The reality is that the more “daylight” the United States creates with Israel, restrains Israel, and punishes Israel, the more likely Iran will be undeterred.
Commentary
Iran’s unprecedented aerial invasion of Israel—a brazen act of war—was, I believe, the poisonous fruit of more than a decade of Obama–Biden
administration policy to make Iran the Middle East
strong horse.
To add insult to that injury, there’s compelling evidence to suggest the Biden administration is seeking to cynically exploit the Iranian regime’s assault on the Jewish state to further advance the White House’s Iran First agenda—leveraging the attack to box and besiege Israel, and thereby protect the mullocracy.
On April 13, Iran launched hundreds of drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles at the New Jersey-sized Jewish homeland that Iran’s leaders have sworn to obliterate, in purported retaliation for a strike on Iranian military leadership in Syria attributed to Israel.
It is debatable whether Iran’s attack should be characterized as “retaliatory” given the apparent Israeli operation took out, among others, Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, reportedly an
IRGC mastermind of the Oct. 7 attack. In other words, it was the likely Israeli mission that was retaliatory.
Not in dispute is that Iran’s projectile barrage was telegraphed—and curiously so.
Reporting after the attack suggests Tehran made known what was coming to Washington through a
variety of channels.
The Biden administration effectively encouraged, if not greenlit, the dramatic attack on its purported closest regional ally by not only distancing itself from the Syrian strike—making clear for the
umpteenth time that Israel was on its own—but refusing to deter it through the threat of massive consequences.
It turns out that saying “
Don’t” doesn’t scare the mullahs.
American leaders conveyed the message to the world Iran’s attack was coming.
According to the
New York Times, the operation might have been bigger than expected, but:
“Israeli officials say that, thanks in part to international cooperation, they had a good idea in advance of Iran’s targets and weapons. ...
“The U.S. military coordinated aerial defense efforts with Israeli, British, and French forces as well as—crucially—those of Jordan.”
Once the attack started, Iran reportedly kept open lines of communication with the United States.
Israel and the regional air defense coalition proved remarkably successful at intercepting Iran’s weapons, with one air base incurring minor damage, and one individual sustaining serious injuries.
It all seemed orchestrated.
Prior to the attack, America supposedly urged Israel not to “mount a rash counterstrike without weighing all considerations,” in the New York Times’ words.
After the attack, the Biden administration almost immediately pressed Israel not to pummel Iran.
In his initial
statement following the incursion, President Joe Biden said he would “convene my fellow G7 leaders to coordinate a united diplomatic response.”
So the
international community,
too, would engage in a bear hug of Israel—stressing the need for a non-military and, therefore, non-deterrent response.
The White House also
leaked to reporters that the Jewish state might be trying to draw the United States into a broader war were it to hit back strongly—this after the Biden administration’s appeasement of Iran and knifing of Israel had
directly contributed to Iran’s proxy Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack in the first place; then the string of hundreds of strikes staged by additional proxies, the
Houthis and Hezbollah; and finally Iran’s attack on Israel.
Most gallingly, President Biden
reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “take the win”—essentially, to stand down after Israel suffered a first-of-its-kind assault on its territory from a regime that has long threatened its destruction, one that paralyzed the Jewish state and could have killed thousands of its people, and which forced it to defend itself
at massive cost. On top of the estimated $1.5 billion worth of weapons it expended to shoot down Iran’s drones and missiles, it also provided the mullahs and their proxies with invaluable intelligence.
Is that a win?
Or was the Biden administration trying to turn a controlled tactical success into a game-changing strategic loss?
Was it trying to normalize the idea that Iran can now attack Israel with impunity—that such acts, from a power
racing for a
nuclear bomb, are somehow tolerable, if not legitimate—threatening a second Holocaust?
Just days later we would learn that Israel
succumbed to U.S. pressure and called off potential major strikes on Iran.
Though there are
conflicting reports, one suggests the United States presented Israel with an ultimatum: “You can execute a Rafah invasion”—on the Biden administration’s likely untenable terms, no doubt—“but you can’t punish Iran in decisive fashion.”
Step back and look at the big picture: The Biden administration knew Iran was to attack, abided the attack, coordinated the defensive operation to neutralize the attack, then did nearly everything possible to stage-manage and neuter Israel’s
response to the attack.
What if the point was for the Biden administration to say, “Look Israel, this regional support umbrella from the United States and your Arab neighbors against the Iranian menace that worked so well—all of this can be yours if you just wind down the war in Gaza on our terms, move toward a Palestinian state (one we are
looking to recognize anyway), and lay off Tehran?”
Otherwise, “We think it will be very hard to replicate the huge success we had ... if Iran launches hundreds of missiles and drones again,” as an unnamed U.S. official
put it.
“Nice country you’ve got there,” in other words, “it would be a shame if something happened.”
The Wall Street Journal appears to have
corroborated this theory in reporting that the Biden administration is invoking the “success” of April 13 to press Israel to push toward accepting the creation of a Palestinian state in exchange for normalization with Saudi Arabia.
Left unsaid is that such a state would be led by a Hamas-lite jihad-supporting Fatah likely to govern alongside Hamas’s surviving remnants; that such a state would assuredly present Israel with indefensible borders against Palestinian Arabs, many
armed with Iranian weapons and ready to strike, and
overwhelmingly supportive of Oct. 7, jihadism, and the annihilation of the Jewish state; and that the recognition of such a state would reward the savagery and barbarism of Oct. 7 and therefore guarantee many more such days of jihadist rape and slaughter to come.
This would be a Palestinian terror state—Gaza, but far bigger—rendering relations with the Saudis, which were on their way to normalization when Israel was operating from a position of strength during the Trump years, moot, by imperiling Israel’s existence.
The reality is that the more “daylight” the United States creates with Israel, restrains Israel, and
punishes Israel, the more likely Iran will be undeterred and escalate.
That will undermine not only President Biden’s election-year demand for calm, but also for keeping a lid on oil prices, an imperative that transcends concerns about the Dearborn vote.
That imperative can be seen in the Biden administration’s refusal to enforce extant Iranian energy sanctions, allowing tens of billions of dollars in oil sales to flow into the mullocracy’s coffers and keeping prices down.
Reports indicate it won’t ratchet up oil sanctions going
forward.
Volatility in the Middle East—and particularly anything that would lead Iran to close the Straits of Hormuz, or the obliteration of its oil infrastructure—would lead to a dramatic rise in energy costs that President Biden can’t have.
President Biden’s policy appears to be premised on bribing Iran for quiet through reelection.
Israel did not fully stand down despite the Biden administration’s pleas, but it appears to have pulled its punches.
It engaged in synchronized strikes inside and outside Iran. But while those on Iranian soil served as a warning that its strategic infrastructure was vulnerable, Israel did not hit nuclear or oil targets that are the basis of the mullocracy’s strength, nor destroy its other offensive assets.
Will this deter the mullahs—mullahs who could land debilitating blows next time?
If not, blood will be on the Biden administration’s hands, which have tied Israel’s—to its detriment and ours.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
