Yuli Edelstein: We Can’t Pretend Nothing Happened Just Because We Defended Ourselves

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein stressed in a Jerusalem Post interview that Israel must respond to the Iranian attack.

Edelstein spoke after the dramatic interception of nearly all the drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles by a combined coalition of of five armies — Israel, the US, Jordan, France, and Great Britain , during the attack early Sunday morning

“I don’t think that we can pretend that nothing really happened because we managed to defend ourselves and [didn’t] let all these ground missiles and ballistic missiles and the drones kill thousands of Israelis,” Edelstein said.

Edelstein said that this time around, “it worked out fine,” and Israel weathered that attack.But he emphasized that “if there’s no retaliation, Iran can decide that this is something they can do every week.

“There are different ways and different means to react,” Edelstein said in reference to a possible response. “When Israel does act against Iran, it will be very clear to Tehran that the IDF was behind it.

“Let’s put it this way, the Iranians would know for a fact that their improper deeds didn’t pass unnoticed,” Edelstein said.

Israel’s major allies, including the US, France, and Great Britain, have urged it not to directly attack Iran. Should Israel decide to retaliate, its allies want it to choose a more indirect response that would not lead to a possible escalation of the situation to an all-out regional war.

US National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby told reporters in Washington that Iran’s attack was a failure and that Israel has restored deterrence through the IDF’s successful defense of the country. President Biden also urged Prime Minister Netanyahu to “take the win, you won” and not engage with Iran in further military action.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri warned that his country would respond immediately to any Israeli attack.

According to Press TV, he said.“In case of repetition of another mistake, they should expect a harsher, faster, and more immediate response rather than waiting close to two weeks.

“This time, the Zionists should know that they will not have a 12-day-long time frame,” Bagheri noted. “The response that they are going to receive [this time around] cannot be measured by [such time standards as] days or hours, but [will come in a matter of] seconds.”