Has Iran saved Israel’s relationship with the US?

Only a few days ago, President Biden was framing remarks about Israel in tones which were astoundingly critical for an American leader. For decades it has been axiomatic that there is barely a cigarette paper between Washington and Jerusalem, but Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza has threatened to push them apart. Biden condemned the ‘indiscriminate’ bombing, and last week made his views unmistakable clear: ‘Israel has not done enough to protect civilians.’

Suddenly, though, without meaning to, it looks like the Islamic Republic of Iran may have saved Israel’s most important bilateral relationship. Last week, an Israeli air strike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus killed 16 people, including Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, head of the Islamic Revolutionary guard corps’s Quds force in Syria. Hamas had credited Zahedi with a ‘prominent role’ in the atrocities of 7 October, so he must have been a satisfying target for the Israeli Defence Forces.