Iran has retaliated against Israel with a massive missile barrage, mostly targeting Tel Aviv. But "miraculously," no Israelis were injured and the missiles did no serious damage. But where will Israel go from here? Former IDF spokesman and Foundation for Defense of Democracies Senior Fellow Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Conricus joins Glenn to discuss. Conricus, who was in a bomb shelter with his family during the attack, debunks some claims made by Iran and online and also explains why he believes "something special happened AGAIN yesterday." This is now the second time, he explains that Israel, with help from the United States, has neutralized a massive Iranian attack. So, will Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strike Iran in retaliation? And what are the odds that a larger war will break out?
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: The other thing that happened yesterday, that is so important is Israel. Israel is going to respond. I believe we have lieutenant colonel retired.
Jonathan Conricus. He's been on with us before. He's the former Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson, and now senior fellow of Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
And we wanted to get you on, Jonathan, first of all, assuming you're in Israel.
You're safe. And that's good. Tell us what happened yesterday, and what it means going forward.
JONATHAN: Yes. Hi, Glenn. Thank you for having me again. A pleasure. What happened yesterday was the biggest missile attack in Israeli history. About 200 ballistic missiles were fired from about 800, 900 miles away, in Iran. At Israel.
The Iranians claimed that they were aiming for military targets. But most of the impacts were actually civilian neighborhoods. And luckily, and quite ironically, some might say, the only casualty in life, was a Palestinian in Jericho. No Israeli citizens were killed.
And while there were some impacted as an Israeli Air Force base, nothing of substance, and no real damage. Neither to infrastructure, or to military capacities.
GLENN: Wait a minute. Hang on.
I heard that several F-35s were taken out. That's not true?
JONATHAN: That is absolutely categorically not true.
There wasn't a single plane hit. Not a single hangar or bunker, and not a single runway.
There were some -- one of the Air Force bases. I'm not going to say the name.
But one of the Air Force bases was hit.
It's only been -- no damage to the Israeli Air Force's capability to continue to operate.
And as our enemies know. The Israeli Air Force continues to operate, in Beirut. In other parts of the Middle East.
In southern Lebanon, over Gaza.
And so the Iranian propaganda, of having 90 percent of their targets, were hit.
Absolutely false. And not -- again, proved the enduring return on investment here.
Many years of investing. US and Israel. Doing that together.
And for the second time in the -- the moment of truth. Air defenses were almost airtight.
And they saved lots and lots and lots of lives in Israel.
GLENN: I have to tell you. I don't know if you're a religious man or not.
But I am
200 missiles being launched. Ballistic missiles.
Coming in and going into Israel.
And for no one to be killed, and you're -- and your Air Force and your military bases. Not to be destroyed.
Is an extraordinary miracle, I think.
JONATHAN: I would agree. And you don't have to be fearing in every way, to recognize that something special happened again, yesterday.
This is the second time that the Iranians unleashed massive firepower.
And it appeared to be able to understand what we're talking about. The missiles are as big as school buses. And they fired 200 of them. Each one of them with hundreds of pounds, about half a ton of explosives in the warheads.
We're talking about very serious weapons.
Large explosives.
My family, we were in the bomb shelter.
My son, he was on the bus. And then ran to a shelter.
And it was really a scene out of a movie. With explosions.
And interceptions, in Tel Aviv. And as you said, the fact that no substantial damage. And no loss of life. Yeah, many would say. And probably I would agree, that this was a miracle.
Air defenses, IDF, and a miracle.
GLENN: I have to tell you, I watched those missiles come in live. But, you know, obviously, from the other side of the planet. And I thought, what must that be like?
You know, I thought of missile launches here, going outbound, or coming in.
Something very few people in the world have seen what happened yesterday.
It must have been terrifying for the average person.
Seeing everything. The sky just lit up with fire.
JONATHAN: Yes. The sky lit up with fire.
And each of you the -- in the air. You know, that they're attached to hundreds of pounds of explosives.
They're lethal. And that they're aimed at the Israeli cities.
And there are explosions all around.
Lots of noise.
You know, we have. Just like in the US.
You have the Amber Alerts. System on your phones.
Israeli defense establishment did the same thing.
And issued like a push notification on all the phones.
Even those who didn't have an app. Download it. And millions of Israelis.
Very strong alarms on their phones.
Call them to immediately go to shelter.
And that's what millions of Israelis did.
And that's also what thankfully led to the fact that even though, some of the missiles exploded in populated areas in Israel, nobody was hurt. Because Israelis were disciplined. And went into bomb shelters.
And nobody was caught out in the open.
GLENN: So is Benjamin Netanyahu, do you think going to respond to this?
Will he strike Iran? And is there any fear that they are going to cut off the oil pathways? Are you there? Go ahead.
JONATHAN: Yeah. When we look forward -- can you hear me? Can you hear me?
GLENN: Yes.
JONATHAN: All right. So when we look forward here, I think two things will determine what will happen next. One is Israel's endgame. Seek to achieve. Because there are a lot of things when it comes to the Iranian regime. And I will clarify. And the second thing that is very important, is how well will Israel coordinate with the United States of America, and what will the level of support be in a global repeat.
Now, regarding the first part. Israel can go for regime targets, leaders, and personnel. Infrastructure that is part of the Islamic regime.
Israel can go for military and economic targets. But this is the places whereby the Iranian regime, the export of oil. And whereby, they make money.
Which is used to fund their activities. All of the terror organizations, in Israel.
And the third option, which, of course, many are eyeing and thinking about is Iran's nuclear military facility.
The research facility, the storage facilities, and many others. These are three distinctly different types of -- and what Israel wants to achieve.
Does Israel want to bring down the regime? Does it only want to hurt the Iranians from attacking Israel again?
Will Israel be told not to do anything significant by the Americans?
And, of course, remind everybody, last time that Iran attacked on the 13th or 14th of April, Israel wanted to retaliate in a much stronger way.
But refrained from doing so under America first. And instead, Israel attempted in continuing in finishing the job in Gaza and Hamas.
I don't think that we're going to see that today. And I think we are going to see in the coming days, a strong Israeli response. It may be aimed at the regime. It may be aimed at their nuclear facilities.
But I think it's absolutely important, is that Israel and the United States of America are coordinated, and I hope American leaders will see this current situation, a threat to Israel. And an opportunity to really do more in a week, than what has been accomplished in ten years of failed diplomacy. When it comes to stopping Iran from going nuclear.
I really think there will be an opportunity.
GLENN: Yeah. I think that will be good. As long as there are calls from both sides, yesterday.
That America needs to send more troops over. I think we already have 40,000 that we've sent over.
We don't want to be in another war.
This one could go global.
I think Israel is showing the world, don't screw with us.
You guys are doing a great job.
And I support that.
I just -- I just don't want to see us, enflame things by including ourself, in the actual strikes.
But support --
JONATHAN: I agree with you. And I wouldn't want -- I wouldn't want the single American service men in harm's way. And I don't think that anybody needs to be fighting Israel's war.
And I think that Israel, in its history, has many times, done the heavy lifting for the rest of the Western world. Whether it's been keeling with Iraqi dictators, or with Syria, or with many others.
And Israel is -- the only thing Israel has is military support. Supplies. And, of course, political and diplomatic support. I don't think that Israel's needs or wants. Any American service members to be in harm's way. And I would just say a tremendous gratitude to American service men.
Against them. Deployed in the Red Sea. Among the -- on the US Navy ships.
And in the air.
Done tremendous work in intercepting Israeli missiles. Very professional.
And super important.
And I hope they remain safe. And I hope that they can have the diplomatic -- and military to help them to do what they need to do in order to defend itself.
GLENN: Well, we here support you on whatever you have to do to defend yourself.
I support you, I should say.
And I think there are millions of Americans that are listening, that feel the same way.
Jonathan. Thank you so much.
I really appreciate it.
You bet. Lieutenant colonel, Jonathan Conricus. Former Israeli defense spokesperson. The only thing that you should be really looking for is escalation.
But most importantly, as he was talking about. Red Sea. When you get into the straits over there, just off the shores of Iran.
If they start going after our Navy ships, or they try to close those straits down.
That is the world's flow of oil. And we will get involved in that.
And that will become very, very -- very, very dangerous.
Because this one will -- this one will not be a partial war.
This one will include, I believe bombings in our streets.
I believe we are close to terrorist activity. Foreign terrorist activity. In our own streets.
Orchestrated by Iran.
And a lot of others, who are here, and want to destroy us.
So we -- especially during this election season, we all need to be good Americans, together.
Not Republicans. Democrats, but good Americans.
And start paying attention to these issues. So we can start taking care of our own self first. So we survive this time period.