Gallant heads to US as Washington weighs in IDF strike on Iran

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is set to visit Washington on Tuesday as the United States seeks to weigh in on the scope of Israel’s anticipated retaliatory strike against Iran.

“Whoever thinks that a mere attempt to harm us will deter us from taking action, should take a look at [our achievements] in Gaza and Beirut,” Gallant said Sunday, less than a week after Iran attacked Israel with ballistic missiles.

“We are powerful in both defense and offense, and this will be reflected in the manner of our choosing, at the time and place of our choosing,” he said as he visited the Nevatim Air Force base.

US President Joe Biden has been blunt about his opposition to an Israeli strike that would target either Iran’s oil fields or its nuclear facilities. KAN News reported on Sunday that the US had offered Israel monetary incentives to modify its attack plans.

US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew spoke of the issue at the annual Shabtai Shavit World Summit of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) at Reichman University on Sunday.

“What we’ve made clear publicly is that it’s important for this not to escalate [Israeli-Iranian violence] into a regional war.

“The president has made some public comments that suggest the things that we think create the greatest risk of things spiraling.

“On the other hand, we haven’t said that Israel should just tolerate having 200 ballistic missiles shot at it in a little over an hour, even if it was two hours,” Lew said as he underscored how serious those attacks were.

He cautioned that a decision to destroy Iran’s nuclear program was not a decision to make because Israel has had a successful few weeks in its military exchanges.

Khamenei speaks

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei warned Israel and the US not to respond, in a post he placed on X/Twitter.

“What our armed forces did was to inflict the minimum punishment on that usurping Zionist regime in response to its appalling crimes. It’s a bloodthirsty regime, a wolf-like regime, and the US’s rabid dog in the region.”

“The brilliant Operation True Promise 2 of our armed forces was completely legal and legitimate. And if necessary, this will be done again in the future,” he wrote.

In advance of the anniversary of the October 7 massacre, President Issac Herzog gave a rare interview to the Saudi news organization Al Arabiya in which he called on the people of the Middle East to unite in peace and for those who oppose Iran to create a military alliance against it, akin to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

“We are all the children of Abraham, and I call upon the people of Lebanon, the people of Iran, the people of all of the oppressed nations in the region to rise up and understand that if we move this empire of evil, if we confront it and be tough together, we surely can hope for a better future and create a NATO-like structure in the region that blocks radicalism,” he said.

“Iran is the only country in the world who calls for the eradication of another member state of the United Nations – that’s Israel,” Herzog said.

“I saw the speech of the supreme leader. There was no message of accommodation, of extending a hand or saying, let’s move together, two great historic nations to help change the lives of people in the Middle East. Rather, you see Iran spending billions of dollars of their own citizens’ money on a huge war machine aimed at creating pain and havoc. So either we offer hope for hope, or we go for destruction. Iran offers destruction. We are offering hope,” he stated.

The United States, France, and Britain have stood behind Israel in its battle against Iran. Their armies, along with those from Israel and Jordan, took to the skies in April and again last week to defend the Jewish state against the direct strikes from Iran.

French President Emmanuel Macron called on Saturday for an arms embargo against Israel with regard to offensive munition used by the IDF in Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Macron in a phone conversation Sunday that an arms embargo against Israel as the IDF is fighting Iran and its proxies would only strengthen the Islamic Republic.

“Iran supports all parts of its axis of terrorism. Israel expects its friends to stand behind it and not impose restrictions that will only strengthen the Iranian axis of evil,” the Prime Minister’s Office said as it paraphrased the message Netanyahu delivered to Macron.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot will be in Israel on Monday to stand in solidarity with the country as part of a regional visit he is making this week in light of heightened regional tensions.