ABU DHABI (The Thursday Times) — This morning, in the early hours of June 13, 2025, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, its most audacious and destructive strike on Iran since the Iran–Iraq War. Iranian nuclear sites, military installations, and the homes of top generals were pounded with precision by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Mossad. The world awoke to reports of explosions in Tehran, Natanz, and Khondab — and the deaths of key Iranian military leaders including IRGC commander Hossein Salami and Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri.
But amid the fury of missiles, one quieter detail passed largely unnoticed — until now. A missile range map released by the IDF in the lead-up to the strikes shows Iran’s ballistic capabilities in concentric circles. What drew attention, however, was not just the reach — but the rendering of Kashmir.
The map places the entire region of Jammu and Kashmir within Pakistan’s territory.
Iran is a global threat.
Israel is not the end goal, it’s only the beginning. We had no other choice but to act. pic.twitter.com/PDEaaixA3c
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 13, 2025
This map, released by the Israeli military itself, omits any suggestion of Indian-administered Kashmir. No Line of Control. No contested territory. Just a quiet, seamless inclusion of Kashmir within Pakistan.
And yet, this is not an anonymous graphic. It bears the insignia of the IDF — the very force that, hours later, would shake Iran’s nuclear spine. Which raises an awkward question for New Delhi: why is an Israeli military map aligning with Pakistan’s territorial stance on Kashmir?
The IDF is a precision-driven institution. Its maps, particularly those used for intelligence and public briefings in wartime, undergo scrutiny. This isn’t a Twitter meme or amateur illustration — it’s a military document, part of the information war preceding the kinetic one.
Whether this was a geopolitical signal, an act of indifference to India’s cartographic sensitivities, or a deliberate alignment with the realities on the ground is unclear. But the optics are potent. The IDF’s own map — released as part of its war brief — acknowledges Pakistan’s de facto control over Kashmir. India, despite being one of Israel’s most reliable arms clients and diplomatic partners, receives no symbolic validation of its Kashmir position. Pakistan, which has no formal diplomatic ties with Israel, finds its territorial claim quietly reinforced by Tel Aviv’s own military cartography.
India’s growing strategic embrace of Israel — particularly in intelligence sharing, defence technology, and counterterrorism — has been a cornerstone of its post-2014 foreign policy. But maps don’t lie, and this one speaks volumes.
Despite the warm handshakes and weapon deals, Israel’s military planners do not seem to share India’s cartographic vision of Kashmir. When push came to nuclear shove, Operation Rising Lion drew a map — and in that map, Kashmir wasn’t Indian.
Operation Rising Lion’s opening salvo may have changed Iran’s nuclear trajectory, but it also exposed the deep layers of international perception surrounding South Asia’s frozen conflict. While Indian officials remained silent on the map, social media across Pakistan lit up — pointing to the image as yet another “unintended admission” of Pakistan’s claim over Kashmir.
Maps have power. They shape how conflicts are understood and whose narratives are amplified. In this case, as Israeli fighter jets bombed Natanz and Tehran, its own military’s cartography dealt a soft but sharp blow to India’s narrative.
