During 2017 and 2018, there hasn’t been a week without the news of an Israeli attack in Syria on targets owned or supported by Iran. The last of these targets was an Iranian Boeing Airplane parked in Damascus Airport.  The news about these attacks are censored by both the reformist and fundamentalist media, and people of Iran are kept in the dark so that the divine promises of the supreme leader are not undermined.

Ali Khamenei has prophesized that Israel will be annihilated by the year 2040. It has been three years since his eternally memorable prophecy. Based on the laws of depreciation, which all things in the universe follow (of course not the Islamic Republic universe), at least 12% of Israel must be annihilated by now (3 in 25), unless the plan is that when the time comes (if the regime is still in power by then) the supreme leader would yell SHAZAM (while pushing the nuclear bomb button) and destroy Israel in a second. But what is going on in the realm of possibilities, and how is the destruction of Israel going?

A comparative view of Iran and Israel

Israel has a vibrant and developing society which does not suffer from most of the common problems in the middle eastern societies or suffers much less. The country has strong democratic foundations enjoys the Four Freedoms in a way that no Muslim majority country does. The media is free, and the country’s problems are announced by its own media. Israel’s economy is based on free market and technology development. The economic growth of the country from 2005 to 2013 has been consistently around 5 percent, and in recent years it has decreased to 2.8 percent. Their gross domestic revenue in 2017 was 316 billion dollars, and when you compare it to Iran’s 431 billion dollars for the same year, you’ll begin to realize the tragedy for Iran and the unbelievable success for this small country with a tenth of Iran’s population and one-eightieth of the area, and significantly less amount of natural resources.

Israel’s Income per-capita in 2017 was 36 thousand dollars, and for Iran, it was 6 to 7 thousand dollars. The official unemployment rate for the same year was 12 percent in Iran and 4 percent in Israel. The inflation rate in 2017 was 0.2% and the 9.9% “officially” in Iran. All this, while at the same time Israel is forced to defend itself against the circle of enemies in the region. If annihilation is based on the patterns and processes (and not the Shazam idea), and due to all the corruption and incompetence and sanctions, isn’t the Iranian society closer to annihilation than Israel? Based on economic and social measures and standards, which country is doing well, and which is in a downward spiral? Even the doctored statistics provided by the Islamic Republic point at this direction if we compare them to Israel’s.

Having the upper hand in the annihilation

If we are talking in terms of annihilation, which country has the upper hand? In order to be brief, I will not compare the military power of the two countries and will only focus on their interactions in Syria. During the Syrian civil war and the presence of foreign forces in that country, Israel’s only focus has been to destroy the military forces and the arsenal sent from Iran; whether it be missiles, Basiji forces, paid Afghani and Pakistani mercenaries, or the civilian planes that the Islamic Republic has been using for the last two decades to send missiles and weapons to Hezbollah and the Syrian government. Israel is fully aware of long-term goals of the Shia Islamists behind their presence in Syria, Israel is defending its existence, therefore it is taking every military and diplomatic measure to stop the forces of Islamic Republic and its allies. In the past two years, Israel has attacked 200 targets in which the Quds Army or its pawns have had forces or equipment. During this process, Israel has relied on four facts:

1. Israel has never officially called for overthrowing the Assad regime, and it has remained neutral during the civil war; as a result, Israel’s attacks on Iranian positions in Syria, are not considered attacks on the Syrian army or government. Therefore, the Syrian government either ignores these attacks or barely responds. The parties involved in Syria view the altercations between Israel and Iran as the Islamic Republic’s ideological struggle against Israel, and they try to stay away from it. The Syrian government has never announced a desire to destroy Israel.
2. Israel’s good relations with Russia has prevented Russia from getting involved in the feud between the two countries. Israel scored that point when they, independent from the U.S and the European governments, did not take a position against the occupation of Crimea by Russia.  Although Russia supports Assad in the civil war, it has denied S300 from the regime so that the regional conflicts would remain unaffected by Russia. Russia is not happy with Iran’s plan to destroy Israel, therefore, in their conflict, Russia remains neutral.
3. Due to the change of administration from Obama to Trump, Israel now considers itself fully dependent on the United States in case of military reactions to its attacks on Islamic Republic targets. These attacks during the past two years have caused no problems or risks for Israel.
4. Islamic Republic’s main ally in the region, Hezbollah, is also not getting directly involved in the conflict, because it does not want to engage in another battle besides Syria. Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syrian civil war has caused them thousands of dead and injured forces who are getting tired of the erosive war. In its relationship with the Islamic Republic, Hezbollah is always the receiver, and never the giver. Hezbollah will not sacrifice itself for the Islamic Republic.

Neither of Russia, United States, Turkey, or Israel, want the Islamic Republic’s presence in Syria. Therefore, Israel is generously destroying the Islamic Republic’s forces and resources in Syria. With each passing day, we get closer to the expiration date of the Islamic Republic in Syria.

Iran’s presence in Syria has led to a point where its forces and military resources have all become easy practice targets for Israel, cannon fodder if you will. By putting these human and financial resources in front of Israeli bombers, the Islamic Republic is wasting them without any justification. The Islamic Republic is not even announcing its casualties and financial losses (like the Boeing 747) they just bury them in silence. Occasionally, some of these casualties are buried as “the Shrine martyrs” and the media writes epics about them, without any mention of the location or the cause of their martyrdom. Apparently, they are ashamed to admit that these “defenders of the shrine” were killed by the Israeli army.