STARK CHOICES

U.S. Making Emergency Plans to Evacuate Americans From Middle East: Report

A massive relocation will reportedly only take place if Israel’s conflict dramatically escalates.

The U.S. government is drawing up emergency plans to evacuate hundreds of thousands of Americans from the Middle East if the crisis in Israel escalates, according to a report. Anonymous officials told The Washington Post that the Biden administration is particularly concerned about an estimated 600,000 Americans living in Israel and 86,000 in Lebanon. One official said the cross-border clashes between Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Israel have become “a real issue,” and that the U.S. government is “very, very, very worried that this thing is going to get out of hand.” Sources told the Post that mass evacuations are considered a worst-case scenario, with one official saying it would nevertheless be “irresponsible not to have a plan for everything.”