YONI BEN MENACHEM -- Iran no longer hides behind its affiliates and sends them to do the dirty work while keeping its hands clean. 

The Iranian leadership made a strategic decision to dip its hands in the waters of war and attack Israel directly, which testifies to Iran's great self-confidence and full faith in its military capabilities vis-a-vis Israel.

This requires Israel to change its strategy. It is very difficult to defeat Iran from such a great geographical distance, but it is certainly possible to inflict painful blows on it and achieve victory over its branches in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria.

The Iranian missile attack on Israel was the second in number after the attack on April 14, following the assassination in Damascus of Iranian General Hassan Mahdawi by Israel. According to security sources, Iran tried in its attack to damage strategic facilities that cannot be specified at the moment. This gave Israel international legitimacy to attack the Iranian nuclear facilities.

It seems that Iran is trying to accustom Israel to a war of attrition directly from Iran, based on the mistaken assumption that Israel is afraid to attack on Iranian soil. The Iranians are not afraid of entering into an exchange of military blows with Israel.

Through the attack, Iran is trying to improve its regional position and image after Israel's military successes, including the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Tehran soil and the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian General Abbas Nilfarousian, commander of the Quds Force in Lebanon. The assessment in Israel is that the Iranian attack will indeed help it repel the claims of its affiliates that it did not come to their aid, but much also depends on the nature of the expected Israeli response to the Iranian attack.

Israel is debating about the nature of the response to the Iranian missile attack. The Israeli decision on a strong military response has already been made, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran that it made a big mistake and will pay a heavy price for it. According to a report in the "Wall Street Journal" newspaper yesterday, Israel sent a message to Iran that it would damage its nuclear facilities or the oil industry on which the Iranian economy is based.

However, Israel will have to coordinate the attack targets in Iran with the Americans. In the assessment of senior security officials, an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would lead to an all-out regional war, something that the American administration specifically demands that Israel avoid. An attack on the Iranian oil industry will result in an attempted attack by Iran on Israel's gas rigs.

Israel must respond to the Iranian attack with force to maintain its deterrent power. There are enough other strategic goals in Iran. 

Senior political officials say that the contribution of the Iranian nuclear facilities will also arrive at the appropriate time, but right now the task is to return the tens of thousands of evacuees to their homes on the northern border, return the kidnapped and defeat Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Senior political figures say that Israel's highest priority right now is not to be drawn into a regional war and a direct war of attrition with Iran, which is about 2000 km away from us. 

Iran's turn will come, it all depends on the timing.

Yoni Ben Menachem, A NEWSRAEL Contributor, is a Middle East senior analyst ,a journalist and the former CEO of the Israel Broadcasting Authority(IBA). He has decades of experience in written and video journalism. Ben Menachem’s path in the media world began as a producer for Japanese television in the Middle East. After that, he held many key positions in the media The Israeli: CEO of the Israel Broadcasting Authority, director of “Kol Israel” Radio, reporter on West Bank and Gaza Strip affairs, political reporter and commentator, commentator on Middle East affairs and editor-in-chief and presenter of the program “Middle East Magazine”.