To ‘take the win’, Israel must now use its head and its heart

Editorial: After Tehran’s unprecedented missile attack, Benjamin Netanyahu is coming under intense pressure to retaliate – but he owes it to the allies who rallied to his country’s defence to weigh their arguments more carefully than he has done at any point so far during his war on Hamas

Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system – which repelled Tehran’s onslaught on Saturday – intercepts a rocket (AP)

David Cameron made an eloquent case for Israel to show restraint as it considers how to respond to Saturday’s drone and missile attack by Iran. In a round of broadcast interviews, the foreign secretary urged Israel to be “smart as well as tough” by refraining from escalating this dangerous conflict, and to “think with head as well as heart”.

Lord Cameron described the state of play as a “double defeat” for Tehran: the attack was repelled, and the rest of the world could see what a “malign influence” Iran is in the region. He echoed Joe Biden in appealing to Israel to “take the win”.

Even his critics acknowledge that Lord Cameron is a good communicator. The former prime minister can encapsulate in a few words an argument it would take other politicians three sentences to spell out. At Westminster, there is predictable gossip that Lord Cameron is upstaging Rishi Sunak, who looks a lot less comfortable when giving his almost-daily pooled TV interview as the “long campaign” for the general election continues.