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While our attention is understandably focused on the renewed fighting in Gaza, we could easily overlook one of the most transformative moments in the Middle East.
The president who ordered the liquidation of Qassem Sulimani, the commander of Iran’s al-Quds force, in 2020, is now threatening to do what no American leader has ever dared. He is not only putting a credible military option back on the table but waving it in the Ayatollah’s face.
“Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN,” the President posted. “IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!”
The threat represents a radical departure from longstanding American policy going back to Iran’s Islamic revolution in 1979. Not since 1988, when Ronald Reagan ordered the U.S. Navy to sink the Iranian ships that shot at Kuwaiti oil tankers, has Washington retaliated for Iranian attacks against American targets. The list of such aggressions, from the kidnapping of American sailors in the Persian Gulf to the killing of American soldiers in Iraq, is very long.
In 2023-2024, pro-Iranian militias in Syria and Iraq launched some 180 rocket and drone attacks against American bases causing dozens of casualties while the Houthis in Yemen essentially blocked international shipping through the crucial Mandeb straits. In spite of this flagrant aggression, the Biden administration refused to approve the firing of a single bullet at Iran.
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Instead, Washington officials constantly broadcast fear of a war with Iran—a war which Iran, lacking an air force, had no ability to wage—and of becoming entangled in a regional conflict. Not surprisingly, the Ayatollahs concluded that they and their proxies could continue to attack the U.S. and its allies with impunity.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump
(Photo: Avi Ohayun, GPO)
In such circumstances it was extremely difficult to contemplate an Israeli military initiative against Iran and its nuclear facilities. Even the two retaliatory strikes undertaken by the Air Force in 2024 were limited in scope due to intense American pressure.
All that is now about to change. The red light that Trump is projecting to Iran is a green light for Israel. Now, before Iran, with the help of Russia and China, restores its air defenses, Israel must act.
While there may be reluctance to take on Iran while Israel is once again taking on Hamas, the IDF has proven its ability to fight simultaneously on multiple fronts at the same time.
In response to the next Houthi rocket or drone fired at the Negev or Tel Aviv, Israel must quote President Trump and deliver dire consequences to Iran.
- Michael Oren is an author and former Israeli Ambassador to the United States.