Israel May Delay Response to Iranian Attack Till After Passover: Report

Washington: Nearly a week after the unprecedented Iranian attack on Israel, the world continues to hold its collective breath as it anticipates a counterattack that Israel insists is coming. Iran, which had claimed that its attack on Israel was both justified and restrained, has warned repeatedly that any Israeli response would lead Tehran to carry out an even bigger attack, this time without any warning. 

At present, despite several war cabinet meetings to discuss a response, Israel's decision in this regard appears unclear. Even as a CNN report quotes an anonymous US official as saying that Washington expects the Israeli response to be subdued, some members of Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet continue to call for a fierce response. 

In the latest, Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is not part of the war cabinet, said that the nation's response to the Iranian attack should be “fierce, severe” and should inflict a “disproportionate toll.” The idea here being, as he said, to make everyone in the region realise that “they shouldn't mess with us.”

Delayed response?

Regardless of whether the response is severe or restrained, there is an implied assumption that Israel will respond and the only other question is when. 

In this regard, an anonymous senior US official, quoted in an ABC report, said that it is unlikely for Israel to consider such a strike until the end of the celebration of Passover which started this week and will come to an end on April 30.

Passover is a major holiday that celebrates the fabled end of the Jewish people's slavery in Egypt and marks their subsequent exodus under Moses. 

The aforementioned official said that Iranian officials and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) higher-ups are still on a state of high alert, with some sheltering in safe houses and underground facilities. 

ABC also cited three Israeli officials as saying that Israel prepared for and then called off at least two counter-attacks on Iran just this week as its war cabinet considers various retaliation options.

This appears to corroborate a report carried by Axios which cited five US and Israeli sources as saying that Israel had considered a retaliatory strike against Iran as early as Monday but had decided to wait for “operational reasons.”