Friday’s operation is equivalent of the Moked June 5, 1967 attack! We would have lost the element of surprise had we waited until today!
“Israel’s success in the ongoing conflict has created a unique opportunity to reshape the Middle East, alongside the United States,” said IDF Brig.-Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser, who was appointed as head of The Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security on March 4, 2025.
Shaffaf D.C. correspondent met « Yossi » for a brief discussion on the surprise operation which Israel launched on Friday 13th against the Mullas regime of Teheran.
– Yossi, Why did Israel strike now? Any indications that Iran was preparing some kind of attack against Israel, probably as a way to improve its position in negotiations with the U.S.?
First, the Iranians had attained 60 percent enrichment, we had to take action to make sure they do not cross the line of weaponization and own a weapon. Nobody knows how much time they need to do this. But we couldn’t gamble on this. Secondly, they were in a very weak situation. So, first they were very dangerous, then the second reason is that they were very vulnerable. There was the report of the IAEA that they were breaking the NPT commitments which was very painful for them. And, further, they couldn’t accept the offer given to them by the American side. We couldn’t wait two more days for the coming meeting which was to take place on Sunday 15th June. We would have lost the e element of surprise had we waited for Sunday or Monday.
Another factor was their weakness because they had lost Hezbollah, Hamas and Assad, so they had less possibility to deter us.
– Israel’s operation is « brilliant » according to most observers (« excellent », according to President Trump)! Is « brilliance » an IDF specialty, notwithstanding Israelis’ political divisions? Some observors claim the new operation reminds not only of « beheading Hezbollah » but of the 1967 5-days war!
There is no connection between political divisions in Israel and the capability of the military and the Mossad to undertake certain operations. We have been doing this for a long time, we have seen that in Lebanon with the « pagers attack » and with the eliminations operation in Iran. We are very good at collecting information about sensitive targets and at turning information into actionable intelligence.
Yes, what we did was the equivalent of Operation « Moked » (in Hebrew) (« Focus » in English) on June 5, 1967, when we eliminated the air forces of Egypt and Syria before they could take off. Now, we managed to outsmart the Iranians causing a damage in ways they never foresaw. The elimination of the scientists is very important. Also, the elimination of key figures in the IRGC and the military was very painful for them. Add the presence of Mossad teams on the ground which the Iranians never thought it could happen to them. That was impressive and very creative. In Iran, they expected something like that to happen, but what we did was a surprise;
– How long could the Iran Operation continue? Could it continue until the end of the Mulla’s regime?
We didn’t put the end of the regime as a goal of the operation. The goal is to prevent Iran from enriching Uranium to higher levels and for that we had to deal with the entire structure of their nuclear project. We have to make sure that they are destroyed and this might take some time. We shall not have results we are looking for from the first attack. We might have to repeat the attacks and this will take several days.
We, also, have to make sure that they cannot produce more ballistic missiles that threaten us and that is why we are focused on missiles production facilities and on missiles storage facilities.
Those are the main goals, other goals are part of it. We went after the military leadership because we want to make sure that they do not disturb us and will not hit us back and that we have freedom of manoeuvring inside Iran. That is why we are dealing with air defense systems inside Iran: we want to make sure that they will not interfere with our ability to operate in Iranian skies.
If the regime is going to fall as the result of that we shall not shed a tear, we shall be very happy, but that is not the goal. Getting rid of this regime is a task for the Iranians, they shall have to do it themselves.
What can happen, is that If the Iranians keep hitting us with ballistic missiles we can make them pay heavy prices by hitting targets that go beyond their nuclear project, including even governmental targets.
– The « new order » Israel seems to seek, is it a new order of « Peace and Normalization » with neighbors or an order ruled by an « Israeli hegemon » as many Arab commentators claim?
We are not interested by becoming the hegemon of the Middle East. We want to make sure that both sides get the best out of cooperation as we did with the Abrahamic accords. Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria are all candidates to join the Abrahamic accords, make Peace with Israel and enjoy the cooperation for the benefits of all.
– Do you think the present war with Iran will help in this perspective?
Sure. We have destroyed Hezbollah, we have created the conditions that enabled the Opposition in Syria to get rid of Assad. And, now, we are hitting Iran itself. The Iranian radical axis is going to lose power and that certainly will help.