The situation in the Middle East is not cooling down at all. In fact, tensions appear to be escalating further and none of the players in the region are paying any attention to calls from the Biden administration to deescalate and move closer to a ceasefire in Gaza. Two of the latest flashpoints, both figuratively and literally, were an Israeli rocket strike in Tehran that killed senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and a second strike in the capital of Lebanon that took out a top Hezbollah commander. Iran's leaders have vowed to retaliate, telling a meeting of Arab diplomats that they "don't care if their response triggers a war." The Biden administration already warned Iran to "temper its response," but it's obvious that both Israel and the Iranians are ignoring anything Biden has to say and are moving ahead with their own plans. It would appear that simply saying "don't" still doesn't have any impact on the situation when Joe Biden is the one saying it. (Wall Street Journal, subscription required)

Iran rejected U.S. and Arab efforts to temper its response to the killing in Tehran of Hamas’s top political leader, as authorities were investigating the security breaches that led to the attack.

Iranian prosecutors said Saturday that they had opened a formal investigation into the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, which came hours after an Israeli strike killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut. The two attacks, following a rocket strike on a soccer field in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, escalated a recent cycle of violence and threatened to push the region to the brink of war.

Iranian leaders have vowed to retaliate. On Saturday, Iran told Arab diplomats that it didn’t care if the response triggered a war, according to people familiar with the conversations.

The White House reportedly sent word through back channels to Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian saying that his chances of "improving relations with the West" would be enhanced if he exercised restraint. That approach relies on the assumption that Iran has any interest in improving relations with the Great Satan instead of working to destroy us. That was obviously a faulty assumption from the beginning.

Let's keep in mind who was clearly in the wrong over there. Israel didn't just launch those strikes out of the blue without provocation. Hezbollah launched strikes on a soccer field in the Golan Heights which killed roughly a dozen Israeli children. The rockets were clearly manufactured and supplied by Iran. Israel launched precision strikes that took out two terrorist leaders. This is asymmetrical warfare by definition. Israel is eliminating military targets. Iran's proxies are trying to conduct a reign of terror against Israel's civilian population.

Yesterday, Benjamin Netanyahu laid his cards on the table and identified the source of all these issues. He described the current conflict as "a multifront war against the Iranian axis of evil." Up until now, Iran has traditionally attempted to deflect blame away from itself and toward its proxies in Hamas and Hezbollah, claiming that they were simply helping supply their neighbors with aid so they could fend off the aggressions of Israel. Now, however, Iran is threatening a direct response even though no attacks have recently been launched against targets inside of their country. The mask is slipping.

Masoud Pezeshkian should probably be careful what he wishes for lest he wind up getting it. The exchange of rockets and missiles that took place in April proved to be highly instructional. A massive barrage was launched at Israel and the Iron Dome took out nearly all of them. Shortly thereafter, Israel was able to strike strategic targets inside of Iran because that nation's own missile defense systems proved to be wholly inadequate. We should also remember that during the attacks in April, Jordan shot down Iranian missiles that crossed into their airspace on the way to Israel. Jordan's Foreign Minister said this weekend that they are prepared to do so again if the situation escalates in a similar fashion. If Iran really wants to take this to the next level, they could easily wind up on the losing side of the battle and they may wind up more isolated in the region than they believe. If the pot truly begins to boil over, the Biden administration will have a very big decision to make and should be forced to pick a side. Based on Biden's track record, I have no confidence that Scranton Joe will come down on the side of our Israeli allies.