Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called this week for the Israel Defense Forces to inflict a “disproportionate” attack on Iran after the Middle East country launched an unprecedented missile and drone attack on Israel on Saturday.
During an interview with Israel’s Army Radio (GLZ), Smotrich said that Israel’s response should be “fierce, severe and inflict a disproportionate toll” so much that it would make the Iranian government “regret the moment they even thought about firing.”
As far as the 44-year-old is concerned, Israel’s response to the attack should “rock Tehran, so everyone there will realize they shouldn’t mess with us.”
This, he believes, would help “shape [Israel’s] position in the Middle East.”
Making a case that Israel should not let Israel’s international allies and partners dictate its response to Iran’s aggression, Smotrich said, “This is the language spoken in the Middle East.”
Smotirch’s call for a “disproportionate” response to Iran’s attack aligns with the opinions of several foreign policy and military experts on the matter.
Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton said on Sunday that Israel should not settle for a “proportional” response.
“The way to reestablish deterrence is not proportional. That’s academic talk. The way you establish deterrence is by telling your adversary, if you ever try that again, the price you will pay will be so much higher than any gain you think you can get, you shouldn’t even think about it,” Bolton said.
Former British Army Commander Colonel Richard Kemp — who served as chairman of the British government’s Cobra Intelligence Group, responsible for coordinating the work of the national intelligence agencies, including MI5 and MI6 — also highlighted the need for a “disproportionate” response on Monday.
“I don’t think Israel should be looking at a proportionate response; I think Israel should be looking at a disproportionate response here. Israel should deliver a very, very severe retaliatory attack or series of attacks against Iran. And the reason I say that, it sounds terrible, sounds like war mongering, it isn’t intended to be that. But in this region in particular, only strength is understood,” he said.
“Since Iran carried out this attack over the weekend, it’s been ridiculed around the Arab world for being ineffective for not achieving anything. And that shows the level of contempt that countries around here and players around here have witnessed. So Israel needs to deliver something that will not just be a kind of tit for tat, which will again encourage a further response from Iran, it needs to deliver a level of attack, in my view, yeah, that really does deter Iran from doing the same,” he added.
Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and Brigadier General (Res.) Professor Jacob Nagel, senior fellow at FDD and a former top Israeli official, both hold the belief that a “disproportionate” response is the only thing that Iran would understand, as they argue that Tehran could be emboldened to initiate another attack if it is not made to pay “a severe price” for deploying its weapons on Israel.
“And the next time, these drones and missiles may be armed with nuclear or chemical payloads,” they warn.