Israel’s air strikes on Iranian military facilities in the wee hours of Saturday morning were not as big and destructive as many Israelis wanted.

But they were very effective in destroying Iran’s entire air defense system, both the regime’s key radar systems and the Russian-built S-300 anti-aircraft missile batteries that protect Tehran and vital Iranian nuclear sites.

Thus, Israel’s three waves of attacks on Saturday “cleared the path” for the IDF to launch much larger and far more destructive attacks in the future. What’s more, by ordering Hezbollah to try to assassinate Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently – sending suicide drones to attack Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea – the Iranian regime has opened the door for Israel to launch a decapitation strike to kill Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his top deputies.

That’s the case that former IDF international spokesman Jonathan Conricus made as we recorded an episode of my “Inside The Epicenter” podcast that my wife Lynn and I host for The Joshua Fund.

Conricus is a lieutenant colonel in the IDF Reserves.

He is also a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). ISRAEL’S ATTACK ON SATURDAY ‘SETS THE STAGE’ FOR FAR BIGGER ATTACKS

“As time will go by, we will have more and granular detail” about the full impact of Saturday’s strikes, Conricus told me.

“What I think is important now is to understand that this is – this basically sets the stage” for much larger attacks.

“I’ve been saying for many weeks that Israel needs to do a strategic change, that it needs to start attacking and undermining and weakening the Iranian regime,” Conricus said.

He noted, however, that there is a difference between what Israel wants to accomplish and the “geopolitical reality of how we interact with our American ally.”

Both U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have made it clear they are strongly opposed to Israel decapitating the Iranian regime, much less attacking and destroying Iran’s nuclear facilities and oil refineries.

By contrast, former President Donald Trump has made it clear he thinks Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should attack Iran much harder than what Biden and Harris are allowing.

That said, Conricus thinks Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant made a shrewd play.

“What Israel did on Saturday, I think, was setting the stage and preparing itself well for the future, which will come.”

“There will be a second Israeli significant strike against Iran, and perhaps the third one. I can easily see it happen,” Conricus said.

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