Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reprimanded IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir on Tuesday evening during a small cabinet meeting after Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Omer Tishler sent a letter to pilots revealing new details about a large strike package against Iran that was canceled at the last minute.
According to the article, Netanyahu said Tishler should not have written the letter, calling it “a national mistake” and a blow to “our unity.” He added, “It causes embarrassment before Trump.” The anger centered on Tishler’s account of the buildup to the planned strike, which described a broad Air Force attack on hundreds of targets in Iran that was halted only one hour before takeoff.
In the letter, Tishler said that after the strike in Hezbollah’s Dahieh stronghold, Israel was hit by dozens of Iranian surface-to-surface missiles, while the Air Force carried out an operation 1,500 kilometers from home, striking dozens of targets, severely damaging Iran’s air-defense system, and hitting other regime assets. He wrote that the entire Air Force was ready to launch the next day, but the operation was stopped while pilots were already being briefed.
Tishler also referred to the emerging Iran-US understandings, saying it was still too early to know how global moves would affect the security situation, but that the Air Force’s mission remained to defend Israel. After last week’s Dahieh strike and Netanyahu’s call with President Donald Trump, a senior Israeli official said Trump asked Israel to stop striking Iran. Another source said Israel had wanted to attack Iran again on Thursday, but Trump pressed for it not to happen. A reported memorandum between the US and Iran, said to have been electronically signed and due for a formal ceremony on Friday, would declare an immediate and permanent end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, and mutual commitments not to use force, according to a document published by Al-Arabiya and circulated by Iranian exiles.
