I’ve just spoken with Prime Minister Netanyahu to reaffirm America’s ironclad commitment to the security of Israel. I told him that 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.
While the rhetoric has been similar during the Obama and Biden administrations, both the words and US actions have indicated that Israel may only employ tools and policies to defend Israeli civilians from attack - but to do nothing beyond that.
US policy towards Israel is to keep the Jewish state - within the 1949 armistice lines - in a hermetic bubble of fences, walls and air defenses.
The problem with this policy is that it is unsustainable. It allows Israel's enemies to keep attacking, day after day, hoping to find the weak spots in Israel's defense, and Israel cannot do anything to stop those attempts.
So we see things like October 7. Or Hezbollah's successful emptying out the northern part of Israel because there is no magic "Iron Dome" type defense against someone using anti-tank rockets on civilian communities. Or Gaza terror groups attempting to overwhelm Iron Dome itself because it is not 100% effective.
The US is telling Israel to sit back and accept being attacked forever, and if its defenses fail, that's a shame, but be very careful not to respond in a way that provokes Israel's sworn enemies to escalate further.
Because, US policy implies, then they would be justified.
On Friday, a US official told Al Arabiya that "The United States will take part in the response to the Iranian response, if Tehran escalates the situation inappropriately." This means that the US would help shoot down drones and missiles, as it does when Houthis are shooting at Israel - but nothing more.
Are the Houthis being deterred? Is Hezbollah? Is Iran?
Israelis could see the slow-motion incoming Iranian drones for hours. The time to respond was during that time period - it was an aggressive war-like action that the entire world could monitor. And yet Israel was constrained from responding in real time, forced to only rely on its Western allies and Jordan to help knock down the threats - or, 99% of the threats in this case.
The reason? Because the US has asked Israel, even last week, not to do anything against Iran without getting a green light from the Biden administration first.
Depending only on purely defensive weapons is not a defense policy. It is an invitation for more attacks.
No country in the world is expected to take a purely defensive posture and not respond aggressively to attacks - except Israel. And Israel is being told to avoid deterrence by its "ironclad" friends in Washington.
The United States has now set itself in between Israel and Iran. On paper, it is “equidistant” between the two parties, and its rhetoric will even emphasize its ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel (i.e., we manage Israeli “defense,” because they are an imperial province). But it also demands info on what the Israelis plan to hit, and tells them whether or not they can hit it. So, in fact, the United States isn’t equidistant at all. It’s Tehran’s bagman/lawyer/errand boy. That’s what gets telegraphed to everyone in the region, too.At this point in the Obama-Biden era, Israel toeing the U.S. line is a net loss of sovereignty, which will only get worse over time, further narrowing Israel’s maneuverability. The only place they have been able to operate freely [since Oct. 7] has been Syria. But even there the Dems are now telling them, actually, you can’t do that to the Iranians there. In Lebanon there are explicit limits. I mean, the administration publicly said no, you can’t go to war in Lebanon. And eat shit in Yemen too. We’ll handle “freedom of navigation.”
