On Saturday, April 13, Iran launched an airstrike against Israel. Many news outlets are isolating this attack and not covering the reason as to why Iran attacked Israel. On April 1, Israeli war planes destroyed the Iranian consulate in Syria. According to The Guardian, 11 Iranian government or military officials were killed in the attack, most notably two generals. This attack from Israel was most likely a result of them believing that Iran is supporting the Hamas regime in Gaza, despite U.S. and Israeli sources initially stating that the Oct. 7 attack was not correlated to Iran. After the Israeli strike, Iran vowed to take revenge on Israel. This was most likely done to show Israel and other surrounding nations that Iran would not sit idly by as some of their head officials are assassinated. Even though they wanted revenge on Israel, it is apparent that they did not want to go to war with Israel. 72 hours (about three days) before the Iran air strikes, Reuters reports that Iran gave neighboring nations Iraq, Jordan and Turkey a warning of the attack. While Iran says that they gave this information to the United States as well, U.S. officials claim that they never received these messages. Although most of the missiles and drones were destroyed before they even reached Israeli territory, four missiles hit Israel’s Nevatim Air Base, which U.S. officials say was most likely Iran’s main target. They went on to report that the only serious injury in Israel was a seven-year-old girl who was hit by shrapnel. According to Reuters, after the attacks, President Joe Biden cautioned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States would not take part in an Iran offensive. Biden did say that if Iran attacked again unprovoked, the U.S. would act.
On the night of April 18, Israel struck back at Iran in a limited fashion. Israel had targeted both a major air base and nuclear site in central Iran via air strike. While this initially brought about concern amongst Israel’s western allies, both Israel and Iran are downplaying the attack and are seemingly de-escalating tensions. While this does not mean that peace will develop between the two nations, it seems neither side wishes for this to evolve into an all-out war.
According to The New York Times, Netanyahu had stated, “we will make our own decisions” in regard to Iran’s attack and seemingly dismissed calls for restraint from his country’s allies. But with Israel fighting major long-lasting wars against Hamas and Hezbollah, opening a new war against Iran might prove fatal for Israel. If they chose to directly engage with Iran, they would be the most formidable force that Israel is currently fighting. History is full of examples of nations and empires spreading their military too thin and suffering defeat. De-escalating tensions with Iran would be the most logical choice for Israel to make.
For Iran, making temporary peace with Israel would also be in their best interest. Based on most recent reports, no Iranians were killed or even hurt in this most recent attack by Israel and further attacks on Israel would cause the United States to get involved with the conflict. There is no question that Iran, as it currently stands, does not wish to go to war with the United States, and most likely its allies.
With Israel getting the last strike and Iran not suffering any major damages, it is most likely that the conflict between the two nations will simmer down without any major attacks in the near future.
Geoff Soland is a third-year History major with minors in Journalism and Museum Studies. GS1003383@wcupa.edu