On May 6, the office of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson told the press that Israel had exposed Iran's “vengeance plan.” According to the disclosure, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is planning to unleash a salvo of rockets and missiles on an Israeli military target (or targets) in the north to avenge recent attacks against Iranian targets in Syria that have been attributed to Israel. Highly placed IDF sources said that the Iranians plan to transfer rockets or missiles to Syria to conduct the operation. On April 30, a warehouse near Aleppo stocked with hundreds of missiles was blown up in one of the suspected Israeli attacks. Foreign commentators surmised that the strike represented an attempt to thwart the Iranian retaliation.

Under ordinary circumstances, such an intelligence item testifying to Israel’s first-rate intelligence capabilities would have remained a deep, dark secret. Why let the Iranians know that they are so vulnerable to Israeli intelligence? For example, it took Israel more than a decade to admit to one operation that everyone already knew about — the destruction of the Syrian nuclear reactor near Deir ez-Zor in 2007.

Also on April 30, none other than the prime minister of Israel revealed an amazing operation undertaken by Mossad in the heart of Tehran, only a few months after its successful completion, which is almost the same as real time. Israeli agents succeeded in getting their hands on almost the entire Iranian nuclear archive and then smuggled the 55,000 documents and tens of thousands of computerized disks out of the country. This new policy of publicity, arrogance and “bells and whistles,” instead of secrecy and the fog of war, has aroused vehement controversy in Israel’s security and media apparatuses.

With the debate ongoing, Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz boldly announced on May 7 in Ynet's studio, “If Syrian President Bashar al-Assad continues allowing the Iranians to operate out of Syria, it would be the end of him, the end of his regime.” This policy on Syria was revealed May 2 in Al-Monitor, citing an anonymous Israeli source. It had never, however, been stated openly in public and so unambiguously by a high-ranking Israeli official. Thus, not everyone in Israel feels that this policy of military openness is correct. Former Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak went on the offensive in a May 7 interview with Israel’s Public Broadcasting Corporation.