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Alarm as Pentagon Confirms Deployment of US Troops to Israel
"Netanyahu is as close as he has ever been to his ultimate wish: making the U.S. fight Iran on Israel's behalf," wrote one journalist.
Oct 13, 2024
The Pentagon confirmed Sunday that it has authorized the deployment of an advanced antimissile system and around 100 U.S. troops to Israel as the Netanyahu government prepares to attack Iran—a move that's expected to provoke an Iranian response.
Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, press secretary for the U.S. Defense Department, said in a statement that at President Joe Biden's direction, the Pentagon approved the "deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and associated crew of U.S. military personnel to Israel to help bolster Israel's air defenses" in the wake of Iran's ballistic missile attack earlier this month.
"The THAAD Battery will augment Israel's integrated air defense system," said Ryder. "This action underscores the United States' ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel, and to defend Americans in Israel, from any further ballistic missile attacks by Iran."
The Pentagon's statement came shortly after The Wall Street Journal and other outlets reported on the Biden administration's plans.
It is not clear when the U.S. troops are set to arrive in Israel. The U.S. currently has some 40,000 soldiers stationed across the Middle East.
"We risk becoming entangled in another catastrophic war that will inevitably harm innocent civilians and may cost billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars."
Iran fired roughly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on October 1 in response to the assassinations of Hezbollah's leader and Hamas' political chief. Most of the Iranian missiles were shot down with the help of the U.S., whose Navy fired interceptors at the missiles.
Journalist Séamus Malekafzali argued the U.S. deployment of troops and the THAAD system shows that "the Israelis are clearly planning something for Iran that is going to cause a retaliation they know their own systems are unable to take."
"U.S. troops being deployed to Israel in this matter is seismic," Malekafzali added. "The U.S. military is now inextricably involved in this war, directly, without any illusions of barriers. Netanyahu is as close as he has ever been to his ultimate wish: making the U.S. fight Iran on Israel's behalf."
Israel's cabinet met Thursday to discuss a potential response to Iran's October 1 missile barrage. One unnamed Israeli source toldThe Times of Israel that "no big decisions" were made at the cabinet meeting. Speaking to reporters earlier this month, Biden said that U.S. and Israeli officials were "discussing" the possibility of an attack on Iranian oil infrastructure.
Iran has warned of a "crushing" response to any Israeli attack.
In a statement Sunday, progressive U.S. Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), James McGovern (D-Mass.), and Greg Casar (D-Texas) said that "military force will not solve the challenge posed by Iran."
"We need meaningful de-escalation and diplomacy—not a wider war," the lawmakers added. "Nothing in current law authorizes the United States to conduct offensive military action against Iran. We risk becoming entangled in another catastrophic war that will inevitably harm innocent civilians and may cost billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars."
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'Regional War Is Here': Biden Urged to Act Before Catastrophe Engulfs Middle East
"Unless the Biden administration changes course immediately, the likelihood we see even more violence, more displacement, and tens—if not hundreds—of thousands more lives lost in this conflict will only spike."
Oct 11, 2024
Amid reports that the Biden administration has dropped its push for a cease-fire deal on the Lebanon-Israel border, a U.S. peace group said Thursday that the White House "appears both in the dark and in denial about how much worse the current wars in the Middle East could get" and demanded an urgent cease-fire push to avert catastrophe.
"As Palestinians in northern Gaza are displaced by yet another IDF offensive while still contending with a humanitarian crisis, as thousands of people flee Lebanon, as Iranian families wonder whether their cities and towns will be bombed, as children in Syria are killed by the IDF—likely with U.S.-made bombs—and as Israeli civilians continue to flee to shelters and hostages still languish, it's time to admit that a regional war is here," said Sara Haghdoosti, executive director of Win Without War.
"Right now, tens of thousands of U.S. troops stationed across the Middle East are also in acute danger—and the risk the United States is drawn further and more directly into this war is terrifyingly high," Haghdoosti added. "Unless the Biden administration changes course immediately, the likelihood we see even more violence, more displacement, and tens—if not hundreds—of thousands more lives lost in this conflict will only spike."
For the first time in two months, Biden on Wednesday spoke on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly obstructed cease-fire talks with hardline demands and publicly undermined a U.S.-led effort last month to institute a pause along the Lebanon-Israel border.
According to a White House readout of the Wednesday conversation, Biden "emphasized the need for a diplomatic arrangement to safely return both Lebanese and Israeli civilians to their homes on both sides of the Blue Line" but did not push Netanyahu to stop Israel's large-scale bombardment of Lebanon, which has killed more than 2,100 people since mid-September.
Days before the call, CNNreported that the Biden administration was "not actively trying to revive" the three-week cease-fire proposal that Netanyahu tanked last month and "resigned itself to trying to shape and limit Israeli operations in Lebanon and against Iran rather than halting hostilities."
As Khaled Elgindy, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, wrote for Foreign Policy earlier this week, "The Biden administration has now become an active participant in the very outcome it had spent months warning against and working to prevent."
"Whereas only weeks ago it had been frantically working to negotiate a cease-fire in Lebanon, the administration has now openly embraced an Israeli bombing campaign and invasion that it once cautioned against," Elgindy added. "The Biden administration's single-minded focus on Israeli demands, needs, and pain has blinded it not only to the humanity of Palestinians and Lebanese but to the long-term damage done to the region, U.S. interests, and even Israeli security."
"We have to engage every diplomatic tool available to us for a permanent cease-fire, and we have got to stop sending bombs."
On Thursday, Israel's cabinet met to discuss a response to Iran's ballistic missile attack earlier this month, which was retaliation for Israel's assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut and Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
The cabinet was expected to authorize Mr. Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, the defense minister, to initiate the response at their discretion," The New York Timesreported, citing unnamed officials. "The results of the meeting were not released."
Gallant pledged Wednesday that Israel's attack on Iran would be "deadly, precise and, above all, surprising."
"They will not understand what happened and how it happened," he added. "They will see the results."
The Israeli government has declined to provide assurances that it does not intend to target Iran's nuclear energy facilities and reportedly has not briefed the U.S.—its principal ally and arms supplier—on the specifics of its plans.
Senior Biden administration officials have also discussed the possibility of "very limited" U.S. strikes "against Iranian targets," according toNBC News.
As the possibility of an Israeli and U.S. attack looms, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Thursday that Iran "is fully prepared to take more and stronger defensive measures against any act of aggression, and will have no hesitation in this regard." Iran's ballistic missile attack on Israel earlier this month was limited to military targets and did not kill any Israeli civilians.
Peace advocates and regional experts say Israel's intensifying assaults on the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and its looming attack on Iran underscore the need for immediate deescalation and renewed cease-fire talks.
But the prospect of a deal appears as remote as ever—and the Biden administration has refused to use U.S. military aid as leverage to force Netanyahu's hand.
"We can't just pray for peace, we can't just hope for peace—we have to work for peace," U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) said earlier this week. "And that's why we have to engage every diplomatic tool available to us for a permanent cease-fire, and we have got to stop sending bombs."
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Israel Is the Greatest Threat to US Strategy in the Middle East
Netanyahu’s push for a military victory beyond Gaza threatens to drag Washington into a broader regional war, challenging America’s long-term interests in the region.
Oct 09, 2024
The Biden administration’s approach to the Middle East crisis that erupted in the wake of October 7, 2023 is on the brink of collapse. Israel’s aggressive maneuvers, coupled with Iran’s growing involvement, are pushing the region toward a full-scale war, one that the Biden administration ostensibly hoped to avoid.
Initially, the administration calculated that U.S. interests could survive the Gaza conflict on its own, but the risk of being drawn into a broader war with untold consequences has loomed larger. U.S. President Joe Biden’s calculated ploy to restrain Israel, especially regarding Lebanon, by offering support for its Gaza actions, now seems like a failed effort to prevent an even larger conflict. Washington’s attempts to rein in Israel, including diplomatic missions to Egypt and Qatar, have failed to shift Israeli policy. Despite repeatedly sending key figures like the CIA director and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to broker peace, the United States has been left looking complicit, supplying weapons even as Israel continues its incursions. Biden, for all his efforts to distance America from the widening chaos, can no longer escape the charge that his administration bears responsibility for enabling Israel’s unchecked escalation.
Washington is now viewed as an accomplice in the region’s unfolding chaos. Biden’s reluctance to push for a cease-fire in Gaza became more untenable by the day. By June, the so-called Biden-backed peace plan emerged, supported by Hamas and begrudgingly accepted by Israel, only for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to shift the goalposts, ignoring U.S. requests to steer clear of Egypt’s Rafah border. Instead, Israel occupied the Philadelphi corridor, violating the Camp David Accords. The U.S. response? More military aid to Israel.
Netanyahu’s gamble is clear: provoke enough conflict, and Washington will have no choice but to step in. It’s a risky game, one with global consequences.
Netanyahu, meanwhile, seems to have secured Washington’s tacit approval to target Hezbollah in Lebanon, escalating a conflict that is spiraling out of control. The results have been devastating. Booby-trapped devices detonated in everyday locations such as homes and hospitals, killing civilians, including children and medical staff. The assault displaced thousands from their homes along the Lebanon border, yet Israel’s appetite for aggression appears far from sated.
While nominally approving only a “limited” strike on Lebanon, the United States has repeated a troubling historical pattern. In 1982, Ariel Sharon promised limited Israeli operations in southern Lebanon, only for Israeli forces to advance to Beirut, laying siege to the city. Israel remained an occupying force until it was driven out in 1989 by Hezbollah.
Despite months of diplomatic wrangling, President Biden has been unable to compel Netanyahu to honor the comprehensive cease-fire agreement it accepted back in June. That plan, a phased approach to ending the Gaza conflict, remains in limbo as the war grinds on. Biden’s inability to assert control over the situation only deepens the crisis, casting doubt on U.S. influence in the region.
Ironically, the greatest threat to U.S. strategy in the Middle East hasn’t come from Iran, but from its closest ally, Israel. In the chaotic days following the October 7 attacks, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant pushed for a large-scale offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon. President Biden intervened, urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to shelve those plans and concentrate on Hamas. This scenario played out repeatedly, with Biden’s administration trying to restrain Israel from escalating the conflict beyond Gaza. But for Israel, Gaza was not the strategic prize it desired. Finding himself in a tricky position, Netanyahu now needs a decisive “win” to rebuild the credibility of the country’s national security apparatus, shattered by the failures of October 7. Facing potential investigations over those failures, he is desperately looking for a way to salvage his political standing.
The United States has found itself caught in the middle, struggling to manage an ally determined to shift the focus of the conflict. Netanyahu’s push for a military victory beyond Gaza threatens to drag Washington into a broader regional war, complicating Biden’s Middle East strategy and challenging America’s long-term interests in the region. Israel claims that Hezbollah is making life unbearable for its citizens, forcing many to abandon their homes for hotels. Even the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, despite his anger over Israeli attacks, had one consistent message: A cease-fire in Lebanon could only happen if there was a deal on Gaza. It’s a sentiment that even many Israelis agree with, with some finding Hezbollah’s former leader more reliable than their own prime minister.
But there’s a catch: Netanyahu is determined to separate any resolution in Lebanon from Gaza. On the surface, this latest military escalation seems focused on securing Israel’s northern border. But beneath it lies something far more calculated: Netanyahu’s long-standing ambition for a broader conflict.
This isn’t the first time he’s maneuvered global powers toward war. He convinced the Bush administration to topple Saddam Hussein on flimsy grounds and later persuaded Donald Trump to tear up the Iran nuclear deal. Now, Netanyahu wants a war with Iran, knowing that the United States would be obligated to defend Israel.
When Israel assassinated an Iranian official with whom they’d been negotiating, it crossed a dangerous line. Though Iran didn’t respond directly, Hezbollah did. Netanyahu’s gamble is clear: provoke enough conflict, and Washington will have no choice but to step in. It’s a risky game, one with global consequences. Israel appears unlikely to show restraint in the current conflict, and the Biden administration is caught in a difficult bind. Yet President Biden seems hesitant to use the leverage the United States holds to keep Israel from escalating further. His administration now hopes that Hezbollah and Iran might seek an understanding to deescalate the tensions along Israel’s northern border. But with the Israeli government unlikely to compromise, that hope feels increasingly fragile.
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