The Journal. - Inside the White House's Scramble to Avert a Bigger Middle East War

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

Over the course of 19 days, U.S. officials raced to contain escalating tensions between Israel and Iran amid a series of attacks. WSJ’s Michael R. Gordon on what was going on behind the scenes as the White House worked to prevent a bigger conflict. Further Reading: -Inside the White House’s Frenetic Scramble to Avert a Full-Blown Middle East War  -How the U.S. Forged a Fragile Middle Eastern Alliance to Repel Iran’s Israel Attack  Further Listening: -A Deadly Strike on Aid Workers in Gaza  -A Deadly Drone Attack and Iran’s ‘Axis of Resistance' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 13th, President Biden and his team were holed up in the White House Situation Room. They were watching as Iran fired off a barrage of missiles at Israel. Then they started counting them off, you know. 30 missiles launched, okay? 60 missiles launched, all right? Over 100 missiles launched. Our colleague Michael Gordon covers national security. And there are screens that show the tracks of these missiles streaming towards central Israel. And this is all being monitored as if it's a big video game, but it's not a video game. It's really happening. And the big question was whether Israel, the U.S. and allies would be able

to neutralize the attack. The Iranians fired more than 100 ballistic missiles and nothing like that has ever happened before in combat. So there wasn't high confidence that they could stop them all. I mean, they were pretty confident they could deal with maybe 50. But, you know, when the attack came and they started counting out the numbers or missiles in the situation room, people described that close to the president who were in that room as a white-knuckle moment. This was a key moment over a 19-day stretch in which the White House tried to stop a conflict between Iran and Israel from spiraling out of control. The fear is that this could escalate.

It could become a regional conflict that affects oil exports, multiple countries, and basically is a high-intensity confrontation involving Israel, Iran, the United States, and perhaps some Arab states. That's the fear. Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Kate Leinbaugh. It's Tuesday, April 23rd. I'm Kate Linebaugh. It's Tuesday, April 23rd. Coming up on the show, behind the scenes with the Biden administration as they work to avoid a full-blown war in the Middle East. We'll see you next time. and diverse cultures. You'll love it so much, you'll want to extend your stay beyond the matches.

Get the ball rolling on your soccer getaway. Head to visittheusa.com. This tense 19-day stretch began on April 1st, when Israel fired missiles at an Iranian compound. Breaking news. Syrian state media are reporting Israel has conducted a rare daytime strike next to the Iranian embassy in Damascus. An Israeli airstrike destroyed a building belonging to Iran's embassy in Damascus. Among the dead pulled from the rubble a high-ranking Iranian military leader. What happened on April 1st was the Israelis went after really this general and his cadre who have been responsible for arming, equipping, training, coordinating

with Israel's sort of foremost foe to their north, Hezbollah. In Washington, Michael was talking to people close to President Biden who were watching to see how Iran would respond. What really got the administration's attention is Iran sent a very tough message through the Swiss ambassador in Tehran, holding the Americans responsible and saying, well, we think this attack was your doing and that you were behind this. And the administration responded that it had nothing to do with it. And if Iran intended to attack American forces and assets in the region, the United States would defend itself. So almost from the get-go, the attack spurred Iranian threats against the United States and American warnings in return.

Then Iran announced it planned to answer Israel's attack. This put the White House on an even higher alert. President Biden set up a call with Israel's prime minister to talk about the situation. But Biden also wanted to discuss an event that had caused global outrage, Israel's killing of seven aid workers in Gaza, an attack that Israel has apologized for. What was Biden's message to Israel at that stage? Biden had an April 4th call in Netanyahu where his message was really a two-part message. It was outrage about the attack on the world's central kitchen workers. And also Israel had to expedite the shipment of humanitarian assistance into Gaza.

The other message was when it comes to Iran, the U.S. would have Israel's back and would help them. And there was no question about U.S. support for Israel being conditional? No. It's Biden's perspective that if you support Israel, he will have influence within the Israeli government when it comes to key strategic decisions. And if you don't support Israel, well, you won't have that influence. After that call, Biden started preparing to help Israel. He told the Pentagon to take steps to defend Israel. And the United States has a secret and longstanding plan

to defend Israel against And the United States has a secret and longstanding plan to defend Israel against a missile attack. It includes moving destroyers that have anti-ballistic missile interceptors close to Israel. That's one step. It includes sending U.S. troops secretly to Israel to work in a command center with their Israeli counterparts. It also moved an aircraft carrier to the northern part of the Red Sea. In some cases, they required turning ships around. I mean, there was literally a destroyer that was heading to home port in the United States that had to be turned around to participate in the defense of Israel. And so all that was going on. And then basically what the U.S. was hoping to do was blunt this attack or thwart the attack so that there wouldn't need to be an Israeli response.

And then there wouldn't need to be an Iranian response to the Israeli response. And then an Israeli response to the Iranian response up the spiral of escalation. The White House watched to see what Iran would do next, but Iranian forces seemed to be taking their time. Days went by. A week went by. And finally, U.S. intelligence agencies started to receive some information. Iran was planning a direct attack on Israeli territory,

and it would be massive. The question was when it would come and what the targets would be. Meanwhile, on the evening of Friday, April 12th, President Biden headed to his house in Delaware for the weekend. And by Saturday afternoon, he was rushing back to the White House among fears that the attack and expectations the attack was imminent. Michael remembered the first signs that something was about to happen. I was downtown Washington that day, watching them block the streets for the president's return. And when I saw that, and it was an air of urgency about everything that was going on, it was apparent to me that this thing was close at hand.

Was a spiral of escalation beginning? That's next. We'll be here today. Josh Hartnett. I'm in control. And Salika as Lady Raven. This whole concert, it's a trap. Trap, directed by M. Night Shyamalan.

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Call yourself a runner. Peloton All Access Membership Separate. Learn more at onepeloton.ca slash running. Air raid sirens heard in Jerusalem and elsewhere throughout the country. Explosions are being heard. Overnight, Iran launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel. U.S. officials confirming that

U.S. forces have shot down some of those Iranian drones headed towards Israel. Israel's powerful air defense systems intercepted more than 300 Iranian drones and missiles. The U.S. has these destroyers off the coast of Israel, two of them. They're equipped with these SM-3 missiles, anti-ballistic missile interceptors, highly capable but never used in combat against a ballistic missile, first time. Here come the Iranian missiles for the first time heading to Israel.

After watching the Iranian missiles for almost four hours, Biden and his team saw that their plan had worked. four hours, Biden and his team saw that their plan had worked. Over 300 projectiles were fired toward Israel. This was not a symbolic attack. It wasn't a diplomatic message. It was a full-scale Iranian attack intended to destroy an Israeli airbase and cause other damage. And then at the end, only a handful of these missiles got through, and they caused very little destruction. And so everybody breathed a sort of sigh of collective relief. Israel emerged from the attack almost unscathed.

But some members of the Israeli government wanted to strike back immediately and forcefully. This possibility worried U.S. officials. So the White House shifted from defending Israel to restraining it. And at 9 o'clock, President Biden called the Israeli Prime Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu, to talk to him. And he says, look, and this is the way it's been described to us by senior officials around the president. Basically, the president's message is, you've got to win here. Go slow. Don't respond right away. Think about it.

And then, 19 days after Israel's first attack in Syria, Israel struck again. U.S. officials confirmed in the CBS News that an Israeli missile hit Iran in a retaliatory strike overnight. What it looks like is Israel carried out a calibrated, limited strike. Israel hit a single military site in the province of Isfahan, deep in the center of Iran. Israel demonstrated it has the capability to strike back and to do so in a way that eluded Iranian air defenses. But it was a small-scale attack designed to make that point and not to lead to a larger escalation. So, success. The kind of wider war has been avoided, yes? For now. But this is the Middle East we're talking about. So what's happened is, where are we now?

So, okay, Israel made its point. It can strike Iran. It can get past Iranian air defenses. They can't just hit Israel and get away with it. But it did it in a way that sent a message without igniting a wider war and defend Israel and prevent too robust an Israeli response. What do you think this 19-day stretch says about Biden's approach to Israel generally? I think it shows that Biden is very determined to have Israel's back and that his approach

of supporting Israel and embracing it does have a benefit in terms of he's able to influence some Israeli calculations, but that American influence has its limits. And does the White House sort of, are they feeling like they dodged a bullet in this last tit-for-tat rally between Israel and Iran? Yes, they feel like they dodged a bullet. So there's satisfaction at that. They did dodge the bullet. But now they have to get back to business. And there's just such an array of daunting challenges in the Middle East.

There's a lot of business. Yeah. There's always the risk that this Iranian-Israeli conflict could flare up again now that the two sides have shown that they're capable of and prepared to strike each other's territory directly with air power. That's all for today, Tuesday, April 23rd. The Journal is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal. Additional reporting in this episode by Gordon Lubold and Warren Strobel. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.