Could the US get dragged into an Israeli war with Iran?

When Israel began bombing Iran on Friday morning local time, it was clear that it was different from previous attacks.

The scale of the airstrikes was beyond those in the past, making Iranian retaliation inevitable, with hundreds of deaths and injuries reported in just 24 hours.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was quick to announce that Israel had taken unilateral action against Iran, suggesting that the US did not have prior knowledge of the attack. However, reports emerged hours later of US President Donald Trump having multiple phone calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Earlier in the week, the US had removed essential staff from multiple Middle Eastern countries, including Iraq, sparking speculation in hindsight of prior US knowledge of the strikes.

“Regardless of whether Israel sought US approval for its actions, President Trump owns this,” said Emgage, a US Muslim voter advocacy group, noting that the US administration have been working towards a new nuclear deal with Iran and these attacks could affect US credibility in these efforts.

“The far-right Netanyahu government continues to drag the US into endless conflict in the Middle East,” the group said, emphasising that the American public have become tired of decades of wars in the Middle East.

The bitterness over what many Americans see as unjustified foreign wars continues to weigh heavily in US politics. One of the main appeals of Trump on the campaign trail was his apparent anti-war stance, a position that he linked to revitalising the economy.

He was able to eliminate the widely favoured Jeb Bush in the 2016 Republican presidential primary when he called out his brother, George W. Bush, for leading the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In the subsequent presidential election, he was able to point to his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton’s vote as senator for the Iraq war.

As president, many of Trump’s most dedicated supporters in the America First movement are against any foreign intervention, let alone entering a new war for a foreign government.

Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement have already expressed concerns over a potential regional war. Their sentiments are not unlike the negative reactions of many Democrats to Israel’s airstrikes on Iran.

Right-wing media personality Tucker Carlson seemed to express the common thread between many on the left and a significant contingency on the right.

“The real divide isn’t between people who support Israel and people who support Iran or the Palestinians,” wrote Carlson on X, formerly Twitter.

“The real divide is between those who casually encourage violence, and those who seek to prevent it – between warmongers and peacemakers,” he wrote, specifically calling out those he saw as encouraging more airstrikes on Iran.

These included Sean Hannity, his former colleague from Fox News, Mark Levin, a conservative radio host, and Rupert Murdoch, the founder of News Corp.

It is still unclear though if Trump will stand by Netanyahu amid his attack on Iran.

However, he appears to be a transactional president who lacks the ideological connection to Israel that many previous US presidents had, notably his predecessor Joe Biden, who has described himself as a Zionist on multiple occasions.

“I don’t think Trump has the same bond with Israel that Biden did,” David Frank, a professor of rhetoric and political communication at the University of Oregon, told The New Arab.

Supporting Israel’s strikes on Iran, he said, “would be inconsistent with the campaign Trump ran on.”

Despite Trump’s aversion to forever wars, he could potentially support a series of airstrikes that weaken Iran, a strategy he has advocated in the past.

With concerns being aired over potential US involvement in Israel’s escalating air strikes on Iran, there are already signs of US involvement.

The US have said they are helping Israel deter airstrikes and have also said they will help further if needed. This is in addition to Israel using US-made weapons to hit Iran and a US military presence in the region with around 35,000 troops.

Saturday will see a massive military parade in Washington, DC to commemorate the 250th birthday of the US Army (on the same day as Trump's birthday).

Millions across the country are expected to protest the parade in a "No Kings" protest of Trump's policies. His apparent support of Israel's airstrikes on Iran and ongoing assault on Gaza will likely be key targets of the demonstrations.