Israel Launches strike against Irans Nuclear Programme

So attacking the family of combatants is acceptable?

Not sure this is going to plan for the regime. Haifa was pulverised this evening and the "iron dome" had minimal impact on incoming missiles. I don't think this level of effective retaliation by Iran was part of the script….Israelis are not used to seeing this amount of bombardment within their own borders.

And in fairness it's difficult to be sure that the people who die in any airstrikes or supporting one side or the other. Perhaps the people who died in Israel were supportive of a Palestinian state.

Hopefully it might turn some Israelis against Bibi. It was his pre-emptive attack on Iran that brought this down on their heads.

How many missiles were fired and how many were intercepted? A single ballistic missile can cause huge damage to a residential area. I certainly wouldn't call Iran's retaliation effective.

Israel, actually Netanyahu, is defining the border between countries that will have to be Chinese allies and the rest of Eurasia. This sectarian row in Western Asia may also force Turkey into the same camp. I’m not sure that’s good for Europe long-term.

Seems the Iranians went after the oil refinery in Haifa this evening rather than residential areas. But videos on social media show the area around the refinery receiving multiple missile strikes. As I said, Israelis are not used to seeing this level of warfare and bombardment within their own state (instead they're usually reading over breakfast about the IDF dishing it out to many of the neighbouring countries).

It looks like it's going exactly to plan imo.

They never would have expected to intercept all Iranian attacks. The effect of Iran's retaliation so far has been extremely limited. They may have something else up their sleeve that'll sustain significant damage on Israel but if they manage that (which I doubt), the retaliation from Israel will be fierce.

Isn't it inevitable that the US and perhaps the wider West get dragged into this?

It's in the West's overwhelming interest that Iran doesn't have nuclear capabilities. If they survive the Israeli onslaught, or the war ends prematurely by Israel backing out due to insufficient help, then they will surely accelerate their nuclear program.

The West's ultimate self interest is that Iran doesn't have nuclear capabilities. They preferred to achieve this through diplomacy and a deal, but that's impossible now so it'll have to be destroyed via Israel. The West certainly won't like the high stakes nature of the situation and the potential of serious regional instability, but we are where we are now and Iran can't have a nuke.

Doesn't seem to be much damage based on videos online. So Iran spent $1 billion in rockets to hit an oil tank, apartment building and a residential area so far? I'd say Israel are quite happy how it's going. There's minimal push back from the west. Hell even Germany and France are falling for the self defense excuse. It looks like Israel has severely degraded Iran's air defense to the point where the IDF are free to bomb at will. Israel appears to have severely limited Iran's response going by the surprisingly small numbers of rockets fired at Israel and in waves so Israel have time to reload.

"but I see no indication that Iran would have enough nuclear material to come even close to matching Israel's stockpile in the near future."

The thing is though, Iran doesn't need to match the Israeli stockpile of nuclear weapons because of Israel's tiny geographical size. 10 to 15 nukes in the 20kt range would end Israel's existence as a functioning state. Will Iran reach this capability? I honestly don't think so. If they (foolishly IMO) attack American targets, I can see the impulsive current occupant of the White House ordering strikes on underground sites like Natanz with ordnance that the Israelis currently don't have.

So it's acceptable to attack military target's inside civilian areas. I suppose most cities have military target's, it's shocking really.. Is Israels hypocrisy a reason we should cheer other innocents being executed? I would ask you the same question I asked another poster, how many innocent Israeli life's do you feel would be an appropriate number before you feel that it was excessive.

Absolutely, but considering once a government is in power, it's difficult to turn their course, how would you suggest they do so. I'd imagine a wartime government, with associated powers is even more independent, even our own constitution has outrageous wartime contingencies.