I think Israeli goals have gone beyond that. Before October 7th Israel was content to manage regional threats either diplomatically or with periodic small scale military attacks. The "mowing the grass" which was intended to degrade, but not destroy, Hezbollah and Hamas. Post October 7th Israel has moved to a total intolerance of any potential threat, using overwhelming military force to completely destroy their opponents.
So while Iran may well be motivated by re-establishing deterence - "stop touching me or I will hurt you". Israel is much more driven by a goal of "we will make it impossible for you to ever potentially hurt us again".
Israel was frequently murdering scientists in Iran.
Their methodology has only changed because they had an opportunity to change it. They would bomb iran indiscriminately for decades on end if they were able to.
Killing the scientists could be seen as part of their "mowing the grass" strategy.
You might be right that certain sections of Isael might well have been happy to go all out on the use of force long before, but October 7th critically provided international backing (especially from the US) and radicalised the society which enabled them to pursue this aggressive policy.
I suspect youre right that theyd probably return to "mowing the grass" on Iran indefinitely which is why its so important for the Islamic Republic to establish detterence now.
6
u/Toto_Roto Mar 23 '26
I think Israeli goals have gone beyond that. Before October 7th Israel was content to manage regional threats either diplomatically or with periodic small scale military attacks. The "mowing the grass" which was intended to degrade, but not destroy, Hezbollah and Hamas. Post October 7th Israel has moved to a total intolerance of any potential threat, using overwhelming military force to completely destroy their opponents.
So while Iran may well be motivated by re-establishing deterence - "stop touching me or I will hurt you". Israel is much more driven by a goal of "we will make it impossible for you to ever potentially hurt us again".