Iran

So I'm just now in a zoom meeting with an Israeli fighter pilot and a man who's an Iran expert, and let me tell you this is fascinating.

The pilot described his experience a little, which is truly insane. He literally flew over Iran and watched missiles being launched - he says that from the air you don't actually know whether those are anti-aircraft missiles aiming at you, or ballistic missiles being launched at Israel or any of the gulf countries. And the planes were definitely targeted with AA missiles. He also said that Iran looks beautiful from the air and that if we ever have a peace agreement he'd love to go visit.

The Iran expert then explained the goals of the war as he sees them. He says it's about disabling Iran's capabilities for long range missiles, and of course nuclear warheads - basically the things that are an actual threat to Israel. He doesn't think the war is going to take down the IRGC, and he doesn't even think that's the goal, which I thought was interesting. As in, of course getting rid of the Islamic Regime would stop the motivation for such weapons, but the regime can be stopped even if it doesn't collapse. He also explained how this outcome can be reached militarily or through diplomatic negotiations (although he doesn't trust the American diplomacy to actually get us there).

The last important note was that Israel needs to make sure that Hizballah isn't included in any sort of ceasefire deal with Iran. Hizballah is a threat to Israel regardless, and we can't expect the USA to take care of them for us. Also, if the war does resume after this short ceasefire, Israel needs to put most of its resources towards Lebanon (like literally send fewer missions to Iran and more to Lebanon). And the current diplomatic talks with Lebanon are a good thing that might actually lead to peace.

Of course, since this was a Q4 zoom, Yoav Heller started the talk with his own little 'motivational' speech. He said some things that are obvious to me but maybe not to everyone? 

1. We're still fighting the war that started on Oct 7th, 2023. It's about the existence of Israel as a sovereign state.

2. We Israelis need to stay focused on the north. This is obvious to me because Yossi has spent most of the war up north so I'm very aware of what's happening with Hizballah.