Whether the U.S. gets more involved than it already is, some members of Congress from both parties argue, should not be up to the President.

Shapiro served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East until January—charged with, among other things, considering scenarios in which tensions between Israel and Iran escalated into all-out war and preparing U.

Israeli officials have been pushing the United States to join the fray and use its huge bunker-busting bomb to crush Iran’s nuclear capabilities.