Israel’s strike on Iran was necessary. But for real change, the US must join the fray
Iran is vulnerable — which means there’s a real opportunity to end its reign of terror by proxy
Smoke and fire billow from the site of an alleged Israeli strike in southern Tehran on June 13. Photo by Atta Kenare / AFP / Getty Images
Columnist Dan Perry June 13, 2025
There is near-total consensus in Israel, even among critics of the current government, that the Iranian nuclear threat must be eradicated.
Not managed. Not deterred. Eradicated.
That is the context for understanding Operation Rising Lion, Israel’s daring and multifaceted preemptive strike against Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure. The assault, launched early Friday morning, is a military operation led by Benjamin Netanyahu, a prime minister many Israelis consider corrupt and unfit. But despite its leader’s dubious qualities, the operation is undoubtedly the right move.
The United States has claimed Israel acted without its involvement — a staggering idea, given that the Israeli Air Force conducted complex strikes deep inside Iranian territory, while the Mossad activated a drone base on Iranian soil and commandos neutralized key defenses. These kinds of operations require flight corridors, real-time satellite data, secure regional communications, and contingency guarantees. American fingerprints may not be public, but I see them everywhere.
The full extent of how this was pulled off — and whether any international partners actually were aware in advance of the full intricacy of the snare — is a story we’ll learn in time. What’s already obvious is that the choreographed misdirection campaign here was extraordinary: Strategic leaks, denials and even staged vacations appear to have lulled Tehran into a false sense of security.
The damage to Iran’s program appears significant. Multiple floors of Natanz, the country’s primary nuclear facility, were reportedly destroyed, including critical centrifuge halls. Israel also targeted nuclear facilities in Isfahan and Fordow as Friday’s attacks unfolded. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps suffered major blows to its command structure. Nuclear scientists were killed.
Still, let’s not delude ourselves: this is not the end of Iran’s nuclear ambitions. More potential future targets remain, including the heavy water plant in Arak.
But there is a physical limit to what Israel can do on its own. The Jewish state does not possess the heavy bunker-busting munitions required to fully take out deeply buried targets like Fordow.
Who does? The United States.
“The results are amazing, and very impressive,” said former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, of Friday’s operation. “But Iran had about 450 kilograms of enriched uranium and … the most delicate parts of the program are 700 or 800 meters underground.”
What is needed to truly destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities? “The overthrowing of the regime,” Barak said, “and this cannot be done without the United States.”
That’s why this strike should be understood as a signal to Iran — something of a very thorough warning shot.
The attack delivers the needed message that Iran’s government does not deserve a seat at the table as an equal negotiator with the U.S. and its allies. The notion — clung to by much of the international community — that Iran possesses some kind of legitimate leverage has long needed to be dispensed with.
Just hours before Israel launched its first waves of attacks, a United Nations watchdog censured Iran, saying it had violated nuclear nonproliferation obligations; Iran responded by promising to ramp up nuclear efforts even further.
The U.S. has an opportunity. Iran is vulnerable. Its economy is strained, its proxies are degraded, and its defenses have been exposed. The Iranian people are simmering with anger and primed to overthrow their oppressors.
President Donald Trump should have begun his new term by issuing an ultimatum for Iran to dismantle its nuclear and weapons programs, and immediately end its support for proxy militias in the region. Instead, until Israel took action, it looked as if he and his team were being dragged into the kind of endless negotiations that President Barack Obama had to contend with.
If that charade is over, all the better. It bears underscoring: Iran is not a normal country. It is a state sponsor of terror that has spent decades cultivating proxy armies to spread its influence through violence. Consider:
- Hezbollah in Lebanon: Until Israel took action against the group last year, it possessed tens of thousands of rockets, posed a dramatic threat to Israel, and turned Lebanon into a launchpad for Iranian aggression.
- The Houthis in Yemen: These Iranian-backed militants, who in the past attacked Saudi oil facilities, have undermined much of global maritime trade — and hammered Egypt’s economy — with attacks on ships headed to the Suez canal.
- The Shiite militias in Iraq: Operating with impunity, they have attacked U.S. bases, sabotaged Iraqi sovereignty, and reinforced Iranian influence in Baghdad.
- Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the West Bank and Gaza: Funded, trained and armed by Iran, they have launched thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians — not to mention Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack — and torpedoed every chance at Israeli-Palestinian coexistence.
This is an empire of militias whose nuclear program is not civilian. Negotiations, on their own, will never truly solve the problem.
Those in Washington who would insist that Iran must be denied the right to enrich uranium at all must rethink how the U.S. can and should use its leverage at this moment. Under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Iran has signed, the country is allowed to enrich uranium to civilian levels — up to 3.67% purity — so long as it complies with inspections and transparency.
That line matters. It’s not enrichment itself that’s the issue, but rather enrichment to weapons-grade capacity.
The West should offer Iran the option to continue its civilian enrichment programs, so long as it ends its campaign of militarized proxies. It’s time to focus the world’s pressure where it belongs: on the tentacles of terror stretching out from Tehran.
Operation Rising Lion is a turning point. It marks the reassertion of red lines by Israel; they should quickly be reasserted, also, by the West. It is a reminder that there are limits. That some threats are too dangerous to tolerate. That appeasement has costs.
The path ahead is uncertain. Iran has already launched retaliatory strikes, incurring damage in Tel Aviv and elsewhere in Israel. Regional tensions will escalate. But inaction was never the safer path.
In the end, this is not just about Israel. It’s about a world order that depends on some nations remaining non-nuclear, and some regimes being held to account.
