The worldwide anti-Israel movement—and especially the drive to boycott, divest from, and sanction the Jewish state (BDS)—portrays itself as a grassroots effort inspired by or cooperating with Palestinian activists. But for many of its European offshoots, Tehran is a primary source of funds and direction. Asaf Romirowsky and Benjamin Weinthal write:

[A]nnual al-Quds Day rallies [named after the Arabic term for Jerusalem], which were inaugurated in 1979 by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran’s theocracy, urge individuals to support the BDS movement and the destruction of Israel. Al-Quds Day rallies blanket European cities such as Berlin, London, and Vienna. Iranian-backed Islamists have no qualms about marching together with an amalgam of neo-Nazis, German leftists, and supporters of the U.S.- and EU-designated terrorist entity the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The Iranian regime-owned Islamic Center of Hamburg charters buses with Iranian regime and Hizballah supporters to travel to Berlin to march in the al-Quds Day rally. Since 1996, there have been 21 al-Quds Day marches in the German capital. . . .

Iran’s grassroots campaign to shape European and American opinion is not limited to demonstrations. In 2016, the Bavarian city of Bayreuth awarded 10,000 euros to a U.S.-based activist group—Code Pink—that supports a boycott of the Jewish state and has participated in a conference in Iran with Holocaust deniers. The women’s organization Code Pink has gone to great lengths to defend Iran’s regime. In January, the Israeli government banned representatives of Code Pink and an additional nineteen BDS organizations from entering the country because of their campaign to dismantle Israel. . . .

Moreover, . . . the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) has played a role in promoting the nuclear deal with Iran. . . . RBF at large has [also] been a staunch supporter of the BDS movement with its support of the organizations Jewish Voice for Peace and Breaking the Silence. . . .

Early Friday morning, Israel attacked military installations near the Iranian cities of Isfahan and nearby Natanz, the latter being one of the hubs of the country’s nuclear program. Jerusalem is not taking credit for the attack, and none of the details are too certain, but it seems that the attack involved multiple drones, likely launched from within Iran, as well as one or more missiles fired from Syrian or Iraqi airspace. Strikes on Syrian radar systems shortly beforehand probably helped make the attack possible, and there were reportedly strikes on Iraq as well.

Iran itself is downplaying the attack, but the S-300 air-defense batteries in Isfahan appear to have been destroyed or damaged. This is a sophisticated Russian-made system positioned to protect the Natanz nuclear installation. In other words, Israel has demonstrated that Iran’s best technology can’t protect the country’s skies from the IDF. As Yossi Kuperwasser puts it, the attack, combined with the response to the assault on April 13,

clarified to the Iranians that whereas we [Israelis] are not as vulnerable as they thought, they are more vulnerable than they thought. They have difficulty hitting us, but we have no difficulty hitting them.

Nobody knows exactly how the operation was carried out. . . . It is good that a question mark hovers over . . . what exactly Israel did. Let’s keep them wondering. It is good for deniability and good for keeping the enemy uncertain.

The fact that we chose targets that were in the vicinity of a major nuclear facility but were linked to the Iranian missile and air forces was a good message. It communicated that we can reach other targets as well but, as we don’t want escalation, we chose targets nearby that were involved in the attack against Israel. I think it sends the message that if we want to, we can send a stronger message. Israel is not seeking escalation at the moment.