Iran and the United States do not appear, for the moment, to be pursuing an escalation of the conflict. Tehran's measured and anticipated reaction is explained by the need to protect its prestige with its regional allies, while Biden wants to avoid war in the midst of an election year. Netanyahu, on the other hand, seems to be seeking to extend the conflict beyond Gaza. "There is, in the persistence of war, a form of survival for those who feed on it," says Said Chaya in this sharp geopolitical analysis written in the heat of the moment.