Anthony Blinken said in a meeting with the Jewish-American leaders today that he made it clear to Israel that "power and intelligence are two sides of the same coin." The assessment in the US is that Iran will respond to any significant and visible Israeli attack on its territory and launch another barrage of missiles and Uavs, said a senior American official. "We think it will be very difficult to repeat the tremendous success we had in repelling the attack on Saturday if Iran launches hundreds of missiles," said a second senior American official.
A source who attended the meeting said that Blinken did not say that Israel should refrain from reacting and emphasized that it was Israel's decision what to do. "Be smart, act strategically and act as limited as possible," Blinken's message to Israel was. The two spoke on the phone on Monday. The conversation was part of a series of talks between the U.S. and Israel over the past two days. The two discussed how to respond to the Iranian attack on Israel. The U.S. and Israel have been in talks over a possible response to the Iranian attack on Israeli soil since last week, the source said. The talks are expected to continue until the end of the week, when the US will make a decision on whether to respond. The Israeli government has said it will respond to any threat to Israel's sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity in a variety of ways.