Americans fear a bigger war
Many Americans were left shaken and concerned about escalating tensions after Iran targeted Israel with hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles over the weekend. The incident was the direct attack on the Jewish nation by a sovereign state since 1991.
Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi, who is from Iran and leads the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, shared a feeling of anxiety and frustration. He blames Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for Iran’s unprecedented missile and drone strike on Israel over the weekend.
Israeli leaders "think they can have self-defense just for themselves, but nobody else has the right to self-defense,” said Elahi. “Netanyahu just … wants to escalate the war and bring American blood to his conflict."
President Joe Biden and other U.S. allies have sworn to defend Israel, which was hit by Tehran in response to Israel’s April 1 bombing of an Iranian consular office in Syria that killed several top Iranian military officials. Michiganders like David Kurzmann, senior director of community affairs with the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, called the scale of the weekend attack unprecedented and said many metro Detroit Jews watched it unfold with “deep concern and distress.”
As Americans on both sides of the issue worry about a bigger conflict, Israel has yet to make its response to the weekend attack clear.