Israeli Operation Against Iran

This has got to be reposted once more.

How about some historical background to the recent Israeli offensive against Iran? It's history actually goes back to ancient times. 

Remember that Babylon destroyed the First Temple of the Jews, and took them away into captivity. The Persians later conquered Babylon and allowed the Jews to return home, where they built the Second Temple. But the captivity in Babylon hadn't been really a bad time. It was nothing like the earlier slavery in Egypt. Many Jews were doing quite well and chose to stay in Babylon. They played a role in Jewish history until modern times.

Persia is actually an exonym and the official name of the country is Iran. This conquest of Babylon was near the beginning of the Persian Monarchy that would last 2,500 years. It was finally overthrown in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. The revolutionaries that overthrew the final Shah are the ones that govern Iran now.

Notice the name of the Israeli Offensive, "Operation Rising Lion". The Iranian flag before the revolution featured the symbol of the lion, the sun and, the sword. Image from the Wikipedia article "Flag of Iran".

The news reports were that Israel's ultimate goal was "regime change" in Iran. Donald Trump reportedly asked the Israelis not to kill the Iranian Supreme Leader. I am not sure if the Israelis were consciously thinking of this but historic forces were at work and they would naturally not only want to eliminate the present hostile government in Iran but also bring back the monarchy that once rescued them from Babylon. 

The Persian conquest of Babylon revolved around getting inside the walls, as Babylon was a walled city. While a drunken royal party was going on the Persians managed to partially dam the Euphrates River in order to get inside the city. This history was repeated when the U.S. assisted Israel by bombing Iranian underground nuclear sites with depth-penetrating bombs. In ancient times, the issue was getting inside the protection of the walls. In modern times the issue was getting through the protection of the underground bunker.

What about the Israeli missile that struck an Iranian state television studio during a live broadcast? The night that Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians is described in the Book of Daniel, Chapter 5. This is a description of the "writing on the wall" that appeared during the royal party. It informed the Babylonians that their time was up and their kingdom was being given to the Medes and Persians. The Babylonians had disrespected God by bringing in the sacred vessels that had been looted from the Temple in Jerusalem and used them as drinking cups. The missile was a modern version of the "writing on the wall".

The Persians were originally a vassal state of the Medes. But the Persians rose up and turned the tables, so that they were now the dominant ones. This was the beginning of the Persian Empire, that would last 2,500 years until 1979. The conquest of Babylon freed the Jews that were being held captive there. They returned to the ruins of Jerusalem and built the Second Temple, but some of the Jews chose to stay. 

The Israeli attack on Iran reenacted the "writing on the wall", in the form of the missile strike on the live broadcast. This was effectively in support of the Persian Monarchy that had freed the Jews from captivity in Babylon but had much later, in 1979, been overthrown by this hostile revolutionary government that was now ruling Iran.

We also see this "getting inside the walls" element in the Israeli bombing of Tehran's infamous Evin Prison. The release of prisoners, which were believed to include political prisoners, was a definite gesture toward regime change.

The Pahlavi Dynasty was the final dynasty in the 2,500-year-old monarchy. Here is a link to "Remembering The Pahlavi Dynasty":

www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2017/10/remembering-pahlavi-dynasty.html?m=0

ISRAEL'S ENTEBBE RAID

There is another historical event that might be a factor in this week's Israeli action against Iran. Israel's first major operation like this, involving a distant country, was the hostage rescue at Entebbe.

In late June, 1976, an Air France jet was hijacked by the Popular Front For The Liberation of Palestine. The passengers and crew would be freed in exchange for a list of prisoners being held in Israeli jails. Idi Amin, the President of Uganda who had previously been a supporter of Israel, surprised everyone by welcoming the plane to Entebbe Airport, just south of Kampala. Entebbe would soon become probably the most famous airport in the world.

The majority of the hostages were freed but more than a hundred, who had a connection to Israel or who declined to be released, were held in a building at the airport. The hijackers included two German leftists, and Idi Amin personally visited them.

In a sudden operation, on July 4 while America was celebrating it's bicentennial, Israel dispatched about 100 commandos aboard planes which landed at the airport at night. Two of the hostages were killed in error, being mistaken for hijackers, but the rescue operation was a success. Part of the operation included a black Mercedes similar to the one used by Idi Amin.

The only Israeli commando killed in the mission happened to be the brother of Benjamin Netanyahu, the current Prime Minister of Israel. Maybe that is a factor in the recent Israeli operation.

There were a lot of repercussions to the raid. The president of neighboring Kenya had allowed the Israeli planes to refuel at Nairobi. Idi Amin retaliated by having more than two hundred Kenyans who were living in Uganda killed. That is the side of Entebbe that is not well-known.

WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION 

Another precedent is, of course, the "regime change" in Iraq, following the 2003 invasion, due to Saddam Hussein allegedly possessing "weapons of mass destruction".