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Israel ‘Likely’ Will Strike Iran’s Nuclear Program or Oil Refineries, Expert Says

  • Michael Foust Crosswalk Headlines Contributor
  • Published Oct 03, 2024
Israel ‘Likely’ Will Strike Iran’s Nuclear Program or Oil Refineries, Expert Says

A Middle East expert says it’s “increasingly likely” Israel will strike Iran’s nuclear facilities or oil refineries in the wake of Iran’s attack on the Jewish state. The back-and-forth between Israel and Iran has been ongoing for months, with the latest round seeing Iran launch nearly 200 ballistic missiles on Tuesday into Israel, most of which were intercepted, although one destroyed a school building. No one was in the building at the time.

Last week, an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and prior to that, a high-tech covert Israeli operation saw thousands of pagers throughout Lebanon explode simultaneously, causing numerous casualties within Hezbollah’s membership. Hezbollah is a terrorist organization based in Lebanon funded by Iran.

Tensions in the region are rising just as Israel prepares to commemorate the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel.  

Middle East expert and Israeli citizen Joel Rosenberg believes Israel may strike within Iran. 

“Is it possible that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu and his Security Cabinet will order the IDF to launch a massive attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities, oil refineries, and even a decapitation strike against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the Iranian regime on or around the one year anniversary of the October 7th invasion by Hamas and slaughter of 1,200 Israeli Jews?” Rosenberg wrote in a column on AllIsrael.com, where he serves as editor-in-chief.

“Yes,” Rosenberg answered. “That’s what I’m watching for, and I believe it is increasingly likely.”

Rosenberg also supports such a strike.

“Enough is enough,” he wrote. “Since the Iranian revolution began on February 1, 1979 – and then took Americans hostage in the U.S. embassy that November; and then blew up the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut in 1983; and then killed American servicemen in Iraq; and then murdered hundreds and hundreds of Israelis directly and through its terror proxies over the decades – the Iranian regime has never paid a serious price. Now is the time to strike.”

Netanyahu, for his part, said, “Iran made a big mistake … and it will pay for it.”

William Cohen, who served as defense secretary under U.S. President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, said he expects Israel to attack Iran.

“I think the Israelis believe they have got the upper hand now, that Iran and its proxies are on their heels, and now is really the time to take it to the source of their problems, and that’s Iran,” Cohen told CNN. “So, I would expect that they would level a very serious attack in Iran against a number of facilities, possibly their oil industry but conceivably their nuclear facilities. This has been a prime objective of the Israelis for some time to prevent them from getting a nuclear weapon. Iran seems to be getting closer to that possibility.”

Karim Sadjadpour, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment and adjunct professor at Georgetown, said Israel’s killing of Nasrallah was “hugely consequential.” 

“Hezbollah had already experienced more leadership deaths in the last four months than over the last four decades,” he said on X (formerly Twitter). 

Iran, he noted, is driven by a desire to eradicate Israel.

“Iran’s leaders have never been motivated by the welfare of Lebanese or Palestinians, but the destruction of Israel. Their official slogan has never been ‘Long Live Palestine’ (or even ‘Long Live Iran’) but ‘Death to Israel,” Sadjadpour wrote. “... Nasrallah’s death is huge, but its impact will take years to assess. The key to change in the Middle East remains a government in Iran whose organizing principle is not revolutionary ideology (‘Death to America, Death to Israel’), but Iran’s national and economic interests.”

Naftali Bennett, a former Israeli prime minister, said he supports a strike against Iran’s nuclear program. 

“Sometimes, history knocks on your door, and you’ve got to seize the moment,” he told CNN. “If we don’t do it now, I don’t see it ever happening. We must take out Iran’s nuclear program now.”

U.S. President Joe Biden, though, said he opposes an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program.

“They have a right to respond, but they should respond proportionally,” Biden said of Israel.

On Wednesday, NBC’s Richard Engel said that the Biden administration “is seeking to avoid a regional war, but that ship may have left port.”

Photo Credit:©Getty Images/Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Stringer

Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.