A US-made Terminal High-Altitude Air Defense system


I joined India’s WION on Monday to analyze the US supply of a THAAD air defense system to Israel, with the deployment of 95 American troops to operate it, amid tensions over Israeli-Iranian confrontation.

Is the measure purely “defensive” or would it enable Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pursue airstrikes on Iran, alongside his open-ended wars in Gaza and Lebanon?

I try to answer that with a focus the dynamics of the US-Israeli relationship, the internal battle in Israel, the positon of Iran’s leaders, and the latest military operations in Lebanon and Gaza.

The Biden Administration is taking a big risk. What we have seen in the last few weeks, after the killing of more than 42,000 people in Gaza, is an expansion of the Netanyahu war in Lebanon, the Iranian missile attacks, and the threat of Israeli retaliation.

I think the US keeps believing “we can hold Netanyahu back”, and I’m not sure Netanyahu can be held back.