ISRAEL DELAYS MILITARY RESPONSE TO IRANIAN MISSILE ONSLAUGHT
'YOU GOT A WIN. TAKE THE WIN.' PRES. JOE BIDEN REPORTEDLY URGES ISRAELI LEADER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU AFTER SUCCESFUL DEFENSE
Israel’s war cabinet meeting on Sunday. Photo credit: Israeli handout.
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This is a developing war report. Facts will be clarified as they become clearer. Check back for additional news.
The United States appears to have stopped Israel, for now, from launching an immediate and all-out retaliatory attack on Iran for its Saturday night missile attack—which itself was retaliation for Israel's killing of Iran's generals.
"You got a win. Take the win," Pres. Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by telephone after Israel and its allies including the U.S. largely defeated the attack, according to an anonymous White House official who disclosed the diplomatically-sensitive call to the Axios news website.
Three other anonymous American officials told NBC News Pres. Biden "privately expressed concern" Prime Minister Netanyahu is "trying to drag the U.S. more deeply into a broader conflict."
The immediate cause of the Iranian-led attack was Israel's assassination of two top Iranian generals, five officers and six others on Apr. 1. Israel killed them with an airstrike on the Iranian Consulate in Damascus, Syria. The consulate is supposed to be protected from military attack by international law.
The strike was a mistake, an anonymous Pentagon official described by NBC as a "senior leader" told the news group. It was “catastrophically escalatory.”
“The Israelis don’t always make the best strategic decisions,” the official added.
Hezbollah and Houthi militias joined in Iran's Saturday night missile attack. Together, they delivered a coordinated attack with more than 300 missiles and drones. Though huge, it was intentionally blunted by the three-day advance warning Iran gave it was coming.
Israel, the U.S. and Jordan used warplanes to shoot down most of the missiles and drones while Israel's multi-layer, AI-powered anti-missile defense system destroyed most but not all of the ballistic missiles Iran fired.
Around 10 are known to have penetrated Israel's defense systems to strike its Air Force bases at Nevatim and Ramon. The missiles that hit Nevatim damaged a C-130 transport aircraft, a runway and storage facilities.
Iran also claimed—through its state-controlled news agency, Fars—to hit what it called an "intelligence-gathering Israeli nerve center" at Jabal ash-Shaykh, in the occupied Golan Heights, on the Syrian border.
Israel confirmed damage to Nevatim , but not Ramon or the intelligence base.
Israel uses propaganda and disinformation as a weapon of war—most if not all militaries do. Israel's military also censors civilian news reporting. It will likely censor news about damage, especially to military targets. Israeli censorship extends beyond Israeli journalists to foreign news correspondents operating inside Israel.
Pres. Biden, after speaking with Prime Minister Netanyahu, issued an official White House statement saying "Israel demonstrated a remarkable capacity to defend against and defeat even unprecedented attacks–sending a clear message to its foes that they cannot effectively threaten the security of Israel."
Meanwhile, the Israeli war cabinet met on Sunday to discuss how Israel should respond to the Iranian counter-attack.
Israel's three-member war cabinet is Prime Minister Netanyahu, his Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, and Benny Gantz, former chief of general staff of the Israeli army. Under Israel's parliamentary democracy, its larger security cabinet has already voted to give the three-member war cabinet the power to make military decisions by itself, without further consultation.
The group did not decide to retaliate on Sunday. After the meeting, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Netanyahu, Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs, said government ministers should not speak publicly about Iran and the United States.
However, earlier in the day, both Gallant and Gantz said the attack should be used to build a regional coalition against Iran, the Times of Israel reported.
Prime Minister Netanyahu published a statement on X—formerly Twitter—trumpeting Israel's victory.
“We intercepted. We blocked. Together we will win,” the statement said.
Other members of Netanyahu's larger governing cabinet were not so sanguine.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir demanded a “crushing” counterattack. He said Israel must “go crazy.” There should not be any “restraint and proportionality.”
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich agreed. Israel should retaliate immediately and with so much firepower it "resonates throughout the Middle East for generations to come."
Like Ben Gvir, Smotrich is considered an "ultranationalist" even by Israel's right-wing press. Previously he said Israel should finish its military invasion of the Gaza Strip by attacking the City of Rafah then “restore full Israeli control” over the entire strip.
Unexpectedly, Israel's war cabinet reconvened on Monday without immediate explanation.
One thing is clear. The region is now set on a hair-trigger to war.
The U.S. might have restrained Israel’s hand on Sunday, but it likely won’t be able to for much longer—unless Pres. Biden restricts Israel’s access to the American weapons its existence now depends on more than ever.
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