On IDF Commandos in Iran

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The very word “commando” brings to mind, or to the palpebral cinema, a multitude of Hollywood scenes. Deeds of derring-do in foreign lands with visions of determined officers (Gregory Peck? Gary Cooper?), and their men appropriately named to display the American melting pot — Rodriguez, Cohen, Endicott, and O’Houlihan — crawling in a moonless night through the underbrush toward the barracks, or the bridge, or the bomb factory, that they must blow up by knocking unconscious some, and silently killing others with bare bodkins, among the 85 sinister Nazi soldiers guarding the target. Hurray for Hollywood!

In the real world, the Israeli commandos are even more impressive than the celluloid versions we see on the big screen. The chief of the IDF, Gen. Eyal Zamir, has in a televised address just paid public tribute to their role inside Iran, where they caused magnificent mayhem, destroying missiles, airbases, rocket launchers, planes on the ground, fifteen senior nuclear scientists, and two dozen high-ranking generals in both the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and the regular army. More on General Zamir’s remarks can be found here: “IDF commandos covertly operated in Iran, Zamir reveals,” Jerusalem Post, June 25, 2025:

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir revealed that commando forces operated on the ground covertly in Iran during the war, in joint efforts with the Air Force and along with the Mossad, in a televised address Wednesday.

“We achieved full control of the Iranian skies and every location we chose to operate in. This was made possible in part thanks to the joint efforts and subterfuge of our air forces and commandos on the ground,” Zamir said.

“These forces operated covertly in the heart of enemy territory, securing operational freedom of action.”

Earlier, in an address to his Mossad agents involved in operations against Iran, Mossad head David Barnea said that the spy agency’s achievements against Iran were “unimaginable,” with public details indicating they were involved in assassinating top Iranian military chiefs, nuclear scientists, blowing up nuclear facilities, drone facilities, and ballistic missiles facilities….

Iran has previously accused the Mossad of using drones to attack the Karaj facility in June 2021, as well as other operations.

The “accusation” that the Mossad had attacked the Karaj nuclear facility in 2021 was undoubtedly correct. Having had a taste of what the Mossad agents inside Iran could do using drones, why, in the four years since that attack, did the Iranian army or the IRGC apparently do nothing to prepare for more such attacks?

IDF commandos and Mossad agents, both living dangerously in the midst of the fanatical Muslims of the Islamic Republic, knowing that if discovered they would be immediately executed — we’ll likely never learn the names of those in either group until decades hence — have performed spectacularly. The people of Israel, of the region, and of the world, owe them all a great debt. We are undoubtedly safer for what they have achieved, the details of which we do not know and need not inquire about. Be grateful that those highly intelligent and brave souls have done their duty. Truly, He who watches over Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.