The Israeli military will likely continue its efforts in Lebanon against Hezbollah before turning its focus to Iran to punish it after Tuesday's ballistic missile barrage, former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie said Wednesday on Newsmax.
"I think we'll see the Israelis continue in Lebanon," Wilkie said on "Wake Up America." "That's what they've got to figure out first, so they can get their people back into the northern part of their country."
But then, Wilkie said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will "turn his attention toward the ayatollahs" in Iran and punish them. The retaliations will happen at a time and place of Netanyahu's choosing, said Wilkie.
"He's already redrawn the global security map," Wilkie said. "He's taken out two of the two major Iranian proxies. When they attacked last time, he took out their air defense systems around their nuclear facilities, telling them once again that we can hit you any time and any place we want to."
Netanyahu has a variety of targets, he added, including the oil refineries and ports that President Joe Biden "has allowed to flourish."
"He can take the command and control systems away from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and he's got the Iranian leadership in the crosshairs," said Wilkie, adding that it is known that Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is moving from place to place because "he knows that a missile could come through his window at any time."
But Biden has not supported the Israelis, said Wilkie.
During their debate Tuesday, vice presidential nominees J.D. Vance and Tim Walz talked about defending Israel, but that is a "very different prospect from deterring Iran," Wilkie said.
"Under Biden and [Vice President Kamala] Harris, American forces have been attacked over 200 times on land and at sea," Wilkie said. "The Iranians have closed down the second busiest sea lanes on the planet, and there has been absolutely no response from the Biden administration."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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