Noam Blum
@neontaster
If you were wondering why other countries don't tell the Biden admin about their plans, this is why. I said on this week's @ambXover that leaking stuff like this is their best tactic to disrupting operations they don't like.
Meanwhile, the US is preparing to "ward off" a terrorist strike on us by our Partner in Peace (TM), Iran.
Fear of an attack from Iran is rising among Biden administration officials after Israel's killing of Hezbollah militant leader Hassan Nasrallah, said a top U.S official on Sunday.
According to a CNN report, "joint defenses are being prepared to ward off an attack with changes in U.S. military posture."
The U.S. official did not elaborate on the type of attack the U.S. is preparing for with Israel.
...
"Should Iran, its partners, or its proxies use this moment to target American personnel or interests in the region, the United States will take every necessary measure to defend our people," the Pentagon said in a statement on Sunday night.
Note that the Harris-Biden Administration doesn't promise punishment against Iran for a terrorist attack against us. They only say that we will "defend" against it, and try to "ward off" such an attack.
Terrorist cowards don't worry about you "defending" against an attack. They only fear retaliation.
But these are our Partners in Peace (TM), so, we give them some wiggle-room with killing American citizens or their heroes serving overseas.
Netanyahu is warning Iran: If you want a war, you'll have yourselves a war.
The Islamic Republic will collapse sooner than people think and the Iranian people will be free, paving the way for relations between these two ancient cultures, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.
"When Iran is finally free -- and that moment will come a lot sooner than people think -- everything will be different," he said.
"When that day comes, the terror network that the regime built in five continents will be bankrupt, dismantled," Netanyahu explained, adding that Iran will "thrive as never before."
He spoke two weeks into a series of IDF strikes that has eliminated Hezbollah's command structure, including its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
The intense IDF bombardment of Hezbollah targets has been viewed as a veiled warning to Iran. Netanyahu, himself, has issued a number of very public threats against Iran.
"There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach," Netanyahu said on Monday. "There is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country."
On Monday, he released a statement in English aimed at the Iranian people, explaining that "at this pivotal moment, I want to address you -- the people of Iran. I want to do so directly, without filters, without middlemen.
"Every day, you see a regime that subjugates you, makes fiery speeches about defending Lebanon, defending Gaza.
"Yet every day, that regime plunges our region deeper into darkness and deeper into war," he said.
"With every passing moment, the regime is bringing you -- the noble Persian people -- closer to the abyss," he stated.
Stephen Green makes a safe prediction: If Israel does strike Iran, it will strike its nukes first.
Jared Kushner think that only the threat of a Hezballah war stayed Israel's hand in the past.
But now that threat is of a much-diminished nature.
How chaotic is the situation for the Islamists, really? Iranian cleric, Mostafa Karami, who regularly serves as a mouthpiece for the mullahs' regime, said on Iranian state television this weekend, "Considering the Zionists' history of subjugating genies, they carry out many of their missions through this means, and demons are their secret army."
Nasrallah was killed by Jewish genies? OK, boss.
Tehran is torn over how to respond. The New York Times reported on Sunday that "fissures have opened within the Iranian government over how to respond to [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah's killing, with conservatives arguing for a forceful response and the moderates, led by Iran's new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, calling for restraint... state television, run by [his opponent in the election] Jalili's affiliates, called for Iran to strike Israel, in open defiance of Ayatollah Khamenei's caution. "
Jared Kushner -- one of the two peacemakers behind the Trump administration's historic Abraham Accords -- posted a thoughtful essay to X on Saturday urging Israel to "finish the job." He explained that "The reason why [Iran's] nuclear facilities have not been destroyed, despite weak air defense systems, is because Hezbollah has been a loaded gun pointed at Israel."
Netanyahu is in a Michael Corleone Baptism frame of mind. The Iran-backed Houtis launched missiles at the main Israeli airport.
He did not merely "ward off" that attack.
He blew up their port and power plants.
The Israeli Air Force launched airstrikes Sunday against infrastructure in western Yemen that the military said was used by the Houthis, in a response to recent ballistic missile attacks on the Jewish state carried out by the Iran-backed group.
It was only the second-ever Israeli strike in Yemen, after in July, the IAF conducted an attack on Yemen's Hodeidah port after a drone hit Tel Aviv, killing a man in his apartment.
Four people were killed and 29 wounded in the attack, the Houthi-run health ministry said in a statement.
The strike in Yemen on Sunday was more extensive than the one in July. It also came as the IAF had struck targets in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, and allegedly in Syria during the day, amid a multifront war.
On Saturday, a missile fired by the Houthis at central Israel was shot down without causing injuries. The terror group said it was aimed at Ben Gurion Airport, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plane had just landed, bringing him home from New York.
Don't worry, though: "President" Biden's on top of this. Here's how the Sage of Scranton answered a question about the strikes in Yemen:
That's right, he confused the "Yemen strikes" with the coming dockworkers' strikes in the US.
And that's just a follow-up to the exhibition the Master of Foreign Policy put on regarding troop deployments in the Middle East: