Edelstein to 'Post': ‘If Israel doesn’t respond, Iran will think it can attack every week’

Israel has to respond to prevent Iran from normalizing missile and drone attacks on Israel, Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein [Likud] told The Jerusalem Post as the country’s war cabinet debated a retaliation plan.

“There will be a response,” Edelstein said, in the aftermath of the dramatic actions of a newly forged defensive coalition of five armies — Israel, the US, Jordan, France, and Great Britain — that repelled over 300 drones and missiles Iran had launched at Israel early Sunday morning.

“I don't think that we can pretend that nothing really happened because we managed to defend ourselves and [didn’t] let all these ground missiles and ballistic missiles and the drones kill thousands of Israelis,” Edelstein said.

IDF Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi has similarly sworn that Israel will retaliate.

Edelstein said that this time around, Israel was able to weather the attack.

The IDF and US officials have touted the success of the defensive operation, which downed 99% of the projectiles so that Israel didn’t suffer any substantive damage.

'Iran could be emboldened to repeat its attacks.'

But, Edelstein said, if “there’s no retaliation,” Iran "can decide that this is something they can do every week.”

“There are different ways and different means to react,” Edelstein said. When Israel does act against Iran, it will be very clear to Tehran that the IDF was behind it.

"Let's put it this way: the Iranians would know for a fact that their improper deeds didn't pass unnoticed,” Edelstein said.

He spoke as Israel’s major allies, including the US, France, and Great Britain, have urged it not to directly attack Iran.

Should Israel decide to retaliate, its allies want it to choose a more indirect response that would not escalate the situation or lead to an all-out war. 

US National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby told reporters in Washington on Monday that Iran’s attack was a failure and that Israel has restored deterrence through the IDF’s successful defense of the country.

“I've seen reporting that the Iranians meant to fail that this spectacular and embarrassing failure was all by design,” US National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby told reporters in Washington on Monday, as he explained that such statements were patently false.

“Let's be straight, given the scale of this attack, Iran's intent was clearly to cause significant destruction and casualties,” Kirby said as he spoke of how a coalition of five armies — Israel, the US, Jordan, France, and Great Britain — repelled over 300 missiles and drone targeting the Jewish state.

It was the first time that this coalition of forces had acted as a military defensive force both in the region and in defense of Israel.

Iran’s attack failed, Kirby said, “because it was defeated by Israel, by the United States, and by a coalition of other partners committed to Israel's defense.”

He also dismissed reports that the coalition against Iran succeeded because Iran had provided messages through third parties detailing the time and scale of the attack.

“I've also seen Iran say that they provided early warning to help Israel prepare its defenses,” Kirby said, stressing that “all of this is categorically false.”

“There was never any message to us or to anyone else on the timeframe, the targets, or the type of response. 

“In fact, before yesterday, it was presumed that 100 ballistic missiles might overwhelm even the best defensive systems; that was Iran's intent and as you all saw for yourself. This attack was defeated thanks to our preparations,” Kirby said.

Iran’s attack came half a year after the IDF failed to protect its southern border against a Hamas attack. It also came at a moment when it had appeared isolated on the international stage due to opposition to its military campaign to destroy Hamas, which is an Iranian proxy group.

“Israel today is in a far stronger strategic position than it was only a few days ago,” Kirby stated.

“Iran's vaunted missile program, something it has used to threaten Israel and the region, proved to be far less effective. Israel's defenses, on the other hand, proved even better than many had long assumed.” 

“Much of the world today is standing with Israel,” he stressed. 

The defensive action by coalition forces against Iran also showed that the US takes its commitment to the region and Israel seriously, he said.

“We got skin in the game. And we proved that,” he said. Iran had said it attacked Israel early Sunday morning in retaliation for an IDF strike on its embassy compound in Damascus that killed seven military officers on April 1.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri warned that his country would respond immediately to any Israeli attack.According to Press TV, he said. “In case of repetition of another mistake, they should expect a harsher, faster, and more immediate response rather than waiting close to two weeks.

“This time, the Zionists should know that they will not have a 12-day time frame,” Bagheri noted. The response that they are going to receive [this time around] cannot be measured by [such time standards as] days or hours, but [will come in a matter of] seconds.”