Top U.S. general goes to Israel amid fears of Iranian strikes
Cassandra Vinograd and Eric Schmitt
The United States dispatched its top military commander for the Middle East to Israel on Thursday, after President Biden stated that, despite recent friction, American support for Israel “is ironclad” in the event of an attack by Iran.
Iran’s leaders have repeatedly vowed to punish Israel for an April 1 strike in Syria that killed several senior Iranian commanders. Israel has put its military on alert, and Biden said Wednesday that Iran was threatening a “significant” attack.
Gen. Michael E. Kurilla, the American commander, will coordinate with Israel on what is widely expected to be imminent retaliatory action by Iran and will also discuss the war against Hamas in Gaza and humanitarian aid operations there, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel acknowledged Thursday that Israel was facing “challenging times,” noting that “in the midst of the war in Gaza” his country was “also prepared for scenarios involving challenges in other sectors.”
“We have determined a simple rule: Whoever harms us, we will harm them,” he said while visiting an air base, using language that has been used in recent days to refer to threats from Iran and its proxies, including Hamas.
Active fighting in Gaza has ebbed to its lowest point since November. Israel withdrew troops from southern Gaza over the weekend but said the military would stay in other parts of the territory to preserve its “freedom of action and its ability to conduct precise intelligence-based operations.”
Netanyahu has said a date has been set for a ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza, where more than a million displaced Palestinians have sought shelter — an operation U.S. officials have warned would be catastrophic for civilians. Some analysts have suggested that his threats are bluster or attempts at gaining leverage in cease-fire negotiations.
The Biden administration has urged Netanyahu to shelve the invasion plans and focus on “alternative approaches that would target the key elements of Hamas.”
Biden has become increasingly critical of Netanyahu’s conduct of the war in Gaza, even threatening to condition U.S. assistance on Israel’s doing more to protect civilians. But he emphasized Wednesday that American support for Israel in the face of danger from Iran and its allied militias, like Hezbollah, was unconditional.
“As I told Prime Minister Netanyahu, our commitment to Israel’s security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad,” he said at a news conference.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken also “made clear that the U.S. will stand with Israel against any threats by Iran and its proxies” when he spoke by phone on Wednesday with Israel’s defense minister, the State Department said.