Israel is planning to launch its expected attack on Iran before the US presidential election on November 5, The Washington Post reported on Monday.

An unnamed official told the newspaper that waiting any longer could be seen as weakness and that the planned strike “would be one in a series of responses” to the Iranian ballistic missile barrage fired at Israel on October 1, which came in response to a series of Israeli escalations.

The newspaper quoted a source close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying that while Israel is coordinating with the United States to some extent regarding its plans to attack Iran, it will not wait for the green light from the United States. “The person who will decide the Israeli response to Iran will be Netanyahu,” the official said.

When Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden last week, he said Israel planned to hit military infrastructure inside Iran, not oil or nuclear facilities, the report said. The conversation was a factor in Biden’s decision to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile battery to Israel. The Pentagon announced Sunday that it was deploying THAAD and about 100 troops to operate it “to support Israel’s defense.” Iran has vowed to respond to any Israeli attack on its territory, and the US deployment makes American forces a potential target for Iranian missiles.

The Washington Post report noted how the Biden administration was fully supportive of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and its dramatic escalation of airstrikes against the country. A former Israeli official said the United States was “hugging Israel and the Netanyahu government, but for Hezbollah.”

“She’s sending THAAD and promising all the weapons we need to take out Hezbollah, saying we can deal with Iran later,” the former official added.

Over the past year, U.S. military and diplomatic support for Israel has fueled the genocidal slaughter in Gaza, encouraged Israeli escalation across the Middle East, and now brought the United States and Iran to the brink of war. The Costs of War Project at Brown University recently reported that support for Israel has cost the United States $22.76 billion in just one year.