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Biden's warning to Iran: Don't expand war with Israel

CBC: Americans are redeploying thousands of sailors, warplanes and the country's most advanced aircraft carrier in an effort to keep a powder keg from exploding across the Middle East.

That shift of resources toward the eastern Mediterranean is intended as a message of reassurance to Israel. It's also a warning to one country in particular: Iran.

Washington is nervously watching Israel's northern border for signs of a second front of attack, and evidence of a co-ordinated assault on the Jewish state by different Iran-backed militias.

The U.S. is strongly hinting that such a move could drag it into the conflict in defence of Israel. U.S. officials made clear Tuesday their aircraft carrier is there in case new parties join the war.

"To any country, any organization, anyone thinking of taking advantage of the situation, I have one word: Don't," President Joe Biden said Tuesday at the White House.

"Let there be no doubt: the United States has Israel's back."

No sign of 'nightmare scenario' yet

There is no evidence yet, beyond isolated skirmishes in the north, of the U.S.'s nightmare scenario taking shape: An escalated war that creates pressure for it to become involved.

In the meantime, however, the U.S. is taking steps abroad and at home, where support for Israel has historically been strong, despite recent softening from younger, left-leaning Americans.

It is sending munitions to Israel and shifting the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier group closer to the conflict.

It's also co-ordinating intelligence with Israel in an effort to rescue dozens of hostages held by Palestinian militants. The White House believes U.S. citizens are among those captured by Hamas during weekend terrorist attacks; at least 14 Americans are dead, and up to 20 are unaccounted for.

The U.S. moves are intended to send two messages, said Thomas Juneau, an Iran expert at the University of Ottawa.

To Israel, he said, the message is: "We have your back." To Israel's enemies, notably the Hezbollah militia and its patron, Iran,  it's a warning: "We [the U.S.] may join in the fight."

On the domestic front, the U.S. is weighing a series of actions — including by Congress, by the administration and by police — with the FBI increasing monitoring at Jewish sites amid bomb threats at Utah synagogues.

Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. Middle East negotiator, expressed optimism that a broader multinational war will be avoided. Iran, he said, likely has no interest in an escalating conflict that pits it directly against Israel, and risks pulling in the Americans.

Still, Miller predicted an extremely violent period for Israelis and Palestinians — and there's little the U.S. can do to change that.

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"This is going to get worse before it gets worse," the former State Department official told CBC News over the weekend.

"American leverage, frankly, is limited."

He said it takes three things to achieve diplomatic peace: two parties willing and able to negotiate, a real sense of shared urgency and an agreed-upon goal.

None of these conditions, Miller said, currently exist between an Israeli government he described as extreme right-wing, and the Palestinian organization Hamas, which he called "brutal" and "savage."

"I see no way the United States will be able to shape and affect that." >>>