Not Much Question Whether Israel Will Respond
(Opinion by Dave Pell/NextDraft) — The all-out regional war that the Biden administration and many other world leaders have spent a year trying to avoid moved to the razor’s edge as Iran launched about 200 ballistic missiles at Israel. So far, there are no reports of injuries or significant damage. The only death reported was a Palestinian man “killed near the West Bank city of Jericho when a projectile landed nearby during the rocket barrage.”
It’s notable (especially to Hezbollah being decimated in Lebanon) that the Iranians said the “missile attack had been in retaliation for the assassinations of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, and an Iranian commander.” That explanation makes the missile attack even more strategically curious.
Not Much Question Whether Israel Will Respond
There’s not much question about whether or not Israel will respond. The question is how big that response will be and whether it will tip things into full on war, one America’s military would seemingly be unable to avoid. In terms of defense, America is already in the fight: US Navy warships shot down Iranian missiles fired at Israel in massive barrage.
Bloodshed
“Some residents of Dahiya, the area just south of Beirut that has been pounded by Israeli airstrikes in recent days, rejoiced at the news of the Iranian attack – lighting up the night’s sky with machine-gun fire and setting off fireworks. Others, however, feared it would only precipitate more bloodshed.
‘I think it will be a very violent night,’ said Hussein Awada, 54, who was sleeping in his car but had gone back to the area on Tuesday to check on his home. He added, ‘You can smell the scent of war and death everywhere.'”
