I explained how so. Israel is trying to secure itself against Hamas and overtly dragging a very popular national government into the conflict will ultimately be counter-productive to its aims.
Envision that Hamas managed to coordinate an attack that killed Biden, Secretary Austin, and the COCOMs because *they* think the Democrat party is a terrorist organization. Does that do anything to help their cause for a single state Palestine? Does that actually remove all American "brain power" from political and military leadership? Or does that change our stance from "yeah I guess we'll sell you some weapons as long as you don't go scorched earth on Hamas and Gaza" to full-on use of military force with an international coalition?
Similarly, there's a reason we don't just make Ali Khamenei and Iran's top Generals disappear even though we could.
President Biden isn't happy with the escalation. It's not going to go well for Israel. Israel has now put itself in a position where it would have to invade Southern Lebanon to achieve its objectives or agree to concessions as mediated by the US and its allies.
Two fronts - and they just eliminated (maybe just temporarily) the paramilitary / authoritarian group within a state which another state is using as a proxy. This allows a focus back south. With the chaos that they caused within
Hezbollah (not Hamas), they may not have to invade. Making the situation a one front issue is pretty strategic.
POTUS isn’t happy about the humanitarian situation in the south with the fight against Hamas. However, he just called
Hezbollah’s leader death a “measure of justice”. I tend to agree, and probably the 300+ families of Marines and diplomats killed by his antics.
To your second point, we have killed and captured Iranian generals. See “Soleimani”.
Last, none of us know the real going’s on that led to their decision, so this is all a thought experiment. It could have been an opportunity, or there could have been a significant threat coming that they were preemptively targeting.
