… the most striking difference about this war (and let us not have any doubt that it is a war) and the Gulf War(s) is the almost total lack of an attempt to control the narrative via visual imagery. To paraphrase Baudrillard “The Iran War Is Not Taking Place”. At this point one might argue that there is an attempt to reduce the amount of information coming out from Iran to an absolute minimum. Is the thinking that the fewer the words and the fewer the images the fewer possible interpretations will be capable of being generated in turn reducing the number of hypotheses about the reality of the situation. It is, in a way, an “evil ingenious” form of censorship.
And same for impact on Israel, and with the entire Israeli cabinet and Bibi sheltering in place in Germamy somewhere, it has all the hallmarks precisely in what you suggest. i wonder if and when this ends, will they be welcomed home by those whom had to survive their handiwork.