Jacob Olidort
The National Interest, June 25, 2024
“From the perspective of this end state of fostering planning paralysis, Israel’s objective of eradicating Hamas in Gaza not only eliminates a fundamental security threat but also rids Iran of a proxy on Israel’s doorstep, thereby complicating Iran’s efforts to attack Israel while diminishing Iran’s footprint in the region.”
Israel, unlike the United States, has demonstrated its resolve to respond with force to each and every attack against it by Iran or its proxies. However, it is not just Israel’s willingness to use force that is noteworthy but its disposition to do so in a way that coerces and constrains Iranian power.
The United States should learn from Israel’s approach, particularly its April 19 strike inside Iran, and apply, together with Israel, a coercive strategy that seeks to constrain, degrade, and eventually collapse the Iranian regime.
The Biden administration has only recently come around to appreciate this approach when it took out an Iranian proxy commander in response to Iran’s January 28 drone attack that killed three U.S. servicemembers. Since then, Iran appears to have paused attacks against U.S. personnel. Up until that point, the United States had responded to Iranian proxy escalation by striking token weapons depots and killing low-level Iranian military bystanders, describing each response as “self-defense.” Unsurprisingly, those responses only encouraged Iranian escalation.
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