The short answer is “not very.”
The long answer is set out here: “US ‘ironclad’ support for Israel means ‘we won’t let you fight back.'” Elder of Ziyon, April 14, 2024:
President Biden loves to use the word “ironclad” in describing US support for Israel’s security.
He used that term while campaigning in 2019, saying that his administration would “[sustain] our ironclad commitments to Israel’s security regardless of how much you may disagree with its current leader.”
He’s said it again in 2021, 2022, 2023 last week and yesterday.
I’ve just spoken with Prime Minister Netanyahu to reaffirm America’s ironclad commitment to the security of Israel. I told him that Israel demonstrated a remarkable capacity to defend against and defeat even unprecedented attacks – sending a clear message to its foes that they cannot effectively threaten the security of Israel.
While the rhetoric has been similar during the Obama and Biden administrations, both the words and US actions have indicated that Israel may only employ tools and policies to defend Israeli civilians from attack – but to do nothing beyond that.
US policy towards Israel is to keep the Jewish state – within the 1949 armistice lines – in a hermetic bubble of fences, walls and air defenses.
The problem with this policy is that it is unsustainable. It allows Israel’s enemies to keep attacking, day after day, hoping to find the weak spots in Israel’s defense, and Israel cannot do anything to stop those attempts.
So we see things like October 7. Or Hezbollah’s successful emptying out the northern part of Israel because there is no magic “Iron Dome” type defense against someone using anti-tank rockets on civilian communities. Or Gaza terror groups attempting to overwhelm Iron Dome itself because it is not 100% effective.
The US is telling Israel to sit back and accept being attacked forever, and if its defenses fail, that’s a shame, but be very careful not to respond in a way that provokes Israel’s sworn enemies to escalate further.
Because, US policy implies, then they would be justified.
On Friday, a US official told Al Arabiya that “The United States will take part in the response to the Iranian response, if Tehran escalates the situation inappropriately.” This means that the US would help shoot down drones and missiles, as it does when Houthis are shooting at Israel – but nothing more.
Are the Houthis being deterred? Is Hezbollah? Is Iran?
Israelis could see the slow-motion incoming Iranian drones for hours. The time to respond was during that time period – it was an aggressive war-like action that the entire world could monitor. And yet Israel was constrained from responding in real time, forced to only rely on its Western allies and Jordan to help knock down the threats – or, 99% of the threats in this case.
The reason? Because the US has asked Israel, even last week, not to do anything against Iran without getting a green light from the Biden administration first.
Depending only on purely defensive weapons is not a defense policy. It is an invitation for more attacks….
The Bidenites are now pressing Israel not to attack Iran, for that, they say, would “escalate” the conflict. How do they know that? Israel hasn’t told them what it will target, nor how many missiles it will fire, nor how many drones the IDF will let loose. The Bidenites clearly want to prevent any retaliation by Israel for the massive attack it just endured. What other nation is deprived of the ability to strike back against an aggressor without obtaining the permission of another country — in this case, the United States? Elder of Ziyon is right: Israel ought not to have waited, but as soon as Iranian drones and missiles were detected crossing Iran’s western border, the IDF ought to have sent fighter jets to strike at drone factories and missile sites in Iran, even as it was also knocking down drones and missiles that were already in the air, headed toward Israel.
The Israelis cannot let the Americans dissuade them from hitting Iran just as hard, or harder, than Iran tried to hit Israel. No one can tell the tiny state of Israel, the most threatened country on the planet, that it must not fight back against those who would destroy it. Imagine if some rogue state, let’s call it Estotiland, were to launch thousands of missiles at the United States, 99% of which were then shot down. What would Americans think if some other country told it that it should “take the win” but must not, under any conditions, attack Estotiland? You know the answer to that. And similarly, Israel should respond to Iran’s massive attack, in a manner of its own choosing, no matter what the Bidenites want.
USA Retired says
Biden is a liar and a first-class cheat, the more I see the more convinced I am that Trump won the 2020 election! Proving the man will do absolutely anything to keep the Democrats in power, and to heck with our allies! We have compromised to the point that there can be NO MORE compromise if we want to keep the land that most of us still love and remain loyal to the Lord.
SC says
I’ve seen more Iron a vitamin pill
bagsgroove says
Biden should be locked up in an old people home and forbidden to take part in any government action as he can’t even tell what planet he’s on. Time to retire him.
jewdog says
The Bidenites are upset that Ukraine is attacking inside Russia, so their wimpy advice to Israel against escalation is not unique to Israel. I would call Biden’s policy one of minimal deterrence. The absolute minimum. This is not a recipe for victory, and certainly not a recipe for peace through strength. Rather, it is a recipe for endless attritional warfare resulting ultimately in defeat. It’s how we lost Vietnam, where our fear of entering North Vietnam to take out the head of the snake resulted in our losing a war of attrition. The Bidenites have obviously not learned the lesson of history.
David Young says
Iron Clad in this sense means like an Iron straight jacket, totally unable to move or do anything without Biden’s say so!