Israel Attack on Iran June 13 2025

Since my last post just before Shavuot (May 30, 2025), I have been accumulating material for my next blog.  I was planning to cover a number of topics including flights and various things going on in Israel.  Perhaps towards the end  of this blog, I can add in some of those items.  But given the events that have taken place since last night, I thought that there was a pretty compelling need to put this together as soon as possible.

Israel's Attack on Iran

As you know by know, Israel launched at major attack on Iran last night at approximately 2:30 a.m. last night (Israel time).  The attack is still ongoing so the results are not yet clear.  This appears to be the  start of a major war but it remains to be seen how Iran will respond and how long this will go on. I wanted to write about a few aspects of this.

As you know from reading my blog (hopefully), it is not my goal to write "propaganda" or "hasbara."  I try to sift through news that I pick up from various sources and use that to discuss particular situations.  I do pick up quite a bit of information from Israeli sources since I regularly watch and listen to Israeli news and radio channels.  But I do also pick up news from a variety of other sources on different ends of the spectrum so I try to provide some amount of balance.

I want to tackle a few issues.

Why Attack Iran?

There are several reasons for this attack.  The Israeli government has also announced a series of war "objectives" and then there are other speculated reasons.  I will try to cover some of this.

1. Historical Threats from Nuclear Program

The Iranian Ayatollah regime has been explicitly threatening Israel with destruction for many years.  Iran has been building a nuclear bomb program and indicating in no uncertain terms that the plan is to attack and destroy Israel with it.  Israel has been facing this clouded existential threat.  Prime Minister Netanyahu has been warning for years that Israel would not permit Iran to develop a nuclear weapon and attack Israel with it.  U.S. Presidents, including Obama, Biden and Trump have all stated that they would not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.  Obama sought a diplomatic route.  Trump, in his first term, dismantled the diplomatic route.  On this file, Biden did nothing.  The result was that Iran has been racing towards finalizing its nuclear program - and according to the IAEA, just this week (the world's nuclear watchdog), Iran was not complying with its commitment to nuclear safeguards and was on the verge of producing nuclear weapons.  Given Iran's repeated threats, Israel had to view this as a real, existential threat.

2. Iran has been fighting Israel since October 7, 2023

It is quite clear that the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023 including the Hamas massacres of civilians, kidnapping of hostages and destruction of homes and business was supported and funded by the Iranian regime.  The Iranians trained the Hamas terrorists, in many cases at training camps in Iran and funded them.  But Iran also armed and activated the Hezbollah forces in Lebanon and Syria on Israel's borders, who have also been fighting with Israel since October 7, 2023.  Further, as you know, Iran has been supplying the Houthis in Yemen with long range ballistic missiles to fire at Israel regularly.   Although Iran has only attacked Israel "directly" twice since October 7, it fired hundreds of ballistic missiles, drones and cruise missiles on both of those occasions.  So although Iran has not been directly involved since Oct 7 with attacks from its own territory, it has been running a four-front war against Israel and Israel's response, until now, has been relatively minimal as against Iran itself.

3. Perceived Opportunity

The success of Israeli operations against Hezbollah, a key proxy of Iran, has left Iran with a vastly reduced proxy threat to  Israel from the north.  Moreover, Israel's responding attacks on Iran in April 2024 apparently caused significant damage to Iran's defence forces.  The political situation in Syria has minimized the perceived threat of Syria  becoming involved in the  conflict. Given  the combination of these factors, the Iranian closeness to completing its nuclear program and a more sympathetic U.S.  government, Israeli government officials determined that a narrow window was open for this attack.

Israeli Statements and U.S. Position

Prime Minister Netanyahu stated today that he gave the order to carry out the attack in November 2024.  He stated that the original date was supposed to be in April 2025, but the operation was pushed back.  According to Netanyahu, with the collapse of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Iranian leadership redoubled its efforts to complete the nuclear bomb program and were threatening to use it.  Netanyahu claimed that he has been trying to get support for this type of attack since 2012 but did not have the political support, either domestically or from the U.S.  Implicitly, he has suggested that the "green light" only came after Trump's election in November 2024.

President Trump and other U.S. leaders have stated that the U.S. was not involved in these attacks - but knew about them. First of all, I don't really believe that Israel went ahead with this operation without active support, approval and encouragement of President Trump.  It seems likely that President Biden was not willing to authorize this type of operation.  Secondly, President Trump's tweets have underscored the message that he was threatening Iran that something "terrible" would happen if Iran did not agree to a nuclear deal that was acceptable to the U.S. Thirdly, the U.S. is still calling on Iran to drop its nuclear program, come to the table and reach an agreement.  But for Iran, it is hard to  imagine that this looks like an inviting offer at this point. Prime Minister Netanyahu stated that the date, June 13, 2025, was selected months ago and that President Trump was kept fully apprised.

Preliminary Reports

From reports to date, from across the world, the Israeli operation to this point, has been devastating.  A large number of senior Iranian military and political leaders have been eliminated including the head of the army, the head of the air force, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and others.  Estimates are that more than 30 military and political leaders were targeted and killed.

Israel has been attacking Iranian nuclear facilities, missile depots and other military operations.

Just now, Israeli news is reporting that Iranian missiles are "self-destructing" all over the country - and that is being compared to the "beeper" operation with Hezbollah. I have no way of verifying these reports at this point, but they are fascinating.

It is unclear how long this operation will take but Israel appears to be targeting all of the different Iranian nuclear facilities including those that are deep underground.

Stated Objectives

The Israeli government has claimed that the war has several objectives.  First of all to significantly degrade the Iranian nuclear  program and set it back several years.  Secondly, to destroy much of the  Iranian ballistic program to minimize Iran's ability to attack Israel (itself or by using the Houthis).  Thirdly, to target the Iranian military leadership to force Iran into a change of position with respect to its ongoing war against Israel.  

Other Objectives

The Israeli government has stated that it is not attempting regime change in Iran.  However, Israel has targeted as wide range of Iranian political and military leaders.  Moreover, the current regime, much like Hamas, has stated that its long range goal is the  destruction of Israel.  Israelis do not believe that to be the general sentiment of  the Iranian people and generally believe that if there were a regime change in Iran,  Iran and Israel could have a peace deal in place.  Israelis point to the fact that under the Iranian Shah, Israel had peaceful relations with Iran. It seems to me that Israel (perhaps with the help of the  U.S.) will do everything possible to enable the Iran people to rid themselves of this oppressive regime.  A stable, free, more secular Iran would create a dramatic opportunity for long term middle eastern stability.  It remains to be seen  whether this is realistic or possible.

Cynical Objectives

While I did suggest in a previous blog that Netanyahu would do everything possible to avoid his ongoing trial (and current cross-examination). there does seem to be fairly wide bi-partisan (or multi-partisan) support in Israel at this time for this attack - especially with the latest reports of how close Iran was getting to deploying nuclear bombs to be used for offensive purposes. Israel has been fighting Iran now indirectly since October 7, 2023 with Iran paying a very small price for all of the destruction and damage that it has caused to Israel. I think the Israeli leadership came to a determination that the only way to end the war with Hamas and Hezbollah, and the Houthis, was to get "behind the curtain" to the real decision maker and orchestrator of the war against Israel.

What's Next

Israel is continuing its attacks across Iran as I write but is also now anticipating a massive Iranian response.  I guess we will have to stay tuned and see what happens.  Hopefully, Israeli defences, supported by the Americans, will be able to repel any counter attacks with minimum casualties and damage.

Other

The Israeli national airport, Ben Gurion Airport is currently closed to all traffic.  The civilian authority  has ordered all schools, restaurants, clubs, concert venues and other public places of large gatherings closed including synagogues and other places of worship. Airlines from across the world have announced indefinite cancellations of flights to and from Israel.  

I am currently in Toronto with a flight scheduled for the 22nd of June, via Athens.  It remains to be seen whether that will be possible. I have real concerns that anti-Israeli sympathizers, including protestors, rabble rousers and terrorists, will target Jewish institutions across the world - even here in Toronto and I hope that the police and security forces will stop up the level of security for these places.

I am going to leave my discussions of other issues for future blogs.  For now, I hope that this situation is resolved as quickly as possible - hopefully with a stable end to the entire war, a return of the hostages, a peace deal with a new Iranian regime - and a completely changed Middle East.  Okay, it's okay to hope for a lot.  But  given the changes in Syria and Lebanon, we have every reason to believe that change is possible and within reach.

Shabbat Shalom

Pre-Shavuot Update 2025

It is the weekend before Shavuot 2025 and I thought it was time to try and put together a blog covering a variety of things in no particular order.  There is much to write about - too much, in fact - and I have been very busy with remunerative work - so less time for the hobby of writing blogs. But I will try to cover a bunch of items and leave some for later.

1. The Hostages and the Gaza War

I should really start with the hostages.  There are still 58 Israelis being held by Hamas, of whom, it is believed that 20 are alive.  This week marked 600 days since the attack and massacre by Hamas on October 7, 2023.  While President Trump's designee, Steve Witkoff, has been making all sorts of efforts to strike a deal between Hamas and Israel, both sides seem reluctant to agree.  This week, there were some hints from all sides that a deal was imminent but this morning Hamas rejected the latest proposal from the U.S., after Israel tentatively agreed to it. The hostages are being held in brutal, inhumane conditions.  The more time that passes, the less likely it is that the remaining live hostages will survive.

The war is also taking a significant toll on the lives of Gazans - and for Israeli soldiers - both regular soldiers and reservists.  It does not appear that Hamas has any interest in a cease fire deal other than one that will leave it in power - ready to rebuild for another attack.  For Israel, there is little appetite for a deal that will leave Hamas in power in Gaza.  As several U.S. Senators said this week  - when fighting against a band of terrorists - the goal is the surrender of the terrorists - the same goal that the U.S. pursued when fighting Nazi Germany in World War II (and Japan as well).  

If Witkoff is not able to broker a deal, Israel may well expand its operations in Gaza in an effort to force a surrender.  This is a daunting task - especially since Israel is dealing with an enemy that would rather die than surrender (in many cases)  In short, this war may continue for quite a while.

2. World Pressure

As time goes on and a deal seems remote, the casualties in Gaza are continuing to mount.  France is now leading the charge to start pressuring Israel economically and politically - to end the war.  Some of the other protagonists include Spain, Great Britain and Canada.  France and  several other countries have pledged to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian State next week - though it is unclear what the defined boundaries or other parameters will be.   It would obviously be helpful  for these same countries to exert their influence to cause Hamas to release the hostages and push for the end  of the war - and to allow food and supplies to be transferred to the Gaza civilian population (Hamas has been confiscating food and  supplies for its own use up until this week - when a new mechanism was put into place to supply civilians directly with food). 

At the same time, the current Israeli government is isolating Israel more and more from the rest of the world and this could have significant  consequences for Israel in the short and long term. 

3. The Houthis and Iran

Israel is also fighting a war with the Yemen-based Houthis (who do not even share a border with Israel).  They are promoting themselves as the defenders of the Palestinians - which for them, means, firing ballistic rockets at Israel sporadically.  As  you may know, Trump reached a deal with the Houthis and agreed not to attack them in exchange for an undertaking by the Houthis not to attack U.S. ships.  So Israel has been left with the task of fighting the Houthis and defending against the barrages of Iranian-supplied ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis. 

Yesterday, we were in an elevator, in the middle of the day, when a missile siren went off, signifying that  there was an incoming ballistic missile, sent by the Houthis.  Fortunately, it was shot down. though we had to wait in a safe bomb shelter room for about 10 minutes. 

Just weeks ago, a Houthi missile got through the defence systems and landed near Ben-Gurion Airport.  That missile hit about 45 minutes after I took off from Israel en route to Athens.  As a result of that attack, most foreign airlines cancelled all of their air traffic to Tel-Aviv.  Some airlines have now restarted their service but many others have extended their suspensions of service.  For example, British Airways, Ryannair, Wizz Air and others all announced they would continue to suspend their service to Tel-Aviv.  I note that Air Canada, not long after the recent Canadian election (see my last blog) announced that it would not resume service before September 2025, which is one of the latest proposed dates from any airline that I have seen.

Israel's fight with the Houthis is, of course, a proxy fight with Iran.  As Trump is negotiating a new JOCPA with Iran, he seems to also be playing "good cop bad cop" with Iran and threatening to allow Israel to attack Iran and try to take out its nuclear program if a deal is not reached.  It may be that Trump's game is more "good cop" than "bad cop" as it seems likely that he will push Netanyahu not to attack at this point.  However, in the case of both Trump and Netanyahu, things are quite unpredictable.

4. Netanyahu

As you know, Prime Minister Netanyahu is in the midst of his criminal trial - which is coming to the most crucial part of the trial - next week - the cross examination of Netanyahu is set to begin as early as Tuesday or Wednesday next week. Despite all of his bravado, I find it hard to believe that Netanyahu is anxious to go through this cross-examination.  Much of his testimony in chief, as reported, was unbelievable and incredible.  I believe that the prosecutors are salivating at the opportunity to cross examine Bibi and I also  believe that he knows it will be very uncomfortable.  He may well pull out all of the stops to derail or postpone the cross-examination.  What could that include?  Just about anything.  A sudden illness (real or imaginary).  The break up of his current governing coalition.   The launching of a sudden attack on Iran.  Or even some kind of plea bargain deal.  I think it is likely that something big is going to happen this coming week - just in time to stave off this cross-examination.  This should be an incredibly pivotal week for Israel.

5.    Eurovision

As you might know, Israel finished 2nd in the annual Eurovision song contest last week that took place in Basel Switzerland.  This was a politically charged contest with some of the European countries pushing to expel Israel and prevent it from participating.  

The Israeli contestant was Yuval Raphael, a singer who had survived the Hamas massacres on October 7, 2023 by hiding under a pile of dead bodies and pretending to be dead herself. She faced demonstrations and boos from Pro-Palestinian/ Pro-Hamas agitators.  The panel of judges, representing each participating country, awarded Raphael/Israel a total of only 60 points (out of 32 scoring countries).  Only Azerbaijan awarded the first place award of 12 points to Israel.  Several countries gave Israel no points -  and most countries awarded very low point totals to Raphael/Israel.

However, the Eurovision contest also involves audience voting by country.  Here Israel finished in first place overall - which included winning the full 12 points from the audience in several countries including Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and others.  In fact, Israel came in 2nd place in Ireland, a country whose current policies have been among the most anti-Israel anywhere.  Israel also came in first place in the voting in Australia (which participates in Eurovision even though it is a bit far away from Europe) and Spain, two other countries whose leadership has been virulently ant-Israel. Overall, Raphael/Israel wound up finishing second in the contest, which was a really strong result.

Much of the music in any given Eurovision contest is quite awful - shlocky, poppy, minimally complex and often annoying.  But you can watch the Israeli entry - Raphael's powerful  "New Day Will Rise" and come to your own conclusions -  especially by comparing it to the winner, JJ and their song "Wasted Love" from Austria.  Last year's winner "The Code" by non-binary  and stridently anti-Israel performer Nemo from Switzerland - was also fairly  atrocious (in my humble opinion)

Israelis get really excited about this event and watch it in droves, even though so many of the performances are usually insufferable.  But Israel's participation the contest has become a political hot potato - especially with the increasingly large Arab/Muslim populations in so many European countries that are looking for any opportunity to delegitimize Israel.

6.    Flight Routes

As I touched on earlier, the options for getting back and forth from Israel are fairly limited.  For my most recent flight - I flew Air Canada to Athens and then El Al to Israel.  I had a long wait in Athens  - about 9 hours - so I decided to get a day room a the Sofitel Hotel - conveniently located rate across from the arrival doors at the airport.  Not exactly cheap but it offered some well needed rest.

So many airlines  have cancelled their flights - that it is really hard to predict who might be flying on any given day.  Only El Al has consistently flown back and forth - and taken full advantage of supply and demand - to charge record prices - and earn record profits.

It will be interesting to see what consumers do once this is all over.  On the one hand, El Al has charged exorbitant, outrageous, even usurious prices.  On the other hand, it is one of the only airlines that has continued to fly.  Some consumers may stay  away from El Al  when there are other options - as a response to the crazy pricing.  Others may appreciate that El Al has continued to serve the Israeli public - even at a high cost.  I have no idea what will happen - but, for now, El Al is continuing to fly and is earning record profits.

Of course I wish they were still flying back and forth direct from Toronto or  Montreal to Tel-Aviv - but they cancelled those flights well before the war broke out.

7. Nova Exhibition

While in Toronto recently, I attended at the Nova Exhibition, which will be in Toronto until June 22, 2025.  After that it is moving to Washington D.C. It will actually open in Washington on June 14, 2025.

The Exhibition is a huge installation of artifacts, videos, testimony from survivors and victims (collected from their cell phones in many cases) of the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacres at the Nova festival.  The Exhibition is quite powerful and well worth attending.  Allow about 2-3 hours if you go.

8. Sports News- Ice Hockey

As you probably know, there is one Canadian team  left in the  NHL playoffs this year.  The games will all be at 8 p.m., starting on Wednesday June 4th, 2025 - which means 3 a.m. Israel time.  In Israel, they are being  shown live on channel 59, which is better quality then my streaming services.

The Edmonton Oilers, of course, include the best player in the world, Connor McDavid.  McDavid is probably the most  exciting player I have ever seen play (and I have watched a lot of hockey).  But he still hasn't won the Stanley Cup.  Hopefully this will be his year.  One of his teammates is Zack Hyman, a player who attended CHAT (the Community Hebrew Academy of  Toronto).  Some people are hoping that if the Oilers win the Cup, Hyman will bring it to CHAT for a visit. Unfortunately, Hyman was injured in game 4 of the semi-finals against Dallas and required surgery.  Looks like he will be out for the rest of this year's playoffs but hopefully he can still come out on the ice and kiss the cup if the Oilers win.

Given the Jewish/Israeli theme of my blog - I also wanted to mention another Israeli/Jewish hockey player - Zeev Buium.  Born in San Diego, California, Buium, is the son of two Israeli parents.  He has dual citizenship and is apparently the first Israeli to play in the NHL - he plays for the Minnesota Wild and saw some action in the playoffs this year.  Buium played for Team USA in the World Hockey Championships this year.  He scored one goal and had three assists - and helped the USA win the gold medal for the first time since 1933 in the World Ice Hocky Championships.  (Canada flamed out with an embarrassing loss to Denmark, despite icing a roster that included Sid Crosby and Nathan McKinnon).

I'll try to watch as many of the Oilers' games as I can - hoping to see a Canadian team bring the cup back to Canada.  I did have tickets lined up for game 3 of the finals in Toronto if the Maple Leafs had been able to make it - but as you may know, they lost 4-3 in a 7 game series against the Florida Panthers.  Yet again, another disappointing year for Toronto.

9. Shavuot

The holiday of Shavuot beings on Sunday night.  This marks 50 days since Passover started -and commemorates the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people.  More recently, the holiday has been known for being the only Jewish holiday  where everyone eats dairy (and maybe has some fish).  I will be making some cheese blintzes on Sunday  -  I try to make them in a way that is as close as  possible to the way that my grandmother z"l used to make them.  I find the cheese blintz recipe on toryavey.com to be as close as it gets.

We were at the supermarket this morning and there was a huge run on cheeses and dairy products of every possible kind. It was very hard to find ricotta cheese for the filling.  We  also visited a wine store - and they were, not surprisingly, pushing white and  rose wines.   We picked up Rose wines by Gvaot and Tulip's White Franc - which looks like a Rose but is technically not.   We also bought some white wine from Castel (the La Vie en Rose line) and a Sauvignon Blanc from Psagot. We have to make some decisions about what to serve for an important upcoming Friday night dinner in August. We have already picked out the red wine that we will serve.

Shavuot can mark the start of some really  intense heat in Israel - and the predictions are that it will be very hot across the country tomorrow and  Sunday.  In Ra'anana, the current prediction is about 30c for tomorrow - while in Tiberias (T'veria) it will be a balmy 36c.  Apparently it will "cool down" by Monday but let's hope that the air conditioning  holds up.

That's about it for now.  It should be a very eventful week or two in Israel with all kinds of things going on.  I am hoping for the safe return of all of the remaining hostages and for some kind of deal or end to this war. Especially hoping for the safe return of all of our soldiers including some family members that are in Gaza and other areas.  Wishing everyone a happy and  healthy Shavuot.