For all the talk of the threat Iran posed to Israel and the wider region, Netanyahu never pulled the trigger on a major military operation. Instead, he authorized sporadic high-risk, high-reward operations from Israel’s Mossad spy agency, including the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists and the stealing of the country’s nuclear archive.

The United States’ overnight attack could cause further escalation. To Israelis, it is already seen as a victory for Israel, and for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Dan Caine spoke on Sunday morning about "Operation Midnight Hammer," in which the U.S. dropped over a dozen Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bombs on two Iranian nuclear facilities and hit a third site on Saturday evening.