In a Change, the Biden Administration Is Now Signaling That It Backs an Israeli Strike Against Iran

The attack in April was a mix of low- and high-impact airborne devices, with drones leaving Iranian airspace hours before they would arrive — giving Israel, the United States and other allies a long heads-up to prepare. Last week’s attack, by contrast, was entirely ballistic missiles, giving Israel and the United States only about 15 minutes of advance warning.

“I believe that what the president has said is that it should be proportionate,” said Richard Fontaine, the CEO of the Center for a New American Security, a think tank founded by former national security officials who served in Democratic administrations. Biden is saying, Fontaine said, that “in the face of 200 ballistic missiles headed toward Israeli cities, that Israel is fully within its rights and would be prudent to try to reestablish a degree of deterrence by demonstrating that those kinds of attacks impose costs on the attacker.”

The attack in April was also smaller and more focused, said Fontaine on Thursday during a webinar.

“This time feels quite different given the scale of the attack,” he said. “I think it’s a matter of what the retaliation strike looks like rather than whether there will be one at all.”

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