Opposition pans failure to exact ‘heavy price’ from Iran, as US welcomes limited strike
Lapid says not attacking strategic and economic targets ‘was wrong,’ Liberman dismisses ‘PR actions’; Yair Golan lauds military, White House for persuading government to hold back
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid on Saturday said Iran should have “paid a much heavier price” than the damage caused by Israel’s overnight strikes, after the Islamic Republic’s October 1 ballistic missile barrage on the country.
Writing on X, Lapid said, “the decision not to attack strategic and economic targets in Iran was wrong,” adding that Iran leads the “axis of evil” and should “pay a heavy price for its belligerence.”
Other politicians in Israel also lamented the limited nature of the overnight attack.
Yisrael Beytenu party head Avigdor Liberman, a hawkish former defense minister, said Iran will continue trying to obtain nuclear arms and sending its proxies profits from its oil sales, and slammed the government for “once again satisfying itself with public relations actions.”
MK Tally Gotliv, of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, said Israel’s limited attack represented “a surrender to the Biden administration” and a missed opportunity to derail Iran’s nuclear aspirations.
Due to the Sabbath, there has been no comment from government officials, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who previously ridiculed the limited nature of an alleged Israeli strike in April following that month’s missile and drone attack by Iran.
On the other hand, Yair Golan, who leads a merger of the left-wing Meretz and Labor parties, praised Saturday’s limited attack for “harming Iran’s defensive and offensive capabilities without dragging us into a war of attrition.”
“The American pressure succeeded, or perhaps the military’s voice of reason worked for a change,” Golan said, adding that if the exchanges with Iran are complete “we can go back to dealing with the most important thing, that the government is refusing to handle: a hostage deal” in Gaza.
The attack, which was said to kill at least four Iranian soldiers, targeted air defenses and military installations across Iran — specifically sites used to manufacture and launch ballistic missiles and drones — but not nuclear sites or oil facilities. US President Joe Biden, who coordinated closely with Israel on its response, had voiced opposition to such strikes. An informed source cited in The Washington Post said the attack was calibrated to minimize casualties and prevent further escalation.
Briefing reporters after Saturday’s attack, a senior Biden administration official said the White House had encouraged Jerusalem over recent weeks “to conduct a response that was targeted and proportional with low risk of civilian harm.”
“That appears to have been precisely what transpired this evening,” the official said, noting that Israel had struck “multiple military targets across Iran and outside populated areas.”
Washington is “fully prepared to once again defend” against any attack,” the official said, pointing to the recent US deployment of THAAD missile defense batteries to Israel.
“This should be the end of this direct exchange of fire between Israel and Iran,” the official said, adding that “Israel has made clear to the world that its response is now complete.”
The official called on “all countries of influence to press Iran to stop these attacks against Israel so that we can move beyond this direct cycle of attacks over the coming days.”
Sean Savett, a spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council, said Washington did not participate in Israel’s strike.
In April, Biden had corralled a regional coalition, said to have included Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Britain, to intercept Iran’s first-ever strike on Israel.
The Times of Israel Community.