At the same time, he said he expects an Iranian attack "sooner than later."
"Would the U.S. respond?" ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce asked repeatedly as the president walked away after the end of an unrelated event. He paused, thought for a moment and then returned to the lectern.
"We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed," he said.
According to one U.S. defense official, the assets being moved to the region include both "ships and aircraft."
America once bombed the Iranian consulate in Iraq, and like Israel they had an excuse that the embassy didn’t count because paperwork wasn’t properly filed. It was pure sophistry.
It really sucks that Joe is hitching his legacy to this shitty government (Israel). I'm guessing this is meant as a general strategy to moderate the conflict leaking out of Gaza. But I can't imagine support for the conflict is still high among US Israelis but I'd have to fact check that. Does Joe need the Jewish vote more than the youth in this election? I just don't get it.
Israel is a U.S. ally. The United States doesn't just abandon its allies (Republican/Russian recalcitrance regarding Ukraine notwithstanding).
Israel's current government is being run by a right-wing asshole who decided the appropriate response to Hamas' barbaric attack was to turn barbarism up to 11, with predictable calamitous results for the entire region.
Joe Biden's diplomatic job is to try to prevent things from descending into a full-scale regional war, try to protect Gaza civilians, try to reduce tensions, try to keep Israel as an ally... Notice how some of those have come into contradiction with each other? Yeah. He's trying to thread a very difficult needle.
I'm not saying he's succeeding, either, but he's at least trying.
The attack on the Iranian embassy was retaliatory. Iran previously attacked Israel on multiple occasions with missiles that were intercepted by the Iron Dome. Israel attacked the embassy, targeting eight IRGC officers, including Mohammad Reza Zahedi, their highest-ranking commander.