Israel can’t decide on response to Iran’s attack after several hours of discussions

The Israeli war cabinet and top officials of the Security Service at the meeting in Tel-Aviv on 14 April. Photo: press service of the government of Israel

After several hours of discussions, the war cabinet of Israel has still not decided how and when to respond to Iran’s large-scale drone and missile attack launched on the night of 13-14 April.

Source: The Times of Israel with reference to other Israeli media outlets

Details: The Channel 12 News reports that the ministers stopped the discussion without making a decision, even though they are expected to meet again shortly.

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War cabinet minister Benny Gantz and his National Unity party colleague Gadi Eisenkot, an observer in the war cabinet, proposed striking back at Iran.

Yoav Gallant, Minister of Defence of Israel, Herzi Halevi, IDF Chief, and others firmly opposed this decision, partly due to the complexity of simultaneous actions, when the IDF was focused on intercepting Iran’s missiles and drones.

Later, when the success of Israeli air defence systems became evident and it was clear that Iran’s offensive did not cause much damage, and after the conversation between US President Joe Biden and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, the idea of immediate Israeli response was discarded, Channels 12 and 13 reported.

The position of Netanyahu himself in the discussions on deadlines and the nature of Israel’s response is unclear.

In an unsourced report, Channel 12 claims that the US did not veto any Israeli response, but it has told Israel it needs to know its further steps in advance and be coordinated. The US has publicly made clear that it will not participate in any Israeli response.

Channel 12 further claims that Israel is trying to ascertain whether, in return for restraint, it can attain some kind of “strategic pact” with the US against Iran, without having to make commitments on matters such as the Palestinian issue.

Background:  

• Earlier on Sunday the Axios media outlet with reference to an unnamed White House official reported that Joe Biden, President of the US, stated during the conversation with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu that he did not support the Israeli attack on Iran in response to the latter’s large-scale drone and missile attack.
• Sources of The New York Times report that during the phone conversation between Netanyahu with Biden, Israel decided not to strike back at Iran.
• Iran launched an attack on Israel, using dozens of drones and missiles on the night of 13-14 April. Israel Defense Forces later clarified that there were over 300 aerial targets in total, including approximately 170 attack drones, over 30 cruise missiles, and 120 ballistic missiles, nearly all of which were shot down.

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