April 15, 2024 (EIRNS)—The big question, at least publicly, is will Israel retaliate for the April 13 Saturday night drone and missile barrage? Rumors are that Israel will retaliate—the only question being how, with whom, and when. The Biden Administration has so far signaled that it will not back an Israeli retaliation against Iran.
In a commentary posted yesterday, the City of London weekly, The Economist argues that the way to prevent an Israeli retaliatory strike is for the U.S. to lead an international coalition to confront Iran, putting forward the 1991 Gulf War as a model for how to do that. In summary, during that war, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein calculated that, if Israel were brought into the war, that would break up the Arab coalition that was arrayed, in alliance with the U.S. and Britain, against Iraq. Saddam Hussein tried to provoke an Israeli response by firing Scud missiles at Israel, but the U.S. succeeded in restraining then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.
