Should Israel Retaliate?

[baggieal]

For me yes! Iran are terrorists and are supplying Russia big time with drones and missiles. You have to confront a bully! Apart from the mountains Iran have very little air defences!

[Q165]

By no means are many/me appalled by what is happening in Gaza. But self defence is a different thing and the vast majority realise and support action. As long as Iran and others want nothing but the total obliteration of Israel I seriously doubt they will sit back and wait.

[WBA123]

For me yes! Iran are terrorists and are supplying Russia big time with drones and missiles. You have to confront a bully! Apart from the mountains Iran have very little air defences!

Not for me. It will just escalate the situation. And in fairness, very little damage was done by Iran. It was really done just to save face after Israel bombed their embassy in Syria (How many wars get started because of ego!)

Iran are a stronger country than you point out, in terms of active personnel, they have around 700k in their army. For some perspective we have about 100k. Plus they can count on Hezbollah, Hamas and Yemeni's, so that probably gives them access to 1m+. God knows where they are at with their nuclear programme, but they probably have some very serious weaponry (which they didn't use in this attack against Israel).

Throw into the mix that Israel are stretching all of their allies patience with their bombardment of Gaza, including us and the USA. I would say it wouldn't be a wise move. But who knows with Israel, they have a bit of a crazy mindset and they're liable to do anything.

[Albionic68]

No. Not this time. They've fended the blows off easily enough and made Iran look s hite in the process. Iran meanwhile have saved face by launching an (ineffective) attack. No need to escalate further given what's already going on.

[Omegstrat6]

And it's a "no" from me too and for the same reasons already given by 123 and 68. Much as I agree that the Iranian regime and it's links to the Axis of Resistance is a threat to not only Israel but to wider Western democracies, such a direct attack will only escalate things. Hopefully the US and others will continue to urge restraint and refuse to go so far in their support of Israel as to back such a move which may make Netanyahu think twice at going it alone.

IMHO, if the US and allies like ourselves become directly involved in any action Israel takes against Iran itself then, almost certainly, Putin will ramp up support for Iran and then China will likely follow suit. In addition, such direct involvement would also lead to Islamic terrorist groups targeting any countries supporting Israel -including the UK. As such, the consequences of what happens next are pretty grim and, as regards the UK, the continuous erosion of our military capacity over the past decades does not put us in a good place should the conflict escalate.

[baggiematt]

Israel is about an 8th of the size of Iran (population-wise) who also has Middle Eastern allies. The West would have to be involved as Israel are apparently our allies. So no, that really should be the end of this tit-for-tat, although I don’t think we really know what is going on out there.

On that note, I’ve never quite understood why we’re allied to Israel. How was this decided and what do we get from a partnership? They can’t be economic partners as they’re tiny.

[Dubbag]

For me yes! Iran are terrorists and are supplying Russia big time with drones and missiles. You have to confront a bully! Apart from the mountains Iran have very little air defences!

Response needs to be considered carefully.
There is a regime in Tehran that many Sunni Arab states would like to see removed for their own safety in the region.
There is a plan that I think may involve diplomacy which will scare Russia as well as China.
Save the ammo for now....

[Titchfieldbaggie]

Response needs to be considered carefully.
There is a regime in Tehran that many Sunni Arab states would like to see removed for their own safety in the region.
There is a plan that I think may involve diplomacy which will scare Russia as well as China.
Save the ammo for now....

I think you're right. It's a watching brief for now. When the time comes, though, the response should be decisive, to remove Iran's nuclear threat. Iran has, stupidly in my opinion, set the president of attacking Israel directly.

It doesn't matter how many personnel Iran have, they can't get them through Iraq and Jordan. Israel need to go for the head of the snake, then the proxy's don't matter. In my opinion, of course

[mickd1961]

I think you're right. It's a watching brief for now. When the time comes, though, the response should be decisive, to remove Iran's nuclear threat. Iran has, stupidly in my opinion, set the president of attacking Israel directly.

It doesn't matter how many personnel Iran have, they can't get them through Iraq and Jordan. Israel need to go for the head of the snake, then the proxy's don't matter. In my opinion, of course

Iran’s drone attack the other night was akin to those football fans separated by a fence and ranks of police who are shouting “come on then” knowing full well it’s just bravado.

I suspect that they knew it would have little or no effect but would allow them to save face.

I suspect that if we were all having this chat 100 years or 500 years from now that the Middle East will still be a cluster f u c k.

I don’t think it’s a problem that can ever be solved.

[WBA123]

Israel is about an 8th of the size of Iran (population-wise) who also has Middle Eastern allies. The West would have to be involved as Israel are apparently our allies. So no, that really should be the end of this tit-for-tat, although I don’t think we really know what is going on out there.

On that note, I’ve never quite understood why we’re allied to Israel. How was this decided and what do we get from a partnership? They can’t be economic partners as they’re tiny.

It has a lot to do with their location and their close links to the USA.

Unfortunately they're a bit hot headed. I don't really understand their strategy in Gaza, all they are doing by bombing the hell out of them is creating hatred and resentment from the next generation of Palestinians. It doesn't make much long term sense to me.