Israel has decided not to send F-15 jets to their joint military exercise with the U.S. in Alaska due to fear of Iranian attack. Many Israeli officials have recently promised to respond to international threats, warning Iran that Israel will not hesitate to fight back if prompted. This is relevant to their fear of the increased influence of Hezbollah, which they have been targeting in more than 100 attacks within Syria. This includes, reportedly, the bombing of an air base that killed seven Iranian military personnel. Iran has threatened to retaliate to this attack. Israeli military officials claim (albeit without evidence) to have discovered that an Iranian drone that crossed the border in February was "armed with explosives" and "tasked to attack Israel". The former head of research at the Israeli Defense Force's military intelligence division, Yossi Kuperwasser, has expressed his lament at the lack of international help in keeping Iran in its place.
Experts believe in spite of high tensions that neither Israel nor Iran are seeking open conflict. Personally, I believe that if we can help, the U.S. should send support to ease the tension, though I fear the possibility of making things worse if we appear to be picking a side. At the moment at least, I hope that if it's true that neither party actually seeks to escalate the conflict that a Cold War situation where both sides avoid taking too drastic of measures to avoid full-on war. Do you think the U.S. should send support to Israel? Will the situation between Israel and Iran escalate? Trump has opposed the 2015 agreement (ending May 12, 2018) for easing international sanctions on Tehran if it abandons its nuclear weapons program; do you believe he will re-certify the pact? What are the consequences if he doesn't re-certify it?
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-warns-iran-military-buildup-syria-won-t-send-jets-n866921
1 comment:
I don't think the U.S. should act without the cohesive agreement of the United Nations. We've already intervened enough in the Middle East in the past and honestly, we've screwed quite a few things up. If we do send aid there, I think it will be fairly clear that we are taking a side, as pretty much all the Middle Eastern countries don't like the U.S. with exception of Israel. Furthermore, sending aid to Israel is a conflict of interest as well. Israel is reacting to a threat made by Iran after Hezbollah killed seven Iranians. The U.S. government recognizes Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, and sending aid to protect Israel from Hezbollah's actions might be considered helping a terrorist group. Sending in unbiased peacemaking aid is a positive idea, but is unattainable and will not come to fruition. I'm pretty sure Iran will probably blame the U.S. for intervening even more. Going in as part of the UN is probably the only way that the U.S. can provide aid to this situations without seemingly like they are taking a side. However, due to the inefficiency of the UN, I don't think that this is likely to happen either.
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