In March 2018, Benjamin Netanyahu was asked in an interview what the three greatest threats Israel was facing were. “Iran, Iran, Iran,” responded the Prime Minister. “Iran is building an aggressive empire in the Middle East,” he added. Mr. Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving Prime Minister, has never minced words about Iran. His opposition to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, brokered by the Obama administration and unilaterally destroyed by Donald Trump, was hardly a secret. He projected himself, to both his voters at home and allies abroad, as a tough leader who could stand up to the Iran threat. Yet, it was on Mr. Netanyahu’s watch that Iran launched a massive barrage of drones and missiles on Israel on April 14 — the first such attack on the Jewish nation by a state actor in over three decades.
Iran crossed a red line when it launched a direct attack on Israel. It shattered the Jewish nation’s deterrence. The United States still reined Israel in. And Israel’s response to the Iran attack was rather “feeble”, as Mr. Netanyahu’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir himself called it. After the first round, when both sides step back from the brink, the multi-dimensional crisis reinforces Iran’s growing risk appetite in an increasingly volatile and violent West Asia, America’s strategic reluctance and Israel’s near-total dependency on the United States for its security.
