When the United States killed Qassim Soleimani at the Baghdad airport in the early hours of January 3, the head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was not the only target. With Soleimani was a handful of other Iranian brass as well as Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the leader of the Iraqi Shiite militia known as Kata'ib Hezbollah. Only days before, that group had fired on a base in Kirkuk and killed an American contractor. The group was also involved in the siege of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad just days later.

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The man once celebrated in Tehran as "the living martyr," Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, is now just a martyr in the traditional sense. Felled by a U.S. drone strike in Iraq, his life ended in the conflict zone that launched his career nearly 40 years ago. As the leader of the deadly Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, Soleimani was the lynchpin in Iran's transnational terrorism apparatus, stretching from Yemen to Lebanon to Latin America and beyond. His death therefore marks a significant political and strategic setback for the Islamic Republic.

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In a rare and very open speech he delivered on Christmas Day, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi outlined Israel's military challenges for the coming year. It was the first time in many years Israeli military brass joined Israel's political leaders in identifying Iran's regional aggression (as opposed to its proxies) as a top concern.

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Israel's southern population came under attack once again in November 2019. The Iran-backed terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fired more than 450 rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip. Israelis sprinted to shelters, and the Iron Dome air-defense system once again shielded them from the onslaught. Thousands of miles from the action, sitting in the back seat of an Uber, I was on the phone with an Israeli official on the Gaza border who explained to me, without hesitation, that Israel had picked this fight.

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The Israeli Iron Dome missile defense system continues to make headlines as it knocks Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad rockets out of the sky. The system is the crucial lower tier of Israel's layered missile defense system, which guards Israel's skies from threats near and far. The David's Sling system covers middle-layer threats, and the Arrow system defends against long-range projectiles.

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