Past midnight on May 10, 2018, the Israeli military affirmed that Iranian forces stationed in Syrian territory attacked their nation; the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ al-Quds Force fired no less than 20 rockets against Israeli positions on the Western Golan Heights. According to several reports, four of the projectiles were destroyed by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, while the rest did not clear the border.In response, Israel launched the most extensive air campaign it had executed in Syria in more than four decades, a mission called “Operation House of Cards.”Remarkably, the operation saw the debut of a new fighter. While it should have been the US that deployed the F-35 Lightning II for the first time, it was its Middle Eastern allies who operated the fighter in actual combat before its rightful owners.What’s more, within two years, Israel would transform the advanced fighter into a version not even the Americans envisioned: the ultimate F-35: The Mighty One…