Israel disrupted its neighbors’ afternoon nap on Wednesday. In fact, the nuisance had the world wake up from its siesta. That West, that sleeping beauty that has all but passed out, had been dreaming about Iran being gradually transformed into a moderate nation when those rude Israeli commandos raided a Panamanian-flagged merchant vessel some 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) away from home, seizing M-302 missiles that had been dispatched from Syria to the Gaza Strip, by way of Iran.

This perception of Israel has its origins in 1972, when the elite special forces unit Sayeret Matkal freed the passengers aboard a hijacked Sabena plane. It was reinforced in the wake of the daring Israeli mission in Entebbe, Uganda in 1976, when the Israel Defense Forces rescued some 100 Israeli hostages whose plane had been taken over by Palestinian terrorists and diverted to Africa, and in 1988, when Khalil al-Wazir, the second in command in the Palestine Liberation Organization, was assassinated by Israeli commandos in his Tunis home. Later, in 2002, Israel’s Flotilla 13 naval commando unit seized Karine A in the high waters of the Red Sea before its Iranian-dispatched weapons could reach the Gaza Strip. The most recent raid was a culmination of a lengthy undertaking that required a great deal of preparation.

The seizure of Klos C was not about Israeli pride. It was designed to make sure Hamas did not lay its hands on a lethal weapons system whose explosive payload of 150 kilograms (330 pounds) can target major population centers in Israel. The operation has other aspects, too. It helps the government as it tries to have the world see Iran for the terrorist epicenter it really is and undo the effect of its smiling leaders. The images of Israeli special forces on that ship help drive home this message in European and American households; they offer a counter-narrative that stands in stark contrast to what the Iran-pleasers in the West are doing.

Read the article in full at Israel Hayom.