The hundreds of drones and rockets, fired by Iran at Israel, threatened to escalate the conflict in the Middle East and raised fuel prices. All this created huge political problems for US President Joe Biden. This is said in a material of The Wall Street Journal.
The publication noted that the attack came after weeks of increased pressure by Biden on the Jewish state to scale back military operations in Gaza. That position found rare agreement with Donald Trump, who, as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, told Israel to end its attacks as soon as possible.
"But the politics of the conflict in the Middle East were upended by events over the weekend, which led some Republicans to call for US military retaliation against Iran, while the Biden administration called for only a diplomatic response,” the authors wrote.
The journalists write that the Iranian attack further complicates Biden's political situation not only because of the possibility of a wider war, but also because it could inspire Hamas to abandon the ceasefire agreement with Israel.
The fighting between Israel and Hamas that began in October has eroded Biden's support among key voters as he continued to back Israel's military operation despite mounting civilian casualties.