Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of the General Staff Eyal Zamir told military intelligence officers Thursday that Israel had turned Iran’s infamous “Ring of Fire” against it, and that Israel was closing in on the regime.
The “Ring of Fire” was the idea that Iran could gradually isolate, and then destroy, Israel by surrounding it with terrorist proxies and hostile states.
The “Ring of Fire” was at its zenith on October 7, 2023. When Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza, Israel was surrounded by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and West Bank; Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen; the Syrian regime; and Shia militias in Iraq — all armed and funded by Iran.
After Israel repelled Hamas, however, it took on each of these forces, one by one, near and far. Last Friday, it took the fight directly to Iran, attacking its military leadership, ballistic missile sites, and nuclear facilities.
The IDF issued a statement that included Zamir’s remarks:
The Intelligence Directorate has demonstrated extraordinary and awe-inspiring capabilities. Every citizen of this country, and the whole world, is looking at you with admiration and respect. Everyone wants to learn how this happened, and I’m telling you, there are miracles, and those that make them happen are people, and in this case, those people are you. On my behalf, on behalf of the IDF, and on behalf of the State of Israel, I thank you all. What we are doing here is historic—we are changing the face of the Middle East. We are now turning the ‘ring of fire’—the sword that they built for years to attack us—against them on their territory. [Major General] Shlomi [Binder, head of the Intelligence Directorate], under your courageous and professional leadership, and together with all the other commanders here and the thousands of soldiers, you are doing outstanding work with excellence and immense professionalism. You are creating extraordinary capabilities, and that’s what is enabling us to operate 1,500 kilometers away with the highest level of precision.
Israel was able to use extensive intelligence on Iran to eliminate most of its military leaders and air defenses in the first 24 hours of the war, taking the Iranian regime by surprise. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) controls Iranian airspace and is attacking the Iranian military and institutions of the Iranian state on a continuous basis, around the clock. The regime is thought to be in hiding, with the IDF pursuing fleeing military leaders.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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