Israel, aided by its allies, dodged a bullet Sunday.
To be more precise, 60 tons of explosives aboard more than 350 Iranian projectiles, some bigger than a family car, failed to dodge Israel’s defenses.
Yet Israel, in defiance of US President Joe Biden’s warnings to “take the win” and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s threat of a “severe, extensive and painful” response to any retaliation, is contemplating just that.
Deterrence, shorthand for “meanest S.O.B. in the room,” Israel believes, is the cornerstone of its survival. Iran is stealing that brick.
When faced with existential threats in the past, Israel has executed the most audacious raids the region has ever witnessed. The point is that Israel won’t telegraph its attack plans as Iran did at the weekend.
Aside from the core members of Israel’s war cabinet, more than a dozen other people have sat at the table deep inside the Kirya, Israel’s maximum security defense headquarters in Tel Aviv, thrashing out their next move.
Netanyahu’s next move will likely try to lock in sanctions and strike before negative Gaza headlines dump the international goodwill filling his sails.
The clock is ticking. He needs two things: time to prepare a significant surprise strike and time to coalesce international diplomacy. As both march to different beats, his legendary political acumen faces one of its stiffest tests yet.
Netanyahu is famed as a political survivor. But now he faces the biggest gamble of his career. He is betting the blood of his nation over Iran’s read of his rift with America.
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