Amos Harel on Iran, Iraq, the US and an escalation that nobody wanted:

"This is all happening in the backdrop of tension between the United States and Iran in the Persian Gulf and the crisis over the American withdrawal from the nuclear agreement. The Trump administration has already made it clear that the U.S. doesn’t want war with Iran, but the friction between the two sides is ongoing and the Iranians can continue to attack targets associated with the oil industry in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, as they do against Israel from Syria.
The assault in Syria and the incident in Lebanon shed a different light on claims critical of the government over a lack of offensive action toward Hamas in the Gaza Strip. And as in the affair of the discovery and destruction of tunnels dug by Hezbollah in Lebanon in December, it turned out belatedly that there are other considerations behind the policy of restraint in the Gaza Strip, which are not always disclosed to the public in real time.
The tension in the north is increasing as the election campaign reaches its final lap ahead of Election Day on September 17. The prime minister is preparing for elections while in the background are deadly attacks in the West Bank and growing friction with Hamas in Gaza that could lead to another exchange of blows there. But in the north, as opposed to Gaza, Netanyahu meanwhile feels comfortable politically: He appears to be in control of the situation and is managing the use of force relatively cautiously. At the moment, no Israeli citizens have not been directly threatened or injured in the north. And so Netanyahu will probably try to politically leverage military action in Syria, while trying to limit as much as possible discussion of the situation of residents of the Gaza border area.
As for the north, Netanyahu’s opponents don’t have much to say except to express somewhat forced support of the government’s policy and the IDF’s actions. And yet, the question arises as to whether the decision (as reported) to expand Israeli assaults to Iraq was not too great a risk and whether this was not the straw that broke the Iranian camel’s back and drew Saturday night’s attempted response."

Read the article here.

It would not be the first time that an upcoming election forces a sitting politician to take bigger military risks than necessary.
An Iranian envoy apparently arrived in Biarritz, but the lust for revenge should never be underestimated. Amos Harel called this "breaking the camel's back".