In the Western media, Israel's "retaliation" against Iran this time is very loud, but with the news coming out one after another, this is more like an online performance of "thunder and rain", in fact, when the United States drew a red line that will never enter the war, Israel will not have the courage to retaliate against Iran, the reason is very simple: it really can't be defeated.
Tensions between Israel and Iran could lead to a military conflict
Before Israel's "retaliation", the Iranian side repeatedly warned that we would not be afraid of the United States even if it ended. President Raisi said that Iran is ready to respond to the actions of the United States and Israel at any time, and that any enemy who dares to attack, whether Israel or the United States, will face the most severe punishment from Iran.
Many people may think that Iran is just talking ruthlessly, and it is difficult for their military strength to fight with Israel, after all, in the past few decades, Israel has been invincible in the Middle East, and Iran's little brother, such as Allah in Lebanon, Hamas, Quds Force, etc., has not been cleaned up by Israel. But this is not the case at all, Iran's military power is not below Israel's, and in some areas it has even left Israel far behind.
Iran's military power is not below Israel's
First of all, Iran has a total population of more than 88.5 million, which is more than nine times that of Israel. Their standing army totals nearly 600,000 and the IRGC has 125,000, making it the best of the best. Iran's defense forces are divided into two teams, the Revolutionary Guards and the regular army, both of which have their own navy, land and air forces, each with hundreds of thousands of reservists. In contrast, Israel mobilized more than 300,000 reservists to fight the Gaza War, and the two sides were not heavyweights in terms of the number of soldiers alone.
Speaking of weapons, the overall equipment level of the Iranian army is considered a medium power, the Pahlavi dynasty was pro-American, obtained a lot of Western weapons, and after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, it became friendly with the Soviet Union and purchased a large number of Soviet-made and Russian-made weapons. Although many weapons and equipment are relatively old and the technical level is relatively backward, the number is quite huge, and according to public data alone, Iran has more than 2,000 tanks and armored vehicles of various types, and nearly 10,000 artillery pieces of various types. In modern warfare, the victory or defeat of small frictions is mainly determined by the performance of weapons, and if you want to win a large-scale war, you will definitely not be able to suppress them without quantity. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has once again proved this truth, and Iran's superiority over Israel is crushing.
During the exercise, Iran successfully tested a number of air defense systems
In addition, the most eye-catching of Iran's weapons and equipment are drones and missiles, they have the ability to independently develop and produce missiles and drones, and their army is equipped with many types and quantities of missiles and drones, and at the same time, Iran is still one of the few countries with hypersonic missiles. Their missile reserves range from hundreds of kilometers to thousands of kilometers, and hypersonic missiles have also shown strong combat effectiveness in previous "night attacks" on Israel. In contrast, the Israeli army does not have missiles that can reach Iran, and if they want to attack Iran, they can only rely on F-35 fighter jets to borrow from a third country.
Finally, Iran's war potential is also incomparable to Israel, in the world, Iran ranks second in natural gas reserves, fourth in oil reserves, and tenth in steel production, once a full-scale war breaks out in the Middle East, Iran's weapons and ammunition production and logistics supply capabilities are also invincible.
The United States cannot afford to go to war with Iran directly
Considering the above factors, even the United States does not dare to start a war with Iran at will, Trump made a famous joke when he was in office, he himself wanted to fight Iran, but the senior generals around him did not agree, and Mark Milley, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also took the initiative to break the news with the media to ensure that the United States would not go to war with Iran. With such an enemy that even the United States finds intractable, it is easy for Israel to fight it alone. Iran has been tolerant of Israel in the past, but it does not want to destabilize the Middle East, and Netanyahu does not seem to understand this at all.
Therefore, Israel's retaliation against Iran will seem so "gentle", maybe Netanyahu just wants to pretend that he has taken revenge and give an explanation to his political enemies at home, otherwise not to mention Iran himself, Allah in the north called, and Israel could not eat and walk.