An Israeli political reporter for Now 14 reveals that the Biden-Harris administration is actually trying to stop Israel from retaliating after Iran fired 181 ballistic missiles at Israel yesterday, causing millions of Israelis to run to bomb shelters.
Tamir Morag reports that despite the US pressure Israel will respond significantly, but not at the highest level to try and avoid a full-scale regional conflict.
Here’s the report via Open Source Intel:
Tamir Morag:
There is significant American pressure behind the scenes on Israel not to retaliate, or if it does, to respond as minimally as possible. A political source in Israel told me that even before the Iranian strike, the U.S. administration was working full-time to prevent Israel from launching an attack or, at the very least, to reduce the scale of its response. The primary concern for the U.S., as they’ve expressed numerous times, is the fear of an escalation into a broader regional war.
Despite their efforts, the U.S. administration was unsuccessful in deterring Iran, and now the pressure is on Israel. From what I understand, Israel’s response to this pressure has been partial, at best. The Israeli government intends to retaliate against Iran, and the response will be significant.
The Israeli security cabinet convened last night, with the original meeting scheduled for 7:30 PM. However, this coincided with the timing of the Iranian strike, and the meeting was postponed several times before finally beginning after 10:00 PM. The conclusion from this cabinet meeting, as I have gathered, is that Israel will indeed respond with force, but not to the highest possible level. It seems the intention is to focus on causing significant damage to Iran’s economy while keeping the response below the threshold that could lead to a full-scale regional conflict.
It sounds like the Biden-Harris administration is once again trying to project their own weakness in standing up for Iran. If Israel doesn’t respond significantly it will cause more of the same from Iran and their proxies. They’ve already fired missiles in April and here they are doing it again in October. Israel needs to send a message that there will be serious consequences for attacks like these to deter them in the future.
As far as Israel trying to moderate their response from the highest levels, I get that. They are already fighting a multi-front war and the last thing they need is an all-out war with Iran while dealing with Hezbollah, Hamas, Iranian proxies in Iraq and Syria and the Houthis in Yemen.