Opinion | Iran Is Losing. That May Matter More Than Israels Mistakes.
Military defeats matter.Israel’s inexcusable complacency on Oct.
7, 2023, allowed Hamas, a terrorist force with a small fraction of the military strength of the Israel Defense Forces, to kill more Israeli civilians than the vast armies of Egypt and Syria and their allies did at the height of the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973.But as demonstrated by Israel’s stunning airstrike on Friday on Hezbollah’s underground headquarters near Beirut, which killed the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, the fortunes of war have shifted since Oct.7 against Israel’s enemies.
Hamas is losing.Hezbollah is losing.
And most important: By extension, Iran is losing.If those losses continue Iran will exit this conflict as a diminished force, less capable of harming Israel and weaker in the eyes of its other regional foes.To say that Iran and its proxies have faced battlefield reversals is not to minimize the terrible costs to Israel.
Parts of the north have been depopulated by Hezbollah rocket fire.Israel is facing a storm of international condemnation for the violence of its response to Hamas.
And there are obvious internal strains on the nation and the military.Even if Israel ultimately wins this war, it will have paid a dreadful price.But my own military experience in Iraq taught me that public understanding often lags behind battlefield realities.
An understandable focus on politics and diplomacy can distract the public from the battlefield — and the battlefield is telling a different story than it did at the beginning of this fight.Israel’s enemies have made profound mistakes and taken terrible losses.
These military reversals may well end up having more enduring consequences for them than for Israel.Hamas, which receives considerable military and financial support from Iran, has been gutted as a fighting force.Precise casualty numbers are difficult to discern, but they are significant.
As of late last month, Israel claimed it has killed as many as 17,000 Hama...