The hour of Israeli leadership has arrived

Hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered his address before the Joint Houses of Congress, Kuwait’s Al-Jarida newspaper reported that Iran has provided Hezbollah with electromagnetic pulse weapons.

Citing a source from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, the newspaper reported that the devices now in Hezbollah’s hands are capable of neutralizing Israel’s radars and communications systems.

The IRGC also reportedly provided Hezbollah with drones with electromagnetic pulse warheads and EMP bombs. Some of the EMP projectiles can be launched from stationary launchers and others from drones and can reach targets deep inside Israel, according to the Kuwaiti report.

The implications of the report are stark. The destructive power of an EMP attack is equal to that of a nuclear attack. Given Iran’s nuclear advances, there is every reason to believe that Iran has developed EMP capabilities, and would transfer them to Hezbollah. Iran’s now open threat of an EMP attack against Israel is nothing less than a threat to annihilate Israel. And since the threat was made in the midst of Iran’s multi-front war against Israel, it has to be taken seriously, with appropriate urgency.

During the course of his address to Congress, Netanyahu described the existential threat Iran poses to both Israel and the United States and laid out his vision for contending with it.

In his words, “America and Israel today can forge a security alliance in the Middle East to counter the growing Iranian threat.

“All countries that are in peace with Israel and all those countries who will make peace with Israel should be invited to join this alliance. We saw a glimpse of that potential alliance on April 14. Led by the United States, more than half a dozen nations worked alongside Israel to help neutralize hundreds of missiles and drones launched by Iran against us. …

“The new alliance I envision would be a natural extension of the groundbreaking Abraham Accords. Those accords saw peace forged between Israel and four Arab countries, and they were supported by Republicans and Democrats alike.

“I have a name for this new alliance. I think we should call it: ‘The Abraham Alliance.’”

On the face of things, since both Republicans and Democrats have played a role in forging the alliance—former President Donald Trump through the 2020 Abraham Accords, and President Joe Biden by organizing the Arab states in support of intercepting Iran’s missiles and drones shot against Israel on April 14—Netanyahu’s vision ought to attract support from both sides of the aisle. The problem is that Trump and Biden view their regional alliance as a means to achieve opposite ends.

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