IRAN CHOOSES THE WEAKEST OPTION TO "HIT" ISRAEL: MASSIVE, INEFFECTUAL DRONE STRIKE

Massive L, it's almost like they're trying to de-escalate

Iran had lots of options to respond to the Israeli attack on its consulate in Syria on April 1st. It could have launched its own attack against an Israeli consulate in a third country, sent in trained assassins to hit key Israeli leaders and personnel, or flooded the oil market and crashed the price of oil to ensure that the pro-Israeli candidate, Donald Trump, loses the US Presidential election in November.

But instead it went for the weakest option - a massive "swarm strike" that allowed Israel and its Western allies to use high-tech air defence systems to shoot down hundreds of drones and missiles, while also opening up Iran for a sharp counter airstrike from Israel. 

Iran reportedly launched a grand total of 185 drones, 36 cruise missiles, and 110 surface-to-surface missiles, mainly from sites in Iran, with a few from their proxies in Iraq and Yemen. They could probably have launched more, but in recent months they have shipped a lot of their drones to help out their struggling Russian ally in its war with Ukraine.

So what was the impact of Iran's "grand gesture"? Apparently, a few rocks near an Israeli airbase were disturbed and one person was reported as injured. This was an even weaker response than just getting Syrian Girl to make some mean tweets about Jews.

More tweets from Syrian girl would have been a harder option tbh

The subdued nature of this "attack" may serve to embolden hardliners in the Netanyahu government to strike at the countries surrounding Israel and to push the war in Gaza, regardless of the humanitarian disaster this is creating.

The best hope for Iran going forward is to wait for the inevitable Israeli response and to hopefully "humiliate" Israel by shooting down an Israeli jet or two and capturing a pilot. With the poor state of Iranian air defences that will be a big ask.