US and Israeli military doctrine is based on air power and they are qualitatively very impressive. It's not easy for Iran, with its tiny budget, to combat that.
True.
Regardless, Iranian AD capabilities are very strong and Iran can do a good job of challenging Israeli/US AirPower within its own borders,...
False.
Do you remember the news about how an F-22 flew under a pair of Iranian F-4s who were harassing a US MQ-1, the F-22 scoped out the F-4s' wing loads, and politely told the Iranians to F-off? Just about all media reportage focused on the fighters, but those who have relevant experience, like me, knows better. It was not the Iranian F-4s that were important, but the Iranian ground control intercept (GCI) factor.
Modern air defense relies heavily on GCI, that is where a ground based large radar continuously search the sky for unidentified flyers, then vectored interceptors to have a look-see.
The US MQ-1 was in international airspace and it was picked up by Iranian GCI radar. For starter, this should stop everyone from calling these UAV thingies 'stealthy'. They are not. Then the Iranian controllers directed the Iranian F-4s to check out who it was and it turned out to be an easily identifiable American MQ-1. So at this point, we can be assured that the Iranian GCI radar was looking at three airplanes, two ID-ed themselves as 'friendlies' and one non-responsive hostile.
Then came the F-22s. We can be assured that there were at least two F-22s as it is standard practice for all air forces to fly two-ship whenever possible. Then one F-22 flew under the Iranian F-4s. Where was the other F-22? Most likely a few klicks back with weapons readied, its LPI radar locked solid on the Iranian F-4s. That means the Iranian GCI radar should have displayed
FIVE targets. Instead, they saw only three.
Am going to assume you never served in the military, so you would have no idea on how terrifying that is, knowing that your life for a few moments was in someone else's hands, and he gracefully let you off.
This is not about the F-4s but about Iranian air defense that could not ID out two F-22s.