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Israel has the intelligence. Israel has the firepower. Israel has every moral and strategic justification. So why hasn’t it acted?

The question has loomed over every missile shipment to Hezbollah, every enrichment milestone in Natanz, every fiery Friday sermon from Khamenei: What is Israel waiting for?

More than a decade of warnings have passed — red lines drawn and crossed. Netanyahu has stood before the UN with props and PowerPoints, declared that Iran is months from a bomb, vowed to protect the Jewish state at any cost. And yet, here we are again: Iran enriching uranium at near weapons-grade levels, negotiations dragging on with U.S. backchannel chatter, and Israel, once again, holding fire.

Why?

Let’s start with the most obvious truth: Israel can act.

Iisrael’s capabilities are not in question. The IDF possesses one of the most advanced militaries in the world. It operates F-35I “Adir” stealth fighters, long-range precision strike systems, electronic warfare tools, and the kind of deep intelligence most nations can only dream of. Mossad has already proven its reach — from smuggling out an entire nuclear archive from Tehran in 2018 to sabotaging enrichment sites under the mullahs’ noses. Israel even demonstrated its readiness with the October 2024 strikes, which reportedly damaged Iranian missile production facilities and degraded regional IRGC capabilities.

So again: why no decisive strike on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure?

The answer, in part, lies in Washington.

From Obama to Biden to Trump 2.0, the U.S. continues to restrain Israel in the name of diplomacy. While each administration claims to be tough on Iran, the real play has been the same across parties: prevent open war in the Middle East, keep the oil markets calm, and kick the nuclear can down the road.

Now in his second term, President Trump has returned to form — talking sanctions one day, floating “limited freeze” offers the next. His Iran envoy, Steve Witkoff, is a former real estate lawyer with no diplomatic track record, currently accused of sending mixed signals to allies while negotiating via backchannel messengers that Tehran mocks publicly. And all of this is wrapped in Trump’s likely desire to brand himself, once again, as the president who “avoided war in the Middle East.”

But peace at the expense of action is not peace. It’s paralysis.

And in that vacuum, Iran grows bolder. Just recently, Iran’s regime dismissed reports from Reuters and The New York Times about their nuclear advances as “fabrications,” while its foreign ministry demanded an end to “threats and pressure” — even as it accelerated uranium enrichment and tightened ties with China and Russia.

So what is Israel’s move? Does Netanyahu truly believe that America will eventually act? Or is he caught in a political cycle — warning, posturing, then retreating under U.S. pressure and international optics?

Even former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is now publicly criticizing Netanyahu, accusing him of failure to influence the trajectory of U.S.-Iran talks. Meanwhile, the Israeli opposition is offering five conditions for any nuclear deal — but that’s just more talk.

1. Complete halt to uranium enrichment

2. Full dismantlement of all advanced centrifuges

3. Total closure of underground facilities like Fordow

4. Unrestricted IAEA inspections — anytime, anywhere

5. A permanent end to Iranian support for terror proxies

They’re right to demand them. But let’s not kid ourselves — Tehran will never agree to any of it. These conditions are not a negotiation framework. They’re a list of what it would take to neutralize Iran’s threat — and Iran knows it.

Tehran isn’t negotiating. Tehran is waiting for weakness — and Washington keeps delivering it.

So we come back to the question:

If Israel knows Iran will never stop voluntarily… if it knows the bomb is within reach… and if it has the capability to act — then why hasn’t it?

Is this about waiting for the perfect moment? Or is this about fear, not fear of Iran, but fear of America’s disapproval?

Because let’s be clear: Iran is not deterred by diplomacy. It’s emboldened by it.

• It has killed over 600 U.S. troops through Quds Force-backed operations
• It continues to fund terror from Gaza to Lebanon to Yemen
• It openly calls for the destruction of Israel — and not metaphorically
• It defies every IAEA inspection and breaks every limit, only to demand relief and legitimacy in return

So, how long do we wait? Until Tehran actually tests a bomb? Until Tel Aviv is in range? Until the next American administration decides, once again, to try another version of the same failed deal?

There is no deal to be made. There is no trust to be built. And there is no future for Israel if it continues outsourcing its survival to American elections and global posturing.

It’s time for clarity.

If Israel truly sees Iran’s nuclear program as an existential threat, then it must act like it.

And if the United States won’t act — and worse, won’t let Israel act — then it is complicit in what comes next.

The clock is ticking.

History won’t ask who had the best intelligence. It will ask who used it.