The US is claiming victory in shooting down 99% of the massive drone and missile attack on Israel. However, it seems like this attack was designed to be shot down. The Iranians felt they had to respond to Israel’s bombing in Syria that took out some top Iranian operatives, but did so in a way that they knew would cause minimal damage.

A couple of observations: Iranian backed groups had attacked US assets in the region scores of times in the first couple months of the Gaza War. When they killed a couple US servicemen, Biden launched 180 air and missile strikes taking out not only Iranian backed groups but also Iranian QUDS forces in the region outside Irainian borders. The attacks were brutally successful and hurt the Iranians operations so badly they have refrained from making any attacks on US assets for over two months. The Houthis have made strikes but the Iranians don’t have total control over them. Biden seems to be navigating the very complicated foreign policy crises in the Middle East and Ukraine about as skillfully as anyone could.

Netanyahu is not. Maybe there was a good reason he chose to hit Iran in Syria. Maybe those operatives who were killed were planning something very deadly. I’m a strong supporter of Israel, but in general Bibi has handled the situation disasterously. He has risked escalating the war to a very dangerous level. He has squandered much of the good will Israel had after the heinous Oct 7 attack by refusing to allow enough aid into Gaza. His single minded focus on getting the perpetrators of the Hamas attack at the expense of civilian lives has turned world opinion against Israel. And he has squandered one of Israel’s greatest assets: Legitimacy. Netanyahu knows when the war ends he is toast politically. The sooner the better I feel.