JANUARY 22 — Picture this: October 3, 2023, Tehran. The stage is set with a crowd buzzing like a hive, officials and foreign dignitaries shoulder to shoulder, hanging onto every word of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. As the speech crescendoes, Khamenei throws down the gauntlet to Israel — labelling it a “cancer” doomed to be wiped out by Palestinian hands. The crowd goes wild, thunderous applause shaking the pillars of the auditorium.
Fast forward four days: chaos! Sirens scream in southern Israel as rockets rain down and a swarm of Palestinian militants — on motorcycles, jeeps, and even paragliding from the sky — breach the borders. It’s mayhem, straight out of an action movie, except the horror is all too real. Over a thousand lives are snatched away in a day, the deadliest attack since the dark days of the Holocaust.
Tehran, playing its cards close to its chest, isn’t directly in the fray of the October 7 onslaught, but oh, do they milk the aftermath. Enter Iran’s old playbook — diplomatic shadowboxing paired with a proxy onslaught. But come April 13, it’s a whole new game. Iran steps out of the shadows and launches a barrage straight from its own backyard, missiles and drones raining down on Israel — direct hit!
Israel isn’t just sitting ducks though. They’re quick on the draw, aided by Uncle Sam and a band of Arab allies, dodging missiles like a matador. What follows is a swift and sleek retaliation, slicing through Iran’s proxies without breaking a sweat. The fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria? Just the cherry on top for Israel.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
