we begin with Iran's unprecedented attack on Israel early Sunday morning launching more than 300 drones and ballistic missiles in an overnight air strike almost all were shot down by Israel's anti-missile defense system which is backed by the US and Britain without causing any significant damage International leaders including President Joe Biden are urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to retaliate hoping to avoid an escalated conf conflict and Regional War but after Israel's war cabinet met for a second time today to weigh a response there was no immediate indication of what if anything the cabinet decided though Israel initially vowed to exact a price from Iran for the attack which exploded the two countries yearslong Shadow War out into the open Iranian leaders say the bombing was in retaliation for a deadly Israeli air strike two weeks ago on an Iranian Embassy building in syri which killed two generals now amid Rising pressure Israeli military authorities face a delicate decision how to respond in a way that doesn't make them look weak while satisfying Western allies who are already frustrated with the way Israel has conducted its war in Gaza for more on that I'm joined by Michael Bole he's a Rutter's Cam and associate professor of political science and an expert on Middle East politics Michael Bolye thanks so much for joining me so we know that the US the UN Western allies are urging Israel to exercise restraint but what are the options for Israel's response so they have a couple different options the first option would be basically to call this a victory for their defensive systems what we know is that Iran launched around 326 ballistic missiles and drones they were taken down by Israel Itself by the United States and also we now know Jordan contributed the UK contributed and Saudi Arabia also allegedly contributed although what evidence we have on that I'm not really sure yet so Arab states contributed in taking down some of the drones and ballistic missiles so did the US Israel and the UK the US is encouraging Israel essentially to say this is the end of it to say you were successful you were knock down all of the Dron ballistic missiles there's no substantial damage as a result you should absolutely do nothing Benjamin Net who's under some pressure however because this is the first time that Iran has filed missiles directly on Israeli territory so his other calculation could be well what kind of response is possible he could strike directly at Iran that would be the most kind of inflammatory response because Iran has said that the strike back on their territory is going to Merit response from them and then we get into an escalatory spile that's dangerous another possibility that he has is to hit Iranian Assets in neighboring countries for example to attack Iranian Assets in Lebanon to attack Iranian assets in Syria we know that he's already been doing this by attacking Iranian intelligence agents inside Syria itself attacking the airport and Damascus for example to stop weapons from being smuggled so a sort of middle approach he might have if he doesn't want to strike Iran's territory itself and doesn't want to do nothing which is what the US is encouraging essentially call a win is to essentially strike Iranian assets outside of the territory that are not directly in Iran itself well and it's interesting because a lot of the talk has been around fears of if it does escalate if there is a uh a direct Counterattack but as you mentioned this other option of um sort of pointing to uh Iranian uh other territories there could also uh issue some real uh push back and so I wonder what are the fears because it's all about how they respond and when and there are several options as you just laid out so there's obviously a concern about escalation here now to some extent the real calculation here is about nuclear weapons Israel has nuclear weapons though it doesn't admit to being a nuclear power Iran we know has a kind of nent nuclear program what everybody's really worried about is that you hit on a ladder of escalation that gets you to the use of nuclear weapons I still think that's not likely at this point but it is it is strictly speaking possible and so what I think is more likely to you're going to see is an attempt to kind of do some kind of response could be an intelligence response could be an attack on assets in Lebanon and Syria that is less than something that might encourage an Iranian missile response which gets you into that kind of ladder of escalation it's also possible that if this goes really South that Iran sort of entangles the US in it so in other words Israel Strikes Back at Iran and Iran's obvious response rather than hitting Israel which has nuclear weapons is to hit a US Air Base or to hit a US ship that's where Iran is claiming a right of self-defense but it's also worth pointing out that Iran is kind of telegraphed in advance that it doesn't want to escalate so in other words it announced the drones six seven hours before they actually hit Israeli territory it warned in advance 10 days that it was going to do this it actually sent a message to the US to say look we have to respond because this is an attack on our consulate and we want to show that we can respond but we want to be very clear the limits to our response and I think that explains why Israel was so successful and being able to knock down so many drones and ballistic missiles yeah and of course there's that whole issue of proportionality when you're talking about that many ballistic missiles what's the role very quickly Michael of the US here uh Biden has said uh the US won't support a Counterattack but it will continue to help Israel defend itself what do you make of that we know that the United States government actually the sencom specifically we think took around down around 866 of the drones that were coming into the territory so again 326 drones and bistic missiles fired at Israel the US took down 86 on its own that's what Biden's referring to I think the Biden ation is very concerned that you know in so far as we have the war in Israel and Gaza we don't want it to spread across the border to Lebanon we don't want Iran turning on their Assets in Lebanon to fire missiles into Northern Israel and we don't want to see Iran directly involved in the war itself Michael Bole is an associate professor of political science and an expert on the Middle East at Rutgers Camden Michael thank you as always thank you