“Sometimes the best strategy is not to respond.”
I don’t think not responding is politically possible for Netanyahu. He was politically damaged as the Oct 7 attacks occurred on his watch, but I’ll bet the intel mindset that made the failure possible was probably institutionalized long ago. The current leader of any bureaucratic organization is mostly like a new paint job on an old car. The car isn’t new or improved by the new paint.
If Netanyahu fails to respond he’ll be compounding the bad image he has now. It is political poison. Now, he may respond with a cyber-attack. The problem with that is it’s a one-shot weapon as Iran will learn from it and adjust. Just plastering Iran’s proxies probably won’t work either. He’ll probably look at the weapons that were effective at getting through Israel’s defenses and strike at those weapons that are deployed and the manufacturing facilities.
His ability to respond will be hampered by the Biden administration and the fact that Iran is one heck of a long haul away over mostly unfriendly and well-armed countries. Those countries would need to agree to stand down and they likely won’t as they don’t want to be collateral damage from an Iranian response.
Another option is to assassinate someone inside Iran. That’s a whole kettle of other problems down the road.
Or, he could hit Kharg Island with a few missiles. But that might bump world oil prices and he’d be blamed for that suffering.
Problems, problems.
“Or, he could hit Kharg Island with a few missiles. But that might bump world oil prices and he’d be blamed for that suffering.”
Oil prices are a big part of that. The other thing is if Israel takes out Kharg Island, Iran then tells Hezbollah to take out Israel’s Tamar and Leviathan gas fields. There are no easy answers when it comes to solving the problem over there. Iran is much more of a regional power than people think, especially with its proxy militia’s throughout the region.