Will Netanyahu “take the fight straight to Iran” after the massive rocket attack on Israel?

JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the heads of the country's security apparatus on Wednesday after Iran fired 181 rockets into Israel, raising concerns that a deadly regional war was imminent.

Fox News Digital spoke to military and Iran experts about the growing likelihood of a major confrontation breaking out between the Jewish state and the clerical regime in Tehran.

“After the Iranian missile attack on Israel, there is no longer any doubt about the basic understanding that Iran is the greatest generator of terror and death in the Middle East. So far, Israel has played a slugfest with Iran's proxies – fighting “Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and others,” Yaakov Katz, the author of “Shadow Strike: Inside Israel's Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power,” told Fox News Digital.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu consults with security apparatus chiefs in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 2, 2024. (Ma'ayan Toaff (GPO))

Katz, a senior fellow at the global think tank Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI), added: “With Iran directly attacking Israel again, it is time to take the fight directly to Iran. The ayatollahs there must be held accountable and pay a price.”

Military analyst Amos Harel's headline in the left-wing Haaretz newspaper on Wednesday read: “After an unprecedented Iranian attack, we are in a regional war.”

The Islamic Republic has been considered a center of unrest, terrorism and turmoil in the Middle East for decades. In 2010, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah called on the United States to “cut the head of the snake” by launching military strikes to destroy Iran's alleged nuclear weapons facilities.

Iran's attacks on Israel forced nearly 10 million people to seek shelter in bomb shelters on Tuesday. The air war marked the first time in Israeli history that the country's densely populated cities – Tel Aviv and Jerusalem – at the center of the biblical nation experienced such devastating attacks. The Israelis did not panic and remained relatively calm under the pressure of the largely surprise attack.

Demonstrators show images of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during an anti-Israel protest in Tehran on September 27, 2024. (AFP via Getty Images)

The only death from the Iranian barrage was the murder of a Palestinian in the West Bank (known in Israel by its biblical regional name, Judea and Samaria).

“Tonight, Iran attempted to kill thousands of Israeli men, women and children, but thanks to our miraculous defense system, Iran failed miserably. Tehran is suffering after its proxies in Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen were crushed by Israel. Tehran made a big mistake tonight and…” “We will pay a heavy price at the time and place of our choice,” Lt. Col. Yoni Chetboun, a former deputy speaker of the Knesset and an IDF special forces reserve operative, told Fox News Digital .

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Chetboun was a highly decorated special forces officer from the Second Lebanon War, when Israel fought the Iranian-backed terrorist movement Hezbollah in 2006.

Many missiles fired by Iran can be seen over Jerusalem from Hebron in the West Bank on October 1, 2024. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Before Iran's military strike against Israel in April, Fox News Digital reported that experts say the Biden-Harris administration had released billions in sanctions relief for Iran that would flow into its proxies' war machines.

The issue of funneling billions to the Iranian regime came up during Tuesday's vice presidential debate. Republican Senator JD Vance said: “Iran, which launched this attack, has received over $100 billion in unfrozen assets thanks to the Kamala Harris administration.”

“What are they using this money for? They use it to buy weapons that they now use against our allies. And God forbid, against the United States too.”

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Lisa Daftari, an Iran expert, said: “The conflict between the Iranian regime and Israel did not start today, in April or on October 7 last year. Its origins date back to 1979, when the mullahs came to power,” which promulgated a doctrine that included the “Great Satan,” a term for the United States, and the “Little Satan,” referring to Israel , demonized.

“Over the past 45 years, the Iranian regime has persistently targeted American and Israeli interests and organized terror proxies to carry out its strategic objectives against both nations. More recently, U.S. policies that have enriched the mullahs have enabled billions of dollars to establish a massive encirclement around Israel, through the regime's various proxies in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Gaza and the West Bank.”

An Israeli Air Force (IAF) aircraft takes off. (IDF)

In April, the Iranian regime launched a large-scale airstrike on Israel using over 300 suicide drones and missiles. Jerusalem countered the Iranian missile swarm with a targeted attack on military facilities in the Iranian province of Isfahan.

Daftari, editor-in-chief of the Foreign Desk news website, added: “Israel's latest military actions signal a shift from the more reserved stance in April, when the country's defense capabilities against missile threats were seen as a victory. Recent strategic attacks in Lebanon underscore Israel’s increased efforts to neutralize ongoing existential threats.”

Noting that it has responded in the past over and over again, she noted: “Israel is now ready to take decisive action to neutralize this looming risk, with the focus now solely on the regime in Tehran. “

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, September 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

David Wurmser, former senior adviser on nonproliferation and Middle East strategy to former Vice President Dick Cheney, told Fox News Digital: “This is a war between Israel and Iran that began on April 14 as a direct war. “The war is a thorny battle between a nation ruled by a tyranny that seeks to wipe out the other, but not both, will emerge from this war not only as a victor but also as a survivor.”

He said that the so-called “ring of fire” that Iran set up around Israel not only pursued an aggressive goal – to suffocate Israel by initiating a violent war of attrition and isolation, including closing ports and suspending international airlines to Israel – , but also also acted as a defensive deterrent against Israel and protected Iran from possible proactive actions by Israel against Iran. With the destruction of Hezbollah, the strategic fulcrum of the proxy network at the center of this ring of fire, the greatest threat to Israel, Iran was completely exposed to the full weight of Israeli power.”

Israeli shelling hit an area in southern Lebanon, as seen from northern Israel, on Monday, September 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

He repeated the strong language of Israel's military and political leadership, which “promised to inflict severe pain on the regime of Iran's supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, Ali Khamenei…Iran will certainly now feel the vulnerability that Israelis are no longer afraid of.” “Hezbollah or Iran will take the war from the defensive to the offensive against the Iranian regime,” said Wurmser.

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He added: “The mistake that Iran has made, as well as its proxies and its cronies in the West protesting on campus, is not that they underestimate Israel's capabilities and its unity, but rather that they underestimate their own “Ideology that Israel is a fake, fragile colonial entity.” As a deep-rooted civilization, Israel has shown that its internal strength surpasses that of all its neighbors.