- Iran has launched drone attacks on Israel despite warnings from the Biden administration.
- The attack shows how the US is losing control of the Gaza conflict, military experts said.
- He told BI that the Biden administration wants to be “the firefighter on the big house fires.”
National security and foreign policy experts told Business Insider that Iran's barrage of attacks on Israel is a stark reminder of how the United States has failed to ease tensions in the Middle East and contain the ongoing conflict in Gaza. He said that it was something that would encourage him to do so.
On Saturday, Iran fired missiles and drones at Israel in what Iranian officials said was retaliation for an airstrike on the country's consulate in Syria about two weeks ago. The airstrike killed two Iranian generals and five officers, according to the Associated Press.
The United States expected Iran to strike back, but it was a matter of when and how. President Joe Biden told reporters Friday that he expects Iran to attack Israel “sooner or later.”
The president also reaffirmed America's support for Israel and sent a simple, short message to Iran: “Screw it.”
Iran's brazen disregard of Biden's warnings may be the result of a series of inconsistent strategic actions Sean McFate, a national security and foreign policy expert at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, who consulted with the United States on its response to the Israel-Gaza war, told Business Insider.
“Lack of strategic ability”
McFate told BI that Iran's retaliation was a way to demonstrate to the international stage that the country had backbone after Israel's bombing of Damascus. But more broadly, McFate said Saturday's attack shows how effective Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel was in causing chaos in the Middle East.
McFate noted how diplomatic relations between Israel and Arab states were thawing before the war, and said Hamas “initiated this as a way to disrupt the dissolution of relations between Israel and the Gulf states.” . Biden similarly said Hamas is trying to thwart his administration's efforts to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region, the Washington Post reported.
The United States intervened in the Gaza War and has sent contradictory messages to the world through military aid to Israel and humanitarian aid to Gaza, leading Iran and other Gulf states to become more defensive. said the expert. .
“The fact that the Biden administration is arming Israel and sending aid to Gaza shows the world that the Biden team has no strategic ability,” McFate said. “They are already out of control.”
McFate cited the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war as another example of the Biden administration's strategic failure.
Biden said the United States must maintain support for Ukraine against Russian aggression throughout the 2024 election cycle. But the president's support for Israel runs counter to the reasons he has said the United States should support Ukraine.
“The administration wants to be the firefighter of a violent house fire,” McFate said. “But in order for them to do that, I think they would have to condition further military support and further expand their influence over the Israeli government. Israel would basically say, 'Drop the munitions. Answer the door. Don't do that. Just leave.' I'm your Uber driver. I think the administration has been a little too soft on dealing with Israel.”
The White House said U.S. support for Israel had shown signs of wavering in recent weeks after Biden called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Biden condemned the attack in a statement Saturday after the Iranian attack and said he spoke by phone with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and told him the U.S. remains steadfast in its support for Israel.
“I just spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu to reaffirm America's unwavering commitment to Israel's security,” Biden said. “I told him that Israel has demonstrated an incredible ability to defend against and defeat even unprecedented attacks, sending a clear message to its enemies that they cannot effectively threaten Israel's security.”
But in the same phone call, Biden told the prime minister that the U.S. opposes a counterattack against Iran, a senior White House official told CNN.
A White House press secretary did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
