Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz has instructed the country’s military to maintain “aerial superiority and the ability to enforce the restrictions on Iran,” according to an article in the Financial Times. “The Israel Defense Forces’ mission now is to prepare a ‘blue and white’ enforcement plan to ensure Iran will not be able to threaten Israel again,” Katz told the military on Thursday night, July 3.
This is a clear statement that Israel intends to continue its bombing of Iran, come hell or high water. FT noted that “the outline echoed how Israel has interpreted a ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon, where the air force has carried out near-daily air strikes even after the formal cessation of hostilities in November 2024.” Katz added: “The state of Israel is determined to lead an active defense policy against Iran.”
FT admitted that “few expect the ceasefire between the two regional rivals to bring a complete end to hostilities.”
An article posted yesterday by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh also suggests that the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities was not “one-and-done.” He wrote that the aim of the U.S. strikes was never “obliteration,” but rather to set the program back one to two years. In this, his sources told him, it succeeded. The crucial strike, they said, wasn’t Fordow. It was the metal fabrication plant at Isfahan. “[I]t seemed clear to me and to informed friends I have in Washington and Israel that if Fordo somehow survived its bunker-buster attack, as was initially suggested, and continued to enrich more uranium, Isfahan would not,” Hersh wrote. “No enrichment, no Iranian bomb.”
