According to a report from The New York Times, Israel asked the US to accelerate the delivery of tanker aircraft seen as vital to Israel’s preparations to attack Iran, but the Biden administration said the first planes won’t be ready until 2024.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz made the request for the expedited delivery of Boeing-made KC-46 tankers during a meeting with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in Washington last week. Gantz said that during his trip to Washington, he conveyed to US officials that he ordered the Israeli military to prepare to attack Iran.
The KC-46 tankers would refuel Israeli bombers in the air, allowing them to hit targets in Iran and return back to Israel. The Times report said without the KC-46s, Israel would have to rely on aging tankers or try to land in the UAE or Saudi Arabia.
Israel ordered eight of the KC-46s from Boeing, worth an estimated $2.4 billion. US taxpayers would foot the bill since the payment would come from the $3.8 billion in military aid the US gives Israel each year, according to the Times.
Israeli officials are constantly threatening to attack Iran, warning that Israel would “act alone” if needed. But without US assistance, Israel wouldn’t be able to hit the nuclear facilities officials say they want to target. Besides lacking the necessary tankers, Israel also lacks bombs with the bunker-busting capabilities needed to target Iranian nuclear facilities that were built underground.
The US doesn’t want Israel to start the war without them. Israel really doesn’t want to start the war until Hezbollah in Lebanon is dealt with, which Israel can’t do by themselves. And Biden and the neocons can’t figure out how to unilaterally or in concert with Israel attack Hezbollah without suffering major domestic political fallout. So until Israel can convince the US to join them in attacking Hezbollah, the Iran war is on hold. Certainly it won’t happen before the mid-term US elections and probably not until Biden is sure of his re-election – which at the moment seems highly unlikely since only 22% of the US electorate want him to run again.
The real question is what happens in 2024 when Trump runs again. Against Biden he’ll have a decent chance of winning, and then we’re back to starting a war with Iran (unless Trump remains scared of being blamed for it.) If Biden wins, then he’ll have no reason not to start an Iran war.
Bottom line: With this much enmity against Iran, war is inevitable. The only hangup is 1) starting it without being blamed for starting it, and 2) Hezbollah.
Trump Biden are no factors. Domestic fall out:where Zionists are interested there will be no fall out. Fall out may be for Biden or Trump. Was there any fall out in Iraq war. Any resistance against Zionists will fail. What happened to Occupy Wall Street movement
Jealous! The “Zionists” have plenty of clean healthy natural gas to power their economy.
You see, if war is on the books for Israel, in war there are countermeasures. I am sure Iran has considered the avenue to hurt Israel the most. Iran will not attack Israel unless it is first attacked. Iran has had years to prepare for this, sucking Israel into thinking that a few bombing missions and murdering scientists would affect planning a counter attack.
Iran, with ten times the population, and an apocalyptic world view, will absorb hits and launch a prolonged war of attrition.Iran already attacked Israel with its attacks in Argentina, and is now playing a waiting game.
Fair assessment Richard and it deeply concerns me…
HOW is it THAT Hesbollah is a spoiler of an attack on Iran…?????
Hezbollah has enough accurate missiles – some say 50,000, some say 100,000 – these days to keep the Israeli population inside bomb shelters 24×7 for months. This would cause the Israeli economy to evaporate, piss off the Israeli electorate and get the ruling elites kicked out at the next election. Israel can’t afford that. An Israeli invasion on the ground would fail like 2006 with much higher Israeli casualties (unless the US joined in and even then it’s not certain Hezbollah wouldn’t win.)
Israel thinks they can handle Iranian missiles since the US would join in and Iran would focus most of their missiles on US assets in the region (and the Saudi oil facilities). They might be right or wrong, but Hezbollah is another matter.
“So until Israel can convince the US to join them in attacking Hezbollah, the Iran war is on hold. Certainly it won’t happen before the mid-term US elections and probably not until Biden is sure of his re-election – which at the moment seems highly unlikely since only 22% of the US electorate want him to run again.”
Keep in mind that just about any realistic Team R candidate will be even more foaming at the mouth in support of Israel, even than Biden.
Giving Israel the weapons to attack Iran is a fools errand.
“The KC-46 tankers would refuel Israeli bombers in the air, allowing them to hit targets in Iran and return back to Israel.”___ With Iran’s missile counter attack, there will not be any bases left in Israel for the jets to land on…!
That would be the appropriate response. Ruin the aircraft runways. Next, target the area in the “Iron Dome” where missiles are fired. Russia needs to sell or give Iran advanced S-400 ground to air missiles.
This is why the Israelis should go first strike with nuclear tipped MIRV missiles.