Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, citing two unnamed Israeli officials, reported in Axios last night that Israel has asked the Trump administration over the past 48 hours to join the war with Iran in order to eliminate its nuclear program.
Ravid notes that Israel lacks the bunker buster bombs and large bomber aircraft needed to destroy Iran’s Fordow uranium enrichment site, which is built into a mountain and deep underground. The U.S. has both within flying distance of Iran, but the Trump administration, he says, has so far distanced itself from Israel’s operation, and argued that it would be illegitimate for Iran to retaliate by striking U.S. targets.
“Directly attacking Iran, even if the U.S. involvement is limited to bombing a single site, would pull the U.S. directly into the war,” Ravid writes. “However, if Fordow remains operational after the operation ends, Israel will have failed in its goal to ‘eliminate’ Iran’s nuclear program.”
What Ravid doesn’t say is that 48 hours from when his story was posted goes back to Thursday, June 12, that is, before the first wave of Israeli strikes early in the morning of Friday June 13, which was the night of June 12 in Washington. Did Israel begin its operation knowing it couldn’t destroy Iran’s underground infrastructure with the intention of dragging in the U.S.?
Ravid further reports that an Israeli official claimed to him that the U.S. might join the operation, and that President Trump even suggested he’d do so if necessary in a recent conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A White House official denied that on June 13. A second U.S. official confirmed on June 14 that Israel has urged the Trump administration to join the war, but said currently the administration is not considering it.
