Fear is gripping Iran and spreading rapidly. After losing almost its entire chain of command, Hezbollah has tried to put in place new leadership. However, with no way to communicate this, Hezbollah has had to go even further underground than usual. Those plans appear to have failed, too, with Israeli strikes hammering a Hezbollah meeting to select new leaders.

In short, Israel may have wiped out not only the Hezbollah chain of command but its replacements, too. They cut off the head and immediately started hacking away at replacements. This bombing caps off the most remarkable month of counter-terrorist military strikes in modern history.

The New York Times, relying both on video and government sources, says that Israel conducted a series of strikes in Beirut aimed at killing "Hashem Safieddine, a cousin and the presumed successor of the assassinated Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah."

It remains to be seen who else may have been killed in the blast. Some believe that Israel may have also knocked out other senior Hezbollah leaders and some members of Iran's Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG). If true, this would move beyond a single strike on one person to a massive wipeout of the Iran proxy network.

There may be some credence to that reporting because the New York Times's lead story is that Iran is gripped with fear and anxiety over the possibility of a war with Israel. For all its talk and saber rattling, the last month has disabused Iran of any notions that it has any chance of winning a confrontation with Israel.

In the last month, Israel has conducted two target operations, destroying the pagers and walkie-talkies of Hezbollah members. The entire Hezbollah leadership chain was wiped out through a series of targeted strikes. One of Iran's military leaders was killed in Tehran by a bomb planted in a secret location.

Neither Iran nor Hezbollah can trust any of their technology. Reuters adds that Iranian leaders were warning Hezbollah leaders to hide from Israel. "Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Hezbollah leader Syyed Hassan Nasrallah to flee Lebanon days before he was killed in an Israeli strike and is now deeply worried about Israeli infiltration of senior government ranks in Tehran, three Iranian sources said."

The level and depth to which Israel has penetrated Hezbollah and Iran is staggering. The Saudis are claiming that Israel used a secret substance to mark Hassan Nasrallah, making him easy to track. Is it true? Who knows. But Israel has so thoroughly shaken Iran to its core that its Middle Eastern neighbors are now entertaining notions of science fiction to explain how Israel is targeting these bloodthirsty terrorists.

Where do things go from here? That's hard to read.

Obviously, Israel can continue wiping out Iran's terrorist proxies in the region. If they're going to die every time they gather for an important meeting, that presents a high-value target for Israel. Iran has to assume Israel knows its every move and that of all its terrorist proxies.

Joe Biden is trying to pretend he has any input on the region. The White House is leaking that they're warning Israel away from attacking Iran's nuclear sites, a bizarre bit of advice. As I've written this week, Israel and Ukraine are setting the terms of their military engagement under the assumption Biden no longer matters and are ignoring him accordingly. As a result, both countries are enjoying larger-than-normal military victories.

The White House leaking the advice on nuclear sites means that Israel is, at minimum, considering a much larger campaign at leveling Iran's nuclear capabilities. Whether they can deliver on those desires remains to be seen, but afterwatching them dismantle Hezbollah over the last month, you have to take Israel far more seriously than at any time in the past.

And in truth, we need to ask whether or not we should just let Israel finish the job on this one. Eli Lake in The Free Press and Bret Stephens in The New York Times have columns arguing that exact point. Stephens notes:

Critics of a hard-line approach will reply that it invites escalation. Yet for nearly four years, the administration's diplomatic outreach to Tehran, along with its finely calibrated responses to Iranian aggression, has done nothing to deter it from striking us and our allies. Notice that the Iranians began asking for the nuclear negotiations they spurned for the past three years only once they started to fear that Trump might return to office. Bully regimes respond to the stick.

He's right. Iran is afraid. For the first time in years, Iran is experiencing a deep level of fear that they won't survive an engagement against Israel. They've talked a big talk, but Israel has taken an ax to the Hezbollah tree and is threatening to drag the rest up by the roots.

At a minimum, Israel has established an insurance policy against the possibility of Kamala Harris winning the election. Iran desperately wants Harris in office as a check on Israel. That desperation is deepening as Israel wipes out Iranian leadership across all its terrorist proxies.

But if Trump wins this race, combined with Israel's actions, it would represent a severe curtailing of all the advancements Iran made under the Biden regime. Israel is making the world a more safe place. Why not let them finish the job?