Netanyahu Shelves Immediate Response to Iranian Attack

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shelved immediate retaliation against Iran, following Iran’s missile and drone attack on Saturday night. The decision came after a phone call with United States President Joe Biden on Saturday night.

Israel had preapproved several responses in the event an attack such as this were to occur, according to Israel’s Kan public broadcaster. But Biden apparently didn’t like any of the options.

The phone call: Biden told Netanyahu to think carefully about the regional escalation a retaliation would cause, according to a senior U.S. official. He also warned Israel’s prime minister that the U.S. “will not be part of an Israeli offensive against Iran.”

This has made it difficult for Israel’s war cabinet to formulate a suitable response. The understanding is that Israel will still respond, but as Amir Avivi, a former senior commander in Israel’s military, said, “It’s very hard to do something that’s meaningful without really having consequences.”

Helpless: This was the first time Iran was bold enough to directly attack Israel without acting under the cover of its proxies. If deescalation were America’s priority, it would have already dealt with the increasingly belligerent Iranian regime. Instead, the U.S. is appeasing the terrorists and preventing Israel from taking meaningful action to prevent future attacks.

With such halfhearted support from the U.S., Israel can’t properly defend itself. Who can Israel turn to for reliable backing?

Learn more: Read “Will Germany Be Drawn Into a War With Iran?”