The United States is advising citizens inside southern Israel to “take appropriate measures” as the fighting escalates, and has ordered embassy personnel to take shelter and curb all non-essential travel to the southern part of the nation.
“We strongly condemn the barrage of rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israel, and we regret the death and injury of innocent Israeli and Palestinian civilians caused by the ensuing violence,” State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement.
”There is no justification for the violence that Hamas and other terrorist organizations are employing against the people of Israel. We call on those responsible to stop these cowardly acts immediately. We support Israel’s right to defend itself, and we encourage Israel to continue to take every effort to avoid civilian casualties.”
Is Israel leading the U.S. into war? A retired top former Israeli general seems to think that perception could, if the U.S. goes to war with Iran, do damage to the Israeli-American relationship. “What I am mainly concerned of is a scenario where the United states is dragged into a war with Iran and the perception in the United States is that Israel dragged it into this war,” said Israeli Brig. Gen. (ret.) Shlomo Brom at a Friday event at the Center For American Progress (where I used to work) in Washington.
It’s hard not to see why Americans might have this perception: for months now, Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu led a very public campaign to push the U.S. to shift its trigger for war on Iran to a nuclear weapon “capability.” Capability is ill-defined, but this much seems clear: it is a lower threshold for war than Iranian weapons production, where the Obama administration has its red line.
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