Israel's Army Chief hatti Hali has
pledged to respond to Iran's reprisal
attack at the weekend the government's
War cabinet met on Monday again there's
been no announcement of any definite
action but hevi says Iran will face
consequences we are closely assessing
the situation we remain at our highest
level of Readiness Iran will face the
consequences for its actions we will
choose our response
accordingly the IDF remains ready to
counter any threat from Iran and its
Terror proxies as we continue our
mission to defend the state of is
according to Media reports commanders
are seeking a response that will hurt
Iran without triggering a wider War
there are international calls for
restraint here's a look at some of the
options
a long Shadow war that has come out into
the open with Iran's attack on Israel
over the weekend Israel's government
faces pressure from within the country
to strike back at Teran forcefully to
maintain
deterrence the highest risk and most
drastic step Israel could take would be
to strike at Iran's nuclear program that
could quickly lead to a major escalation
of the conflict Israel suspected to have
attacked Iran's uranium enrichment
facilities before including in 2010 with
a computer virus program that set Iran's
nuclear program back years but never
officially acknowledged it a step down
in intensity would be air strikes on
Iran's oil facilities military airports
or other military facilities attacking
oil targets might significantly rattle
the world economy and attacks on Iran's
military could force tyan to feel like
it had to respond again and tit fortat
attacks that could lead to a regional
war in both cases there are military and
technical issues Israel's stock of long
range ballistic missiles is low and
fighter jets would face a long and
complicated journey to their targets
raising the risk to Israel even
further a third option is no official
public reaction but to instead take the
shadow War back back into the Shadows
Israel suspected to have assassinated
multiple Iranian officials and nuclear
researchers over the past decade it also
regularly strikes at Iranian proxies in
Syria and Lebanon pushing retaliation
into this gray area without attacking
Iranian soil would likely allow Israel
to avoid the escalation its allies like
the US have been trying hard to
contain j see Mel is an associate fellow
of the Middle East and North Africa
program at chattam House of
british-based Think Tank I asked him if
this is going to be the start of a tit
forat
escalation good morning hopefully not
but yes Israel committed itself to to
respond the way that Iran committed
itself to respond to Israeli attack in
in Damascus and there there is the fear
of a very of a slippery slope of of did
for that but we you need to pay
attention to the wording the wording
doesn't say that it has to be
immediately it doesn't seem that you
know the the scope of it so there leaves
enough room for diplomatic efforts at
least for now but Israel allies to
reassure Israel of its DET turn without
the need to retaliate at least not to
retaliate in a way that will drag the
the the Middle East into into a regional
War this is the real danger but you know
there there is as every country in a
situation of of War there is a bank of
of of targets with the assessment of
what might lead to to low intensity
response and what to to much more major
response and this is a calculation that
the is government needs to to take into
account but okay actually it's in a much
better strategic situation today that it
was three days ago you can definitely
say that uh but you are still talking
about the dangers of a Regional War
still the us one of uh Israel's biggest
supporters and uh one of the biggest
players in supporting uh Israel during
this attack from Iran uh which was
supposedly in response to an alleged
Israel attack on that uh Iranian
Consulate in Syria um what happens next
because the US is saying that it won't
join in any retaliation attack now from
Israel on Iran
which opens up Israel to to a range of
danger and threat I think the
coordination on Saturday Sunday night
showed that the United States as is the
UK and and where and and France as well
not to mention some some Sunni countries
in in in the Middle East were behind
Israel in trying to support to support
it in defending it its border but this
is not guaranteed if Israel is
retaliating in in a way that endanger
them one of the reason that they
supported Israel and and participated in
this operation on protecting in
protecting Israel because this was a
tack on Israel and hurting Israel badly
goes against their interest but
retaliation with Israel and then
starting this kind of t for might
endanger them and they are not
interested so again this is something
that Israel should should calculate
sometimes showing restraint actually
taking their time because a Iran didn't
manage to to cause great damage B it
actually re it United the front against
it so Israel can actually take time and
reconsider it next move but what has
happened now to deterrence um Israel's
prime minister was harshly criticized by
the opposition leader yesterday who said
netanyahu's government was responsible
for leading to total loss of Israeli
deterrence in the wake of this
precedented Iranian
attack well the the very the very fact
that Iran D to launch that an attack
shows that the ter was damaged but has a
lot to do with the way that Benjamin
nany and his irresponsible government is
governing Israel for nearly a year and a
half now it's it create friction within
the country it damaged the unity within
not only the conscript but within the
military the reservists many of them
that refuse that refuse to volunteer at
least until October 7 in a country that
goes on the path of dictatorship and
instead of of democracy so when Mr La
talks about this he actually as much
talks about Internal Affairs within
within
Israel the inability to stop Hamas on
October 7 and the way that Israel a
conducts the war in in Gaza and
alienating many of its of of of its
friends and allies across the
world Jessie Bebe thank you very much
for joining us great to get your
insights thank you DW correspondent
amanf is following events in Jerusalem
we saw some of the options there another
of course is deescalation any signs of
that well is Israel's war cabinet uh
ended it uh meeting yesterday Monday
saying that they were going to plan a
forceful Counterattack uh but one that
was designed not uh to spark a regional
War uh We've also heard Benyamin
Netanyahu the prime minister of Israel
say that uh any Counterattack would be
calculated and would not come from the
gut so it would not be an emotional
attack it would be a very calculated
attack and all of this language is
designed to reassure partners and people
within Israel that there will will not
be a wider war that this will deescalate
the problem here is that Partners such
as the US and also other International
actors such as the UN and China urging
Israel not to respond at all that's
because don't forget uh the Iranian
attack was a response to an alleged
Israeli attack on a Embassy complex in
Damascus that belonged to Iran uh so
Iran's attack over the weekend was seen
as an attempt uh to put the matter to
rest at least by Iran and us seems to be
convinced of this as well so uh what
Israel's version of deescalation is may
not be Iran's and that could spark a
regional War anyway Ian what about the
timing of a
response well the war cabinet is set to
meet again today Tuesday so that signals
that there is not going to be an
immediate response uh also the home
front rules which are the restrictions
on public Gatherings and things like
this which came right before uh Iran's
attack have not been put in place the
they're they have been lifted uh so that
also signals that we won't see anything
in the uh next day or so uh but we'll
we'll have to wait and see about that
what pressure is the prime minister
facing to order a
Counterattack well he's facing serious
pressure from within his government
that's because he's made a coalition
with farri groups uh and who have urged
an immediate attack on Iran uh one that
would go crazy uh basically um there are
elements within his government who are
seeking a regional War they want to
attack Iran and knock out its nuclear
capabilities before it has a nuclear
weapon that could strike Iran and want
to take advantage of this moment but
it's the Israeli War cabinet that's
going to make a decision about this
Counterattack and uh that contains
centrists um like uh uh uh Benny Gant
who is not from netanyahu's party and
may be urging Netanyahu to show more
restraint than he would
otherwise following developments for us
from Jerusalem