Why Israel Is Worried About Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions

Excerpt

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, learned the limits of his foreign policy strategy this week: Even well-armed and well-trained surrogate forces can prove unreliable if a determined modern army disables them.

After the death of Hassan Nasrallah and many of the other members of the upper echelons of the Lebanese Hezbollah, the clerical regime’s thwarted ballistic-missile attack on Israel on Tuesday was an attempt to diminish the humiliation that Tehran has felt after Israel rapidly deconstructed Iran’s most cherished protégé. With Hezbollah as a model and partner, Tehran had perfected Islamist imperialism on the cheap: Proxies spread the faith and mauled Iran’s enemies while shielding it from direct retaliation.

Mr. Gerecht is a resident scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Mr. Takeyh is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.