Bulletins and News Discussion from April 8th to April 14th, 2024 - First Iran-Israel War Megathread

There's this fascinating contradiction that we've seen now in both Ukraine and Israel where they're simultaneously asserting that everything is good because their air defense systems intercepted everything, Iran/Russia is seething and coping because of it, etc etc; but also that this was a massive and brutal escalation and Iran/Russia must be punished for all the harm they've done to us. I can't personally say I care that much about whatever narratives that Israel produces to cope with their losses, and the last six months show well how Israel even more so than Ukraine is putting all their cards into propaganda in the hopes that it'll affect things in the real world somehow, as if saying that your military bases aren't being BTFO will un-explode them.

Last night really was a paradigm shift, which was easy for me to forget in the videos of drones and missiles smacking into Israeli installations. Israel's sense of invulnerability shattered on October 7th, and their operations and propaganda inside the Gaza Strip since then has been one big attempt to not just attempt the impossible task of destroying Hamas, but to rebuild that sense of strength in their society. When Hezbollah and Yemen joined in, it was two further blows to them. But one thing that Israel could tell itself while rocking back and forth in the fetal position was that there was still one last shield it possessed, one way in which it was still strong - it knew that Iran would never attack them directly. They simply would not dare. It would be too massive of a hurdle to jump, too dangerous for Iran to strike them, a nuclear-armed power. They would only ever act through resistance groups, they thought. And that has been more-or-less true for many decades now.

Until last night. The Rubicon has been crossed. There's now little left for Israel's sense of protection. Weeks where decades happen.