In 1943, the Kremlin sent the lawyer-turned-actor Solomon Mikhoels, in his position as chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, to the U.S. to raise support, and money, for the Soviet war effort. Mikhoels was chosen for the job because he was a Jewish celebrity, the lead actor and artistic director of the state-sponsored Yiddish theater in Moscow, and also a Yiddish film star. Five years later, he was shot dead by the precursor to the KGB. Many other members of the Anti-Fascist Committee were eventually executed as well, along with other major figures of Jewish literary life. They were, as Dara Horn puts it in her recounting of Mikhoels’s remarkable story, “disposable Jews” who had served the regime’s purposes and were no longer necessary. (Audio, 54 minutes.)

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.