Why Israel caved quickly without achieving any of 3 war goals

 Why Israel caved quickly without achieving any of 3 war goals

While Israel inflicted significant death and destruction on Iran in its 2 week bombing campaign, it achieved nary a war objective.

Tho likely severely damaged, It didn’t eliminate Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. It didn’t topple the hated Iranian regime. It didn’t demolish Iran as a powerful hegemonic rival to Israel in the Middle East.

Then why did Israel fold its missile launchers, ground its planes and agree to a ceasefire without a whimper?

Simple. Israel took an unprecedented pounding from Iranian missiles it could not shoot down. Indeed, it was running out of defensive interceptors because it took multiple such missiles to shoot down a single incoming missile. Israel’s modern air defenses still allowed 10 to 15% of incoming missiles strike Israel.

While little info of substantial Israeli damage emerges from heavily censored Israeli media, the impact on Israel was significant.

Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich estimates the war may inflict a $12 billion hit on the Israeli economy. The economy virtually shut down during the war with non-essential schools and businesses shuttered. The Weizmann Institute of science, a main Israeli research facility and its largest refinery in Haifa were both badly damaged.

Israel may have more offensive and defensive firepower than Iran. But it quickly realized it had no ability to stop the bleeding which could have become catastrophic if its interceptors become depleted.

The one-off US attack did not achieve any of the three Israeli goals. Only all out US war to obliterate Iran can do the job which Trump appears unwilling to initiate even for his Israeli puppet masters.

We can hope that the quickly agreed upon ceasefire will hold. It could of course collapse, especially if Israel becomes self-destructive from its humiliation of not achieving a single war objective. Israel has a history of breaking ceasefires, most notably their blowing up the March ceasefire in Gaza so they could continue their genocidal ethnic cleansing of Palestinians there.

But breaking the Iran war ceasefire likely a bridge too far compared to the defenseless Palestinians Israel slaughters daily at their pleasure.

Hopefully, the missiles that rained down on Israel in their failed 2 week war may motivate Israel to pivot to peace instead of resuming unwinnable war to destroy Iran.