Biden Pressured Israel To Not Launch Devastating Preemptive Attack Against Hezbollah: Report

 President Joe Biden reportedly pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to not launch a devastating strike against Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon in the immediate days after the October 7 terrorist attack.

The U.S. claimed that intelligence Israel had that Hezbollah was preparing to invade northern Israel “as part of a multi-pronged attack” was wrong, The Wall Street Journal reported. Israel’s preemptive strike against Hezbollah was so imminent that its warplanes were in the air awaiting the final green-light they needed from Netanyahu.

The report said that Netanyahu was not convinced that a massive Hezbollah attack was imminent, but some in his war cabinet were and, given the surprise attacks on October 7, Israeli officials did not want to be wrong again and miss the chance to stop an attack.

The Biden administration viewed the threat from Hezbollah and other Islamic terrorist groups in the days after October as so serious that they sent two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region to deter any further major attacks.

Israel called off the strike and Hezbollah has since launched more than 200 rocket, drone, and mortar attacks against Israel in the two and half months since, the report said.

The report said that the Biden administration’s goals are to stop “any expansion of the conflict that could draw in the U.S.,” even if it is not in Israel’s best interests to protect themselves.

Israel’s national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi indicated earlier this month that Israel could no longer accept Hezbollah’s presence in southern Lebanon and that it will have to abide by U.N. Security Council resolution 1701, which dictates that Hezbollah must stay at least 18 miles away from the Israel-Lebanon border.

He said in an interview with Channel 12 News that the residents who were forced to evacuate their homes in northern Israel will “not return if we don’t do the same thing” to Hezbollah that the country is doing to Hamas.

“We can no longer accept [Hezbollah’s elite] Radwan force sitting on the border. We can no longer accept Resolution 1701 not being implemented.”

 

“The situation in the north must be changed. And it will change. If Hezbollah agrees to change things via diplomacy, very good, if not — we will have to act,” he said. “We will have to ensure that the situation in the north is different.”