Top Biden-Harris Official Was Reportedly Furious After Israel Ignored His Advice, Launched Attacks Against Hezbollah

A senior Biden-Harris official was reportedly infuriated last week after Israel ignored his advice and launched a series of attacks against Hezbollah.

The Biden-Harris administration has become increasingly concerned that a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah is set to erupt, as the two have been locked in a conflict that has grown in both scope and severity over the Israeli-Lebanese border in recent weeks. Biden senior adviser Amos Hochstein in recent months has been serving as an envoy to mediators in the Middle East to try to keep tensions low between Israel and Hezbollah while also negotiating a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, who have been at war for nearly a year, according to Axios.

Hochstein traveled to Israel last week to warn Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against a war with Hezbollah, citing concerns that it would only upset an already chaotic Middle East. One day after Hochstein’s message to Netanyahu, Israel remotely detonated explosives planted inside thousands of personal communication devices being carried by Hezbollah operatives.

Hochstein was left furious because he wasn’t told of the plan in advance and felt that Israel had ignored his advice, U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Axios.

Some other Biden advisers also saw the attack as a “reckless march to war,” but also accepted the move as what Israel describes as “de-escalation through escalation,” the U.S. officials told Axios. Israeli officials have signaled in recent weeks that the time for a diplomatic solution has passed because Hezbollah continues to act aggressively near Israel’s northern border, displacing large numbers of civilians living there and endangering the country’s security.