Drones understood to be heading towards Israel as Biden returned from Delaware on Saturday to meet with national security team

Iran said it launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles towards Israel on Saturday in a major attack following days of acute tension building up in the region and warnings from the US and elsewhere about a wider conflict erupting.

Air attack warning sirens began wailing over Jerusalem just before 2am local time on Sunday after the weapons were fired a few hours earlier from Iran with US and Jordanian military assisting Israel’s air defenses in intercepting the first incoming barrage.

With weapons believed to be still in the air en route to Israel, Iran’s mission to the United Nations posted on X: “Iran’s military action was in response to the Zionist regime’s aggression against our diplomatic premises in Damascus. The matter can be deemed concluded.”

However, it threatened more severe action in the face of further Israeli aggression and warned the US and Jordan specifically not to assist Israel.

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Edit: here are links to the NYT and BBC live feeds.

Edit 2: updated summary and archive to reflect article changes.

  • shortwavesurfer@monero.townEnglish
    5924·
    7 months ago

    I am going to take the US perspective in all this and ask why they fuck are we even getting involved? They are half a world away. Why are Israel and Turkey? US allies? What have they done for us? Because it seems like we give them an awful lot and don’t get very much in return. The US should focus on defending the US and let Israel, Iran and all the rest of them have their part of the world with their conflicts. Just leave us the hell out of it.

    Edit: And we need to stay the hell out of their business and leave them the fuck alone to run their countries the way they want to.

      • Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.worldEnglish
        91·
        7 months ago

        Not looking to be antagonizing, as you’re correct those are the reasons. But it should be said that they are stupid reasons. We should be weaning off oil as quickly as possible. The second point is in a lot of ways a hindrance, as shipping zones means shipping away manufacturing jobs.

        And none of that is worth the price of war, or supporting genocide.

        • SuddenDownpour@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          61·
          7 months ago

          Not to mention that plenty of countries through the world are capable of engaging in maritime commerce with Middle Eastern countries without having military bases there.

          • irreticent@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            7 months ago

            To be fair, they enjoy that luxury due to the fact that the US Navy protects the shipping lanes.

            • Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              7 months ago

              It’s not like we wouldn’t use other ones if the area suddenly became unusable. Sure, it would be expensive. But hardly a need.

    • EatATaco@lemm.eeEnglish
      353·
      7 months ago

      It’s the Middle East. It has a huge amount of a particularly important strategic resource. Additionally, the countries there generally have, at best, a cold relationship with the US. If not outright adversarial.

      Israel is smack dab in the middle of it with access to the sea. It holds a massively important strategic military and geopolitical position for the US.

      So, sure, what the other poster says is definitely part of it, but I think what primarily drives US support to be seemingly unequivocal is that the US/Israel alliance is also very important to US geopolitical influence as well.

      • shortwavesurfer@monero.townEnglish
        85·
        7 months ago

        As for that natural resource, we have quite a bit of it here in the United States itself. So we wouldn’t have to rely on them to get that resource. That, and if the US really wanted to break away, they could very seriously incentivize the purchase of electric mobility devices, such as electric bikes and scooters and cars.

        • EatATaco@lemm.eeEnglish
          134·
          7 months ago

          The US is 10th on the list of oil reserves

          6 of those above the US are in the middle east (or northern Africa, depending on how you draw your boundaries). 5 of those have more than twice the amount of the US. One has probably around 5x. The US is burning through reserves right now, which is strategically a bad long term idea, IMO.

          I agree with you that certain dependance can go away if we shift to electric. However, militarily speaking, oil is going to be king probably for a long time. And that’s what this is about. Not just making sure civilians can drive down the road cheaply, although that certainly plays a role.

          • el_abuelo@lemmy.mlEnglish
            5·
            7 months ago

            The US is a net exporter of oil. They don’t have a hard dependency on the list and it doesn’t matter if they’re 6th or 60th - they have more than they need.

          • MrSpArkle@lemmy.caEnglish
            3·
            7 months ago

            Oil is crucial for agriculture and the production of vital chemicals and materials. We really shouldn’t be burning it.

            • JasonDJ@lemmy.zipEnglish
              12·
              7 months ago

              Gotta tell Ya’ll Qaeda that they’ll have to give up their trucks but they can keep plastic straws.

          • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.worldEnglish
            42·
            7 months ago

            Israel is #91 on that same list. Israel consistently increases tensions with our trade partners in the region. They are a liability to our trade negotiations, not an asset.

      • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.worldEnglish
        76·
        7 months ago

        It has a huge amount of a particularly important strategic resource.

        This is not accurate. There are multiple nearby allied/NATO countries in the area as well as carrier groups in the Med that more than cover what Israel offers us.

        Israel does not offer us a unique strategic advantage in any scenario. They only increase tensions with our existing trade partners in the region and threaten to bring us into wars that they start. They are very much using us, and have been for decades. We allow/justify it because of religious and traditional reasons. Nothing more.

        Biden is backing Israel because some of the U.S.'s biggest political donors (AIPAC) will shift their support back to the Republicans in the upcoming election if he doesn’t. Mark my words: Biden will back off Israel support the instant it becomes too late for certain donors to negatively affect the upcoming election.

    • shikitohno@lemm.eeEnglish
      21·
      7 months ago

      I don’t know about Turkey, but US politicians mostly care about Israel because AIPAC pumps a ton of money into US politics, both in the form of funneling it to pro-Israel candidates, and ads and campaign funding against those who don’t bow down to swear fealty to Israel.

      To a lesser extent, you also have a large chunk of fundamentalist Christians in the us who will support Israel no matter what because they believe Israel needs to exist as a nation with its full, Biblical territory, in order for Armageddon and the return of Jesus to occur. Just yet another way conservative Christians are trying to wreck the US for their insane beliefs.

    • freebee@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      62·
      7 months ago

      You can’t be on top of the global trade and neglect strategic points that protect strategic trade routes. I mean, you can, but it will make USA shrink in global importance even faster. You leave, others fill the void, pay the price, reap the benefits. Isolationism isn’t likely to save the USA world dominance. Dominance which is the very biggest reason your currency is the most stable in the world: it’s backed by the biggest military apparatus ever, stop caring about the world, find out soon when your prices skyrocket and economy crashes. The real question is how the USA should behave in this, not if they should do a thing but rather what they should do.

      • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.worldEnglish
        36·
        7 months ago

        Israel offers absolutely no unique strategic value to U.S. trade or military logistics. There are nearby NATO countries, bases in nearby allied countries as well as carriers in the Med that more than cover us.

        Israel is only a liability to us. They exacerbate tensions with our existing trade partners in the region and risk bringing us into unecessary conflicts.

        • freebee@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          5·
          7 months ago

          turkey has a strategic position towards the bosporus and russia, why they get away with a lot of bullshit too, israel is a more important as a reliable foot on the ground for guaranteeing the north end of the suez canal and the eastern end of the mediterranean. Cyprus also plays that role, but is also contested area greece/turkey. Never put all your eggs in one basket, that kind of thing. Carriers are nice but a always a risk (they might not seem so now, but you never know). Israel also offers an extra access point north side of the red sea, would the suez be unaccessible.

          I’m not at all saying the usa should just blindly follow israel on its warpath as it has been for many decades. They should try to get netanyahu towards the exit, sooner the better, but just leaving israel altogether is probably not in the best interest for the usa itself, long term geostrategically.