Vedant Patel, a State Department spokesman, said at a news conference in Washington on Wednesday that the United States was pushing for a “unified diplomatic response” to the Iranian attack and was urging Israel to avoid “further escalation.” But he added, “These decisions are for Israel to make as a sovereign, democratic country.” Israel’s war cabinet has met several times …

Military staff members have yet to put a clock on a wall or stabilize the air-conditioning. Yet the Pentagon managed to open its long-delayed $4 million secondary courtroom this week and hold simultaneous hearings in adjacent chambers at Guantánamo Bay. The step was small but significant. It meant that, if pretrial issues and housing problems are ever resolved, the war …

For days, Israel’s closest Western allies have pleaded with the country’s wartime government not to risk igniting a wider war by responding too strongly to Iran’s barrage of missiles and drones last weekend. And on Wednesday, the top diplomats from Germany and Britain delivered that message in person to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. But Mr. Netanyahu emerged from …