As Iran attacks Israel, Biden confronts an escalating Middle East crisis he had hoped to avoid

For President Joe Biden, an attack on Israel launched from Iranian soil amounts to a scenario he’d greatly sought to avoid since the start of the current Middle East conflict.

For President Joe Biden, an attack on Israel launched from Iranian soil amounts to a scenario he’d greatly sought to avoid since the start of the current Middle East conflict. The reprisals heighten the risk of a wider regional conflict that could directly draw in the United States, along with other countries. And they place Biden — again — in the tenuous position of pledging stalwart support for Israel while also trying to prevent a new conflagration from exploding with the United States involved. What comes next is unknown. In the immediate aftermath of Iran’s attacks, American officials acknowledged they were entering uncharted territory, with the extent of Iran’s attacks initially unclear. One significant question mark is how proxies might potentially join Iranian efforts to target Israel and add a new layer of unpredictability. And with Israel’s plans for a response still being formed, Biden administration officials areexpected to continue advising their Israeli counterparts – with the desire for containment in mind. Biden is also operating within the fraught politics of an election year, lending outsized importance to his upcoming decisions. The eruption of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7 has hurt Biden at home, eroding his support with key constituencies as he has declined to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. One of the reasons Biden returned urgently to the White House from his beach house in Delaware Saturday afternoon was the ongoing nature of the attack, one official said, with the Situation Room better equipped for real-time monitoring of events.