Former national security adviser John Bolton criticized President Biden for putting “enormous pressure” on Israel to not “do more” to Iran Friday, after the country launched retaliatory strikes on Israel following an attack earlier this month in Syria.
Early Friday, the Israeli military struck close to a major air base and nuclear site in Iran. The strike seemed to be a response to the drone and missile strikes that took place last weekend.
“I think what Israel did, as far as it went, was fine,” Bolton said Friday on the “Cats & Cosby” radio show, hosted by John Catsimatidis and Rita Cosby. “I think they were under enormous pressure, I mean, enormous pressure, from the Biden administration not to do more, and I can appreciate that, it’s a difficult position to be in.”
“But even within the war Cabinet in Israel, people believe that opposition leader Benny Gantz wanted to go further,” he continued. “And I think they should have. I think Iran was very, very lucky here.”
Despite Israeli officials previously threatening a strong response to Iran’s recent attack, it was relatively small. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had even warned that “[t]he state of Israel will do whatever is necessary to defend itself” in a meeting of his Cabinet.
Analysts said that the relatively miniscule response from Israel had its foundations in trying to halt the current conflict between the Middle Eastern nations from escalating further.
“The goal was to restore deterrence and discourage any further Iranian attack on the Israeli homeland,” Richard Haass, the president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote. ”But the Israeli action was also calibrated to make it easy for Iran not to respond. Israel’s government is not trumpeting what took place.”
In an interview with NBC News Friday evening, Iran’s Foreign Affairs Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian questioned Israel’s role in the incident, saying the military doesn’t have proof that they were behind the attack. He also noted that while Iran wouldn’t retaliate for Friday’s strike, they will take action if it happens again.