Reports: Biden Pressuring Israel Not To Retaliate After Iranian Missile and Drone Attack
Axios: “Biden told Netanyahu that the U.S. will not participate in any offensive operations against Iran and will not support such operations, Netanyahu said he understood.”
Hours after Israel staved off a massive wave of Iranian missile and drone assault, President Joe Biden has reportedly told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from retaliating against the biggest aerial attack on the country by a hostile state in 30 years.
The U.S. will not support Israel in its military response against Iran, President Biden said to Prime Minister Netanyahu during a phone call on Saturday, the news website Axios reported.
According to The New York Post, President Biden also downplayed the Iranian attack comprising hundreds missiles and drones, telling Prime Minister Netanyahu that “nothing of “value” was hit in Iran’s airborne attack Saturday and asserted American forces will not be participating in any offensive against Iran.”
Israeli journalist Barak Ravid reported in the Axios:
President Biden told Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a call on Saturday that the U.S. won’t support any Israeli counterattack against Iran, a senior White House official told Axios.” (….)
“You got a win. Take the win,” Biden told Netanyahu, according to the official. (…)
The official said that when Biden told Netanyahu that the U.S. will not participate in any offensive operations against Iran and will not support such operations, Netanyahu said he understood.
Iran on Saturday evening launched more than 300 attack drones, and long-range ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.
“Iran launched hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles in an unprecedented revenge mission that pushed the Middle East closer to a regionwide war,” the Associated Press noted. A 7-year-old Israeli girl was in “serious condition” after being “wounded by shrapnel following the interception of an Iranian drone” over southern Israel, The Times of Israel confirmed.
The IDF, supported by the U.S. armed forces and other Western allies, intercepted nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles. An Israeli “military spokesman said the launches numbered more than 300 but 99% of them were intercepted,” the AP News reported.
While Biden appears to have abandoned Israel as it faces a direct attack from Iran, Netanyahu assured that the Jewish State was prepared to deploy military capabilities “both defensively and offensively,”
“Our defensive systems are deployed; we are ready for any scenario, both defensively and offensively,” the Israeli prime minister said in an address to the nation as news of the Iranian attack broke. “We have determined a clear principle: Whoever harms us, we will harm them. We will defend ourselves against any threat and will do so level-headedly and with determination.”
In recent years, and especially in recent weeks, Israel has been preparing for a direct attack by Iran.
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) April 13, 2024
Our defensive systems are deployed; we are ready for any scenario, both defensively and offensively. The State of Israel is strong. The IDF is strong. The public is strong. pic.twitter.com/ykeItV7ZRi
Netanyahu also thanked the United States, Britain, France and others allies for their military support.
The U.S. armed forces stationed in the region intercepted several of the missiles and drones headed towards Israel. According to the AP News, “U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a separate statement that U.S. forces “intercepted dozens of missiles and UAVs en route to Israel, launched from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. “
British planes from Cyprus knocked a bunch of Iranian drones out of the sky tonight. US systems nailed a bunch. Jordanian systems did, too. And of course Israel.
— Jonathan Schanzer (@JSchanzer) April 14, 2024
Not a bad night for the Western-led alliance in the Middle East. Not bad at all.
Biden’s weak response appears to have emboldened Iran, with Islamic Guard (IRGC) chief Hossein Salami threatening more attacks if Israel responds to the missive overnight strike, reports suggest.
Potentially significant statement by #IRGC chief commander Hossein Salami:
— Farzan Sabet (@IranWonk) April 14, 2024
"We have decided to create a new equation [with #Israel]."
This equation is that, from now on, if Israel attacks #Iranian interests, figures, and citizens anywhere, they will retaliate from Iran. 1/ pic.twitter.com/X3i8X74KWI
Hezbollah ramps up rocket attacks on northern Israel
Following the overnight Iranian aerial strikes, the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group ramped up rocket attacks on northern Israel, firing 30 missiles on Sunday morning.
“On Sunday morning, about 30 rockets were fired again from Lebanon toward northern Israel. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for that rocket fire as well, saying it came in response to Israeli strikes on towns in southern Lebanon earlier in the night. One of the rockets fell in Katzrin, causing heavy damage to property but no injuries,” the Jerusalem Post reported.
The IDF reportedly destroyed a weapons factory and other Hezbollah targets along the Israeli border with Lebanon.
The IDF confirms carrying out an airstrike earlier today in the Nabi Chit area, near northeastern Lebanon's Baalbek.
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) April 14, 2024
The strike targeted a "significant weapons manufacturing site" belonging to Hezbollah, the military says.
The IDF says the strike comes as a response to some 40… https://t.co/z741oVFBz4 pic.twitter.com/66mwUne8H6
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
I am ashamed of the leaders I did not vote for.
Coups have consequences
Why be ashamed of them? Are you also ashamed by all the prisons full of criminals, and all the criminals still at large? What have they got to do with you, that you should be ashamed of them?
That retarded, demented pedophile is supposed to be setting foreign policy for the United States, remember? I also find myself having to apologize to my friends overseas for what our retarded, demented pedophile-in-chief does much too often.
He sets the USA’s policy, not yours or mine. We are not the USA. If you didn’t vote for him then you are no more responsible for what he does than you are for all the criminals, and certainly have no need to apologize for anything he does.
The USA’s crime rate is also embarrassing, but none of us are responsible for it, so we have no reason to apologize for it.
I think this is the same fallacy that makes some men feel the need to apologize for the fact that some other men are rapists. Or that make some white people apologize for the fact that some other white people are racist. It makes no sense. (For some reason we don’t find nearly so many black people apologizing for the fact that some other black people are criminals. That would make just as little sense.)
This comment is stupid even for you, Milhouse. “Prisons full of criminals” and “leaders I did not vote for” are not the same thing.
Although perhaps they should be.
Yes, they are the same thing. You are not responsible for either of them, and shouldn’t be ashamed of them.
What? Do we vote for criminals in prisons? I swear “nuh uh!” is just reflexive for you.
None of us voted for Biden, so we have no more reason to be ashamed of him than we do to be ashamed of all the criminals. The people who voted for him should be ashamed.
Yep. “Gotta take the win?” What sort of a**holery is that?!
Biden is navigating some tricky waters. He has to get any statement or response cleared by Susan Sarandon and Cher, beforehand.
And he has to make sure that any statement he makes doesn’t offend the moslem enclave in Michigan as well as the moslem members of the Squad in Congress.
Biden: “From the river to the sea, c’mon Dearborn vote for me!”
The green light also must be obtained from CAIR, ugly Rashida Tlaib (D-Gaza/West Bank) and Ilhan Omar (D-Somalia), too.
Biden: “Don’t”.
The Iranians must’ve had a good laugh at that
Also Kim, Xi and Putin are laughing, too
I on the other hand am not.
Of course he is. Vile, evil and stupid Biden never met a totalitarian, genocidal, Islamofascist regime that they didn’t attempt to appease, show obsequious deference to, fund, whitewash and otherwise enable. These reprobates are despicable. They make Neville Chamberlain look like Churchill.
I forgot to state that all of the vile Dhimmi-crat apparatchiks, from narcissist-incompetent, Obama, on down to the execrable, miserable, subversive and useless pro-Muslim supremacist/Islamofascist “Squad” members, deserves the same opprobrium and criticism as Biden.
The Biden WH is worried about oil price spikes, more supply/shipping problems via Suez and domestic politics of pro Hamas/anti Israel loons who usually support d/prog politicians. Suggestions that Israel should NOT retaliate are Cray Cray. Refusing to respond in a heavily out of proportion manner v Iran and their proxies shows weakness which simply invites more attacks on Israel.
As usual, self-serving political considerations and political self-preservation are all that vile Biden gives a damn about.
Biden and the whole bunch of insiders in the federal government no matter what party.
“The Biden WH is worried about oil price spikes, more supply/shipping problems via Suez and domestic politics of pro Hamas/anti Israel loons who usually support d/prog politicians.”
Bang on.
Gropy Joe’s “administration” has been run responding to range of the moment political considerations. He’s always been a short-sighted opportunist.(*) Now, without the cover of obscurity and irrelevance, that has different consequences.
(*) Really not fair comparing Where’s My 10% and The Lightbringer, tho — that guy was a long-con opportunist.
“Netanyahu said he understood.” – – – That the Biden Syndicate are POS. I hope that Israel really socks it to Iran. They have been asking for it for over 40 years.
Poor Israel, with allies like the US
I tired posting this article last night but it was impossible, the site, maybe under some kind of attack?
Iran threatened the US if Israel responded
Imagine President Trumps reaction
If Trump were president there would be no reaction as there would be nothing to react to
Sometimes, giving the impression that you’re a loose cannon is a good thing. People tend to give you a wide berth and walk on eggshells whenever you’re around. I was a 5’8″, 153 pound nightclub bouncer. I wanted people to think I was a head case, and I did not disappoint. And I never had a problem.
how many hundreds if not thousands
of Iranian operatives do you think
came over the boarder ready
to attack US cities and infrastructure?
Anyone read Kurt Schlicter’s The Attack?
If Trump were president they wouldn’t dare make such a threat.
Trump would have opened the US energy spigots another 40-50% and flooded the world with inexpensive American fuel. Iran (and Russia for that matter) would have had a hard time even keeping the lights on, much less fighting a war.
Biden’s weakness has MUCH broader implications outside of the Iran/Israel conflict. China is taking notes and thus far, they’re LOVING what they’re seeing.
Netanyahu understands. He understands what a fair-weather ally is.. That, or he understands that the US military is an utter and complete shambles.
Netanyahu understands the value of having an ally he can look to for solid advice on pronoun usage.
Both
I suspect that Netanyahu understands that given the public attempts by Biden to dictate the Israeli response that in the next combat that the US may be fighting alongside Iran against Israeli; if nothing else in the name of “even-handedness”. Israel and every official ally of the United States is reviewing its status and thinking about the US NOT being on their side in a war. And every declared enemy of the United States is probably pondering the opposite.
Subotai Bahadur
Dementia Joe is the proxy for obama’s 3rd term.
Is anybody surprised?
This is Obama’s 3rd policy term. But, I would argue that we’re nearing the end of Obama’s 4th bureaucratic term. While Trump was president for four years and was able to advance some domestic and foreign policy initiatives, he was never really in charge of the federal bureaucratic machine, to particularly include the law enforcement and intelligence bureaucracies. The people who have controlled those agencies have largely remained Obama loyalists. Trump was never even fully in command of the DoD. In November of 2019, Trump orders US forces out of Syria. A year later, not only had US forces not left, but by the time Trump left office, we actually had more service members in Syria because DoD simply ignored him.
If Trump is fortunate enough to win again, he has to fire everyone in DC above a G6 on day one or his second term will simply be more of the same.
Ayatollah Joeseph Robinette Biden.
Stumbling mumbling biden, the useful idiot of radical muzzie extremists.
smh
How long before Israel is blamed again?
If it is not Israel’s fault, surely it is “climate change”.
Why not both?
Iran’s attack did not seem like it was intended to maximize casualties. Rather it seemed to be designed as a show of force without causing tremendous loss of life that would necessitate a swift, severe, immediate response from Netanyahu.
Israel probably does have to respond in some way. But the response should be at a time and place of its choosing that evokes the response from Iran that it wants. It may well be a massive attack in order to shock Iran into submission, although that seems risky. It may be a more targeted response, or perhaps a non-military response …..
What I do know is that the Israelis should think through their options and avoid an impulsive tactical response, as opposed to a strategic response. It’s too bad that the Biden Administration cannot be relied on to work through courses of action WITH Israel.
Wut? If a criminal empties his weapon into a law enforcement officer and the officer’s bulletproof vests stops every round, do we say: The assailant didn’t intend to maximize casualties? Of course we don’t.
Iran launched over 300 weapons at Israel with almost half of those weapons being some kind of missile. 30+ of those missiles were medium-range BALLISTIC missiles. The only reason we’re not talking about hundreds (or more) dead Israelis today is because of the technological competence of Israel and her allies.
Imagine Iran firing 300 missiles at Israel that are carrying a nuclear payload. THAT is what Israel should focus on in their response package.
‘Imagine Iran firing 300 missiles at Israel that are carrying a nuclear payload.’
That would indeed be an attack that we know is intended to inflict maximum casualties. Indeed, it would be an attack that is intended to destroy Israel.
If the criminal fires into the body armor, instead of switching to the head or hips/legs, and it appears deliberate that MIGHT indicate he intended to not seriously harm the officer.
Where the rub comes in is that you can’t really trust that, and you need to figure out how to respond so that you’re not stupidly letting future criminals off the hook or enabling them to kill police officers. In relations with the criminal element we would most certainly not accept that supposition in designing our response.
I’d suggest they target Kharg Island where most of their oil handling facilities are. It probably wouldn’t kill large numbers of Iranians, but it would kneecap their economy.
Easy target, too.
I hope they target downtown Teheran the next time they hold a military parade.
Seems to me Israel just got the green light to dispatch 300 munitions at Iran, and nobody gets to squawk about it. Proportionality, and all that.
You are mistaking effect for intent. Of course they wanted to inflict casualties. They were probably surprised at the effectiveness of the Israeli defenses, though they won’t admit that publicly.
I think that last sentence is where the conflict of ideas comes from here. You either assume Iran was ignorant on Israel’s defensive capabilities (which have been on display for years against Hezbollah and Hamas and others) OR you assume they took that into account but wanted to make a big show (beating their chest as someone put it). Iran isn’t ready to kick off WW3 to usher in the whatever-apocalyptic-mullah era, yet – but they want everyone quaking in their boots that they are about to achieve that ability.
It’s definitely a valid possibility. Either way.
“Iran’s attack did not seem like it was intended to maximize casualties.”
Huh? How would we know where their drones/missiles were aimed since almost all of them were reportedly shot down?
They wanted to show they now had the ability to strike Israel at will with large missles
I think it was a probing attack.
It was a proportional response – Enough fireworks to be able to chest-pound and brag, but not serious enough where Israel would be seen as justified in turning some nuclear facilities into rubble.
Most importantly to Iraq and affiliated terrorist swine, the minimal damage allows the Biden administration to warn Israel not to respond. Now the story will be that Biden is the steady voice of reason, instead of “Crap, no matter how often it’s said, the ‘Don’t’ theory of international relations seems not to be working.”
It allows Biden to look like the weak, feckless pedophile he is when nobody bothers to listen to him.
There is that, too.
I do not know what they were aimed at, but slow-moving drones are (relatively) easy to shoot down. Iran announced the attack hours before their arrival which gave Israel time to prepare.
If Iran wished to inflict more damage, it could have launched fast missiles first, without warning, and from unexpected directions.
Imagine being told by another nation, so called Allie, you can’t retaliate after being .bombed
God, Bibi must hate the US guts
Yes. But the same folks also told US we couldn’t retaliate after WE were attacked.
So, at least they’re consistent a**holes and imbeciles.
IMO Israel has to first make a decision whether it wants a full scale war with Iran. If so, it goes after the nucler sites and destroys their oil infrastructure (Kharg Island). I think that is a bad idea with Feckless Joe Biden (FJB) in power. So how do you send a convincing message? #1, you bomb Kharg Island in an obvious but minor way and warn that, if Iran does something more, Kharg Island will cease to exist. Hit them in the pocketbook. #2, you promptly go after Rafah in Gaza, with the public statement that Iran’s action makes it necessary to conclude that war ASAP in order to have additional resources available for Iran.
“You got a win. Take the win,” Biden told Netanyahu, according to the official.”
Being attacked by hundreds of missiles and drones is a “win”?
My thoughts, exactly. Biden is psychotic and a sociopath.
In the political opportunism of today’s news cycle, Bibi’s up in approval. Might even stifle the growing calls for a new election. That’s Joey Mumbles only perspective — always has been.
It’s a win because they defeated the attack. In the same way stuffing the quarterback on 4th and 3 on the 3 is a “win”. But it doesn’t win the game unless you’re already ahead and it’s the last possible play.
Clearly that was for the internal Iranian political consumption and checking weak points of Israeli defense. I am confident Iran has nuclear loads (or can buy them from Russia/China), and is capable of destroying the whole country of Israel. Also, I believe they may have hypersonic missiles, in this case there is no efficient protection.
You’re just guessing.
I’m sure Netanyahu very well understood before this that the pedophile in the White House was not going to stand by treaties or stand with our allies. I’m sure he understood that the traitor in the white house is much more willing to support terrorists than people we’re supposed to be allies with. I’m sure he’s not at all surprised since Dementia Joe has be told to f*ck off by multiple Israeli prime ministers over the decades.
Treaties? There you identify an issue since WW2. A LOT of our arrangements are not by treaty nowadays. Which means there’s no real attachment, just an “arrangement” that can easily be dropped when the excrement hits the rotary impeller.
Treaties can be dropped just as easily. It’s called abrogation, and the USA has been abrogating treaties since shortly after it started making them.
Especially after the Supreme Court effectively went along with Carter’s assertion that the president only needs the senate’s advice and consent to make treaties, not to abrogate them.
Brandon: Don’t get in a war with Iran.
Bibi: You can’t protect your own borders so shut up and put whoever is in charge on the line.
Iran declared war by way of that attack. Israel has no real choice but to retaliate or look as weak as Biden
Biden’s direction to not retaliate will practically force Israel to do so. Israel can’t be seen by its enemies to be taking direction from the US. Retaliation, after being told to stand down, will let Israel’s opponents see that they cannot rely on the US to keep their chestnuts out of the fire. The Arabs learned in ’48 that Israel would not be allowed to exploit its military’s superiority to maximum effect. The expectation of US/UN pressure on Israel to prevent a complete meltdown of Arab military ventures has been baked into every Arab plan of attack since then. It’s about time the Arabs (and Persians) are disabused of the idea that US/UN pressure will always be effective in preventing their military exploits from becoming catastrophes.
Israel needs to hit Iran a thousand times harder.
I’m sure Taiwan is sweating bullets right now too
Iran did this to demonstrate that:
1) It claims hegemony to do whatever, from wherever, whenever, without consequence — what, you killed our guys who were orchestrating the attacks on you? No fair.
2) It doesn’t need its proxies to hit Israel, or anybody else nearby.
3) It cares nothing about the opinions or preferences of other nations.
Hey, we both know you’ll shoot off your diplomatic yaps, but we both know you’ll do nothing: The Spice Must Flow.
#IRGC chief commander Hossein Salami
I thought salami was haram?
No, why would it be? There’s plenty of kosher salami, which is halal according to most madhabs.
If it were his country under fire….Oh nvm Biden would capitulate then too.