Covert operations

Iran and Israel can't fight traditionally due to distance, no shared border, regional limits—so they rely on airstrikes, proxies, covert ops, and cyberwarfare.

- TDG NETWORK

In the geopolitically tangled West Asia, there are perhaps few antagonisms as entrenched and geographically complex as the one between Israel and Iran. Unlike most arch-nemeses like India and Pakistan or the two Koreas, these countries are divided by almost 2,000 kilometers with no common border between them. Their tensions unfold not along contiguous trenches, but over airs, cyberspace, and other countries' zones.

Though intensely hostile towards each other, Israel and Iran are not close neighbors. The shortest air distance between Tel Aviv and Tehran is approximately 1,800 to 2,000 kilometers. Any possible land route would travel through Jordan, Iraq, and possibly Syria. Even during times of peace, this overland travel is diplomatically and logistically impossible.

NO LAND ROUTE
Legally, there is no current route for normal travel between the two nations. There is no direct road, rail, or commercial route. Ever since they cut diplomatic ties in 1979, the two countries have imposed total travel bans on citizens of the other. Iranian authorities may refuse entry to any person who has an Israeli visa stamp on their passport, while Israeli citizens are strictly prohibited from entering Iran.

Therefore, even if there were a direct military clash, there is no avenue for ground troops to attack without having to cross several, frequently unfriendly, sovereign states. And many of them will not provide their soil as a theater of war staging ground.

GROUND WAR UNLIKELY