On Oct. 1, Israelis watched as Iran launched over 200 missiles into their homeland in the latest attack on the Jewish state. With Iran just a few months away from having a nuclear weapons capability coupled with the White House’s appeasement of Iranian leaders while it also restrains Israel’s ability to strike back, we are on the brink of an all-out Middle East war.
Iran’s attack was larger in scale and scope than its drone and missile barrage in April, where over 170 suicide drones, 120 ballistic missiles, and 30 cruise missiles were launched from Tehran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised that Tehran would pay for its actions, saying that, “Iran made a big mistake tonight—and it will pay for it. The regime in Iran does not understand our determination to defend ourselves and our determination to retaliate against our enemies.”
Israel’s response will need to send a strong message to Tehran. After the April attack, Israel responded by destroying an air-defense radar system in the central Iranian city of Isfahan but did not target Tehran’s prized energy and nuclear sites for fear of escalation by Lebanese Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies.
Now, the situation has changed on the ground.
Since late September, Israel has stepped up its efforts against Hezbollah, eliminating senior leadership and targeting the terrorist group’s military infrastructure. A week after Israel’s campaign of pager and radio explosions killed and injured high-level members of Hezbollah, a precision strike on the terror group’s headquarters in Beirut killed Hassan Nasrallah, an original founder of Hezbollah and the group’s leader since 1992.
Since then, the Israeli Defense Force has carried out “limited, localized, targeted ground raids” against what is left of Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon.
With the terror group tied up fighting the Israeli Defense Force in the South, Hezbollah can no longer be a reliable deterrent for Iran. Israel may therefore see Iran’s latest attack as an opportunity to target Tehran’s energy and nuclear assets.
The stakes are higher now.
As a recent Heritage Foundation report on Iran’s nuclear program points out, “Iran could have enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb in less than two weeks and produce a nuclear device in several more months.” That two weeks is just about up.
The Biden-Harris administration is largely to blame for the current implosion in the Middle East. Even after President Joe Biden relaxed sanctions and offered financial incentives to Iran, the leadership did not change its behavior, nor did it renegotiate the nuclear deal. Instead, the Iranians used the extra cash to arm its terrorist proxies and accelerate its nuclear program with little to no pushback from the United States and Europe.
Lack of transparency combined with increasing nuclear capabilities means that Iran is closer than ever to a nuclear breakout.
A nuclearized Iran could increase Tehran’s coercive power over its neighbors, making it more difficult for the United States and its regional partners to deter and potentially defeat Iranian aggression.
The next few days will be critical. Israel’s Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, warned on Wednesday that the country’s response will be “lethal” and “surprising.”
The Biden-Harris administration has stated that the United States will not support an Israeli operation that targets Iran’s nuclear sites, but also said that “Israel has a right to respond” and that it “should be a proportional response.” This message from the Biden-Harris administration embodies its approach to this Middle East conflict: Limit the response of partners and allies while appeasing adversaries because the administration fears escalation.
While the future is still uncertain, it is clear that leadership in the White House matters. Almost a year ago, Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan infamously said, “The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades.”
If the events of the last year have taught the Biden-Harris administration anything, it is that appeasement of America’s adversaries and restraint of its partners and allies as they try to push back has not created peace and prosperity in the Middle East but has instead brought the region to the brink of war.
This article was originally published at www.dailysignal.com
