← Air War Is Not Enough
One American-Israeli Battle After Another
Commentary posted One American-Israeli Battle After Another by Eli Lake on March 13, 2026, in its April 2026 issue. Lake writes that he is describing the war at the beginning of March. An American family should care because he says the United States and Israel are bombing Iran from the air, and that without soldiers on the ground neither capital can shape what happens when the bombing stops. That is the question of whether the air war stays an air war.
Evidence rating: MODERATE. This rates a named commentator's judgment in Commentary, one of the war's supporters, that "without boots on the ground" neither the United States nor Israel can shape what follows the bombing. He also quotes Trump: "If anything, I might have forced Israel's hand."
What the article says
Lake describes Operation Epic Fury, the US-Israeli air campaign, as already underway. He writes that Israel and the United States were striking Iran's missiles, nuclear sites, defense industry, and political and military leadership from the air. He writes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave President Donald Trump intelligence that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would meet top military advisers on February 28, that the CIA confirmed it, and that the first strikes hit that meeting. Lake writes that those strikes killed Khamenei, who had ruled since 1989. He quotes Trump telling reporters, "If anything, I might have forced Israel's hand." Lake's argument is that Trump chose the war, with Israeli intelligence in hand, rather than being pushed into a war that was only Israel's.
The ground-force point is Lake's own warning. He writes that the hope is the remaining leadership will surrender, or agree to end the conflict, after the bombing. He calls that a long shot as of the beginning of March. He then writes that without boots on the ground, neither the United States nor Israel can shape the chaos after the bombs stop. He adds that Israel has shown it has sources inside Iran, and that he would not be shocked if the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence service, had a plan for what comes next.
"After all, without boots on the ground, neither the U.S. nor Israel will have the ability to shape the inevitable chaos that will result after the bombing stops."
Eli Lake, Commentary, writing at the beginning of March 2026, in an essay posted March 13, 2026.
What other reporting and posts add
Israel's prime minister said the same thing a week later. On 19 March, Benjamin Netanyahu told a Jerusalem press conference: "It is often said that you can't win, you can't do revolutions from the air, that is true. You can't do it only from there, you can do a lot of things from the air and we're doing, but there has to be a ground component, as well." He did not say whose soldiers. Just the News, 20 March 2026. (capture: twitter/t13__v147.md)
But Israel said its own infantry would stay out. Israel's Channel 12 was reported on 29 to 30 March as saying Israel would support a US ground operation "with airstrikes, intelligence, and airpower, but not infantry." X trend, 30 March 2026. (captures: twitter/t13__v148.md, twitter/t13__v150.md) Israel's ambassador, Michael Leiter, had said on 8 March that "our preference is for the boots on the ground to be those of the Iranians." Politico, 8 March 2026. (capture: twitter/t13__v145.md)
The "forced Israel's hand" line, and the other official account. Lake quotes Trump's "If anything, I might have forced Israel's hand." A State Department legal opinion later described the US entry into the war as "at the request of and in the collective self-defense of its Israeli ally," which Snopes rated True as a description of the document. Snopes, 30 April 2026. (capture: twitter/t13__v146.md)
What it shows
A supporter of the war wrote, two weeks in, the sentence this section is built on: without boots on the ground, neither Washington nor Jerusalem can shape what the bombing leaves behind. A week later Netanyahu said "there has to be a ground component," and within the month Israel's press reported that Israel's contribution would be "airstrikes, intelligence, and airpower, but not infantry," while its ambassador said the boots should be Iranian. Lake notes Israel may have a Mossad plan for what comes next; the ground force the Pentagon was planning for was American (see Israeli Leaders on a Ground War, Israel Keeps Its Infantry Home, and Pentagon Ground Plans 2026).
Check it yourself
The essay is at https://www.commentary.org/articles/eli-lake/israel-america-trump-iran/.
Status: Eli Lake is alive. Donald Trump is alive. Benjamin Netanyahu is alive.
For a newcomer: the United States and Israel began bombing Iran on 28 February 2026; the American campaign is called Operation Epic Fury, the Israeli one Operation Roaring Lion. Commentary is a conservative American monthly with a strong pro-Israel outlook; Eli Lake is a veteran national-security journalist. His essay is useful because a writer sympathetic to the war says openly what the air campaign cannot do: without soldiers on the ground, neither Washington nor Jerusalem controls what happens after.
Research captures: twitter/t13__v147.md, twitter/t13__v148.md, twitter/t13__v150.md, twitter/t13__v145.md, twitter/t13__v146.md
Last Updated: 2026-09-26