that Iran vowed to respond immediately afterwards, but had then decided to back down from this pledge after the government of Masoud Pezeshkian was informed by the United States and Europeans that they would secure a ceasefire in Gaza in response for Iran not retaliating. Evidently, these were all lies, as the Iranian President now admits. Instead, Israel decided to escalate its war to include Lebanon, carrying out heinous acts of terrorism by detonating explosive laden pagers amongst civilians across the Lebanese State. Later, the Israelis decided to commit a carpet bombing campaign, mass murdering innocent civilians and then assassinating the Secretary General of Lebanese Hezbollah, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, all under a guise of diplomacy.

This then brings us back to the original point, the Iranian public. Protests began breaking out across Iran, demanding answers as to why their government had not authorized a retaliatory attack against Israel and called on the authorities to defend Lebanon and Gaza. This was unprecedented, as the most ardent supporters of the Iranian government were incredibly upset to see that Lebanon was now being attacked with no repercussions and that even Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah could be killed, alongside an Iranian commander, without a response.

All of this information has to be considered when looking at Iran's choice to strike Israel in the way it did. The decision had to be made to directly confront the actions of a rogue regime, whose Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was openly making regime change threats against Iran. The reality is that Iran was in fact too diplomatic and restrained for its own good, contrary to the claims that it has acted irrationally. Unfortunately, the US, UK and EU refuse to condemn the Israelis, no matter what they choose to do, indicating that International Law is completely meaningless, at least to them. Not only was it legally justified for Iran to have launched its retaliatory attack, it was necessary.

Israel will not let this go, however, as the blow was too obvious for them to effectively cover up. They will almost certainly respond, which will come in one of two ways: another assassination or a similar kind of covert operation, or, a direct air attack against Iranian infrastructural targets. In response, Iran will be forced to follow through with its threats and launch unprecedented missile strikes towards Israeli infrastructure. This will either lead to the US government being forced to step in and conclude a comprehensive ceasefire agreement, or to enter the war on the side of the Israelis.