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I think Israel was not restrained so much by the US, but by the October 1 Iranian retaliation to Israel's assassination of the Hamas Chief Cease Fire negotiator Ismail Haniyeh July 31 in Tehran, and the assassination of other Leaders of Iran's Allies in the area.

Despite US forces defending Israel in the retaliation, Iran's missiles did hit their targets with precision, penetrating Israel's multi layered defences. That, and the fact a Hezbollah drone also penetrated Israel's defences and actually hit Netanyahu's residence, established Iran's deterrence capabilities.

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Israel’s Been Assassinating Palestinian Leaders For Decades

How Has That Worked Out?

https://peterbeinart.substack.com/p/israels-been-assassinating-palestinian

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Agree.

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Another reason for Israel's restrained retaliation may be that Israel and its main backer, the US, are both overstretched and simply don't have sufficient military hardware to strike hard on Iran

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I wouldn't call 200 missiles restrained, but that aside, the BBC unwittingly spilled the beans right here at the 2:50 mark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RytqrIuw2mk

That's just a portion of what was recorded and posted by people in Tehran which is all over the net by now. Those flashes you see in the sky are intercepted missiles being destroyed. A few got through no doubt, but weigh the cost of the operation against the results, which are negligible. Do you see any explosions on the ground? Maybe some damage occurred from falling debris, but that's mighty expensive debris.

I don't think Iran will respond. They've clearly demonstrated their ability to hit targets inside Israel AND to stop any attack on themselves by Israel. For Israel to attack again would be suicidal because Iran definitely will respond to that. So l guess we'll find out if Israel is suicidal. They're clearly psychopathic, but psychopaths aren't usually suicidal. They're OK with others dying, but when it comes to themselves, not so much.

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I dearly hope calmer heads prevail on both sides🤞 Jfc🫠

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Several sources, one being Alastair Crook said that the apartheid genocidal Zionist terrorist entity failed to complete the SEAD after which they aborted the second and third rounds of bombings. They also discovered their overpriced junk “stealth” F-35s were locked on by Iran even before entering Iranian air space.

Operation True Promise III WILL take place… not the way expected but by relaxing, sitting back and watch these Zionist terrorists self implode.

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No restraint: fear. The Iranians had detected and locked on to their supposed wonder weapon, the F35. Humiliation for the US and the Heebs fled with tail between their legs🤡

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Based on actual reporting from WeChat, 99% of Israeli bombs were destroyed by Iran’s anti-air defense, recently strengthened by RUSSIA. BRICS is defending Iran with high-tech military systems.

It’s only a matter of time before BRICS exterminate Western aggression at its root.

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One reason the Israelis were so restrained is that somebody, probably in the Pentagon, leaked the original Israeli plans a few days before they were going to launch a much more dangerous attack:

https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/israel-preps-for-strike-on-iran-top

There are two powerful factions within the American oligarchy which are firmly opposed to a US-Iran War, the Pentagon and Big Oil. The Pentagon, especially the Navy, which knows a war with Iran would be disastrous, Big Oil because it doesn't want the Persian Gulf shut down.

Neither has come out in the open, but both have tremendous influence. Neither are willing to sacrifice their interests, employees or profits for an Israel gone mad, never mind the fact that their own past actions encouraged that madness in the first place.

Both are perfectly willing to cut bait with Israel if that better serves their own interests. Netanyahu forgot that, or arrogantly assumed AIPAC, Mossad, and the Epstein Files would force EVERYONE with power in the Empire into line. He was just shown that ain't so.

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Nothing in those documents were new for the Iranians. It was the strike on October 1st that shook Israel because their air defense system isn’t capable of stopping a swarm of Iranian missiles (especially hypersonic ones).

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You may be right. I don’t KNOW. The Iranians are apparently not going to do another tit after this latest tat, so that’s good. I guess.

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I hear that they will. But who knows.

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I would think that domestic petroleum producers would rejoice to see a major source of supply shut down.

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On the contrary it would create havoc on global markets escalating pricing stymying economic growth both domestically and globally.

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It definitely would cause chaos, however oil companies don't care about economic growth, except and only to the extent it affects their bottom line.

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Big Oil profits are directly correlated to the economy both domestically and globally.

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Not really, as core oil demand is fairly inelastic.

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So you're implying that Iran is a Russian puppet? This should be explained in detail, because Iran is more independent than Israel and even more so from Russia. Russia is having trouble defending itself against Ukraine and you think that Iran is counting on its defense by Russia!! The joke

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Fear and common sense restrained them.

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I don't see much evidence of the Hawks you speak of in Israel. The Israeli's are realists. They know what their capabilities are. As a society they are very casualty adverse which is both commendable and a great handicap.

The Israelis know very well that they cannot knock Iran out of the war with their own resources. They can see the waining capacity and interest of the US to partner with them in demolishing Iran. Thus, the Israeli's would probably have been just as happy to do nothing except they felt that some sort of demonstration was required.

As it is, the IAF showed that they could operate over Iran, in the midst of Irans ADF network. They demonstrated an ability to confront that network and attack it without losses. So the attack was both theater and recon.

As to the Hawks, I'm sure there are some in Israel, but the day before the strikes, the IDF also appeared to announce that the operation in Southern Lebanon would be concluding within a week. To me this is a surprise as it appears to signal that the IDF is just conducting a routine "mow-the-lawn" effort. Certainly not the approach hawks would be content with. The difference may be that the IDF will dig in and prepare to stay in occupation of several strategic heights with the intent of moving the majority of Israeli settlements in the north out of range of Hezbollah observation and rocket attack. The places where the IDF stays will also afford Israel better observation posts to surveil a new "buffer zone". If this will suffice to allow the 60 or 80k displaced Israeli's to return home remains to be seen.

It's unclear at this point what happens next. Perhaps it's just a matter of Israels from the top down war of attrition continuing while they try to recover some sort of normalcy at home and wait to see if the US elections change anything.

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I'm waiting for the 400+ Iranian missile strike!

They do need to used those Beautiful Weapons before they go out-of-date...

https://voza0db.substack.com/p/morons-just-dont-get-it-c45

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