Pivotal moment on Iran – but also on Gaza
Calls are mounting for a rethink of the war on Hamas. Could the attack from Iran provide an opportunity?
TEL AVIV — Israel achieved a stunning, two-front success in rebuffing Iran’s unprecedented attack this weekend: Its aerial defense, especially the Arrow system targeting ballistic missiles, proved hugely effective, and an impressive array of allies joined in the fight.
The second, given the deep blow to Israel’s international standing over its prosecution of the war in Gaza, was perhaps the more surprising — and more meaningful in the long run. Not only did American and British planes join Israel in shooting down some 300 drones and missiles launched by Tehran, but the French assisted as well, and the operation received at least the tacit support of Jordan and Saudi Arabia and others in the region.
It was a startling illustration of the potential strategic alliance that President Joe Biden has been laboring in futility to convince Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to engage with and invest in. Now, the pressure is squarely on Netanyahu and his coalition partners to do little or nothing in response.
By not retaliating, Israel could recover something of the moral high ground and global sympathy that existed in the days after Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre — sympathy that has been buried under the rubble of Gaza because of Netanyahu’s apparent indifference to the civilian death toll and broader humanitarian crisis. That repositioning could allow Israel much more maneuvering room to free its hostages and move toward the difficult Day After in Gaza while continuing its deterrence of Iran and its proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The stakes could hardly be higher, given the U.S. troops, bases and interests in the region; the vulnerability of Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf; the tensions stoked by the Gaza war; and Iran’s status as a nuclear threshold state, thanks largely to Netanyahu’s foolish goading of President Donald Trump to walk away from the 2015 deal that was preventing it.
The Israeli leader has been trying to make Iran and the existential threat it presents to the Jewish state the center of attention for many years. Israel’s April 1 airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, which killed 16 people, including leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, did just that.
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