Strategic Assessment
The threat arising from Iran’s nuclear program has led to many discussions on the military feasibility and the strategic desirability of a possible strike by Israel on Iran’s nuclear facilities. However, against the background of the complex and abstract nature of the Iranian nuclear threat, a thorough discussion of the legal justifications for such an act of self-defense is notably absent. This article attempts to launch this discussion by proposing a new legal narrative. With the legality of self-defense dependent upon the normative restraints of necessity and proportionality, the article will draw from domestic law systems and apply the findings of the domestic analogy to the system of international law, and thereafter argue why Israel has a right to anticipatory selfdefense against Iran’s nuclear program before the program reaches a zone of immunity.