Biden administration says Israel will be on their own on any offensive attacks on Iran.

 

The Israeli war cabinet. ABC News/AFP.

The Biden administration has told Israel that they will not assist in any reprisal attacks against Iran. ABC News. Biden has said that support for Israel will be "iron clad", but he has also made clear that he will not participate in any bombing of Iran. They also said that they would support Israel defensively if there is another attack from Iran. Iran launched a major drone and missile strike against Israel but the attack was defeated due to Israel's air defenses as well as assistance provided by America and other countries. Israel is weighing its options and said they will respond to the attack, but are under major pressure to not start a war. Biden has been critical of the war between Israel and Hamas. 

My Comment:

It looks like cooler heads are prevailing in the Middle East. There was a fear that a major war between Israel and Iran would break out but it seems possible that a war could be avoided. The Biden Administration has somehow made the right choice here. 

Does that mean that Israel will do nothing? It's possible. I think that's what most people want but there is the question of face. Israel defeated Iran's attack but they could be seen as weak if they do not strike back. They could launch a fighter strike against targets in Iran, though doing so would be difficult. 

But I don't think a strike is at all necessary. The strikes ended in a way that both sides can save face. Israel was able to intercept the vast majority of the missiles and drones shot at them and can rightly claim victory. Iran was able to send a message and can claim victory as well because a few missiles got through. This could very easily be the end of it. 

There are other concerns as well. Israel has used a large amount of their defensive weapons in this weekends action. And they have been under pressure since the October 7th attack. There is a real danger they could run out of weapons if they provoke Iran into another attack. To be fair, Iran might not have a whole lot of weapons left either, but the success they had this weekend might not be repeated if a 2nd strike comes. 

There is also the question of how they would even reach Iran in the first place. In order to do so they would either have to fly through Syria or Jordan and then Iraq just to reach Iranian airspace. If they go through Syria they would have to deal with their air defenses and if they go through Jordan they would need permission, which they aren't likely to get. 

My hope is that this is basically over. The last thing we need right now is a tit for tat Israeli-Iran strikes and a major war. That could eventually draw the United States into a war, a war that we can't really handle anymore. It seems very likely that this will be avoided right now. We may have dodged a fairly bad bullet here.