When Iraq fired dozens of Scud missiles on Israel in early 1991, the U.S. implored then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir not to respond. Shamir said he had to act. After days of late-night calls, high-level visits and long Cabinet meetings, Israel stood down and the U.S. led a 42-nation alliance that defeated Iraq in what became the Gulf War.
Iran’s decision to launch 350 missiles and drones at Israel last weekend was the first time since then that a sovereign nation carried out such an assault on the Jewish state. Another hard-line Likud party leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, is Israel's prime minister, and an equally frantic set of calls and visitors is urging him not to react while Cabinet meetings focus on the need to do something.
But while offering many parallels, the latest events are different from 1991 in at least one significant way: Israel’s powerful Western allies aren’t offering to do the fighting for it. Rather, they’re suggesting that no one challenge Iran militarily just now. And many in Israel, including in Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition, say that will not fly.