Middle East & Africa | Mayhem in the Middle East

America boosts Israel’s missile shield. What did it get in return?

The THAAD battery could indicate Israeli restraint on Iran

 U.S. Army Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) launching station preparing to load onto a Globemaster III at Fort Bliss, Texas
Photograph: AP
|JERUSALEM

IN THE EARLY hours of October 15th two American cargo planes landed at an air-force base in the Negev Desert. Mobile surface-to-air missile launchers trundled off the ramp and were soon on their way to a launch site in southern Israel, along with some 100 American soldiers to operate them. America’s latest deployment to a war in the Middle East had begun, just two days after President Joe Biden gave the order.

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