US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are expected to hold a phone call on Wednesday that will include a discussion of any plans to strike Iran after Tehran’s missile attack on Israel, according to multiple reports.
The Middle East has been on edge awaiting Israel’s response to Iran’s attack last week that Tehran carried out in response to military escalation in Lebanon. Four US officials told Axios that the Biden administration has in recent weeks grown distrustful of what the Israeli government says about its military and diplomatic plans in the multi-front war it is fighting in West Asia.
US-Israel Tiff
US officials say that Washington has been surprised several times recently by Israeli military or intelligence operations as it is not being “consulted or notified in advance.” Notably, the Biden administration was given a heads up as Israeli jets were already on their way to conduct an airstrike somewhere in the Middle East. The Israelis didn’t tell the Americans in advance about the plan to assassinate Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, according to the US news outlet.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that Biden’s administration is frustrated that the Israeli government is refusing to tell it anything about its plans against Iran. Citing unnamed US officials, the American news site said that Jerusalem surprised Washington by assassinating Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah late last month without coordination with the White House.
“Excuse me, what did you say?”
In a subsequent phone call with Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was shocked to hear about the operation and said, “Excuse me, what did you say?” During a second phone call between the two, Austin asked Gallant if Jerusalem was ready to defend itself on its own, since the US hadn’t had time to deploy its forces to deflect a potential immediate reprisal by Hezbollah, according to The Times of Israel.
In another report on “distrust” between Israel and the US, the Washington Post reported that Austin privately described Netanyahu’s government as “playing with house money” — operating on the presumption that, whatever it does, it could count on the United States to defend Israel against any Iranian retaliation.
These reports about the US-Israel tiff come as Netanyahu has promised that arch-foe Iran would pay for its missile attack, while Tehran has said any retaliation would be met with “vast destruction”, raising fears of a wider war in the oil-producing region which could draw in the United States.
Israel’s retaliation will be a key subject of the call, with Washington hoping to weigh in on whether Israel’s response is appropriate, according to Reuters. Biden said last Friday he would think about alternatives to striking Iranian oil fields if he were in Israel’s shoes, adding he thought Israel had not concluded how to respond to Iran.
Conflicts in Gaza, in Lebanon
Israel has faced calls to strike a ceasefire deal in Gaza and Lebanon by the United States and other allies, but has said it will continue its military operations until Israelis are safe. Biden and Netanyahu are also expected to discuss the conflicts with Hamas in Gaza and with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel says it is defending itself after Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 and taking 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies, and against other militants including Hezbollah who support Hamas. The United States has said it supports Israel going after Iran-backed targets like Hezbollah and Hamas. However, Israel has faced international condemnation over the nearly 42,000 killings in the Gaza war, according to the local Palestinian health ministry, and the deaths of over 2,000 people in Lebanon.
(With agency inputs)
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