Since the Israeli strike on Iran’s air defenses in October, Jerusalem has sought a green light, or something close to it, from Washington to strike the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites. President Donald Trump, however, repeatedly told Israel to hold off as he pursued a diplomatic agreement with Tehran to stop its enrichment program. 

Now, after the Iranian nuclear program has continued apace and Trump has voiced frustration over Tehran’s intransigence, it seems that Jerusalem’s patience for diplomacy is running out.

Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Mossad chief David Barnea will be meeting Trump’s top negotiator Steve Witkoff on Friday ahead of the sixth round of talks with Iran in Oman on Sunday “in an additional attempt to clarify Israel’s stance,” an official in Jerusalem said, amid persistent reports and strong indications that Israel is prepared to strike Iran.

After a call with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu last week, Trump said that if Tehran does not agree to give up uranium enrichment, the situation will get “very, very dire.” On Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that “there have been plenty of indications” that Iran is moving towards weaponization of its nuclear program, and Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, the chief of CENTCOM, said that he presented Trump and Hegseth with numerous options to attack Iran if nuclear talks break down. 

Hours later, the State Department began to move some personnel out of Iraq and the military suggested that servicemembers’ families depart the Middle East, while the U.K. warned about a potential “escalation of military activity” in the region. Such evacuations are often the first step to reduce risk ahead of a large-scale military operation. 

Trump told reporters that the evacuations are happening because the Middle East “could be a dangerous place, and we’ll see what happens.” More on this from Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod here.

Kurilla postponed his testimony before the Senate planned for Thursday. Staff at U.S. embassies and consulates throughout the Middle East were told to take safety precautions, and those stationed in Israel were told not to leave the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, Jerusalem or Beersheva.

Multiple news outlets published reports citing anonymous American officials that Israel is ready to strike Iran without help from the U.S. One possible reason for the timing — moving forward even as Washington and Tehran are set to enter a sixth round of talks on Sunday — is that Iran has reportedly begun to rebuild the air defenses that Israel destroyed last year. Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri reportedly said last month: “We are witnessing a remarkable improvement in the capability and readiness of the country’s air defense.”

Ynet’s well-sourced military analyst Yoav Zitun reported early Wednesday that Israel’s threat to attack Iran’s nuclear program is serious, and the most likely scenario is that Israel would strike Iran on its own but coordinate with the U.S. to receive air defense support. That scenario appears consistent with both Trump’s stated reticence to launch an attack, and the events that took place later that day.

In light of the negotiations set to continue on Sunday, some American analysts told JI that Washington could be acting as though it’s preparing for a possible attack to pressure Iran into concessions. 

If the latest moves successfully pressure Iran, Shira Efron, Israel Policy Forum’s director of policy research, told JI that she hoped it would be “an opportunity to get to a bigger, better deal.” 

However, in Israel, it looks like the moves towards a strike on Iran are serious. 

The fact that Netanyahu is expected to go on a two-day vacation in northern Israel this weekend and his son is getting married next week have been counterintuitively pointed to as indications that a strike is imminent — after all, the Hezbollah pager operation happened when the prime minister was in New York, and the strike on Syria’s nuclear facilities in 2007 took place when then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was set to go on vacation in Europe.

“Yesterday, I thought there was no way something is going to happen,” Efron said, but now, “I think we’re at the money time. It’s more serious than we had thought.” 

“Israel clearly no longer thinks an agreement can work, so it all depends on whether Trump told Israel it can do something before” negotiations between Iran and the U.S. break down, Efron said.

With the Middle East in flux from Gaza to Lebanon, Syria and Iran, any week in the last 600 days would have been a busy one in Jerusalem. Still, Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) arrived in Israel on Monday at a particularly significant moment, with nuclear talks with Iran reaching a critical juncture and the U.S. and Israel moving forward with a plan to distribute humanitarian aid in Gaza.

Israel is one stop in McCormick’s first trip abroad after becoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism earlier this year. 

“There are so many issues that will be coming before the Senate … so it felt like it was appropriate to come and get the truth on the ground,” McCormick said in an interview with Jewish Insider in Jerusalem on Tuesday. “We wanted to come to Israel as a show of solidarity. It’s a very tough time now, in the aftermath of [Israeli Embassy staffers] Yaron [Lischinsky] and Sarah [Milgrim] killed in Washington, and all the polarization and the challenges with Gaza and Iran.”

In between a visit to the Western Wall and minutes before his meeting with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the group implementing the American-Israeli Gaza aid plan, which has come under fire from international aid groups on the ground, McCormick spoke with JI about the significant issues on his agenda. Tech investor Liran Tancman, one of the Israelis involved in arranging the aid distribution program, took part in the meeting with McCormick and GHF as well. 

The GHF began distributing aid on Monday, though it had to pause at one point on Tuesday, reportedly due to overcrowding. Additionally, Hamas members reportedly threatened Gazans who cooperated with the American-led effort.

“I certainly recognize … how complex a problem this is,” McCormick said. “On one hand, you want to give the humanitarian assistance that is needed to make sure innocents are able to have the support they need. But it’s also a tool that’s been hijacked by Hamas as a source of revenue, as a source of leverage and control. So, how do you balance?”

The senator noted positively that hundreds of trucks had already entered Gaza, and expressed hope that the GHF could distribute aid to families in need.

McCormick also pointed out that “this whole thing could end overnight if [Hamas] release[s] the hostages.”

His message for countries such as the U.K., France and others that have threatened action against Israel if it does not allow the U.N. to distribute aid is “to actually look at the complexity of the problem and the good faith efforts that are being taken to address it. I think that will hopefully be confidence-building for them.”

McCormick was also in Israel at a time in which the Trump administration appears increasingly concerned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not on board with the White House’s efforts to reach a diplomatic deal with the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program. Israel is reportedly preparing contingency plans to strike Iran. 

Tensions between Washington and Jerusalem led Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to tell Fox News on Monday that she was dispatched to Israel to tell Netanyahu to allow negotiations to run their course.

The day after meeting with Netanyahu, McCormick said, “Nobody shared any battle plans with me. Obviously, the administration is in close contact with the Israeli government … I think, ultimately, the defining point is Iran can’t have a nuclear program and can’t be on the path to having a nuclear program. That’s a defining goal.”

“I think there is an opportunity because I think Iran is at a weak moment due in part to incredible actions that Israel has taken against the terrorist proxies supported by Iran,” he added. “The political pressure on Iran is at an all-time high, and the capability of the Iranians is at an all-time low. So you’ve got a moment of opportunity, and I’m hoping that forces will come together to make the most of it.”

McCormick argued that Trump and Netanyahu’s remarks on Iran’s nuclear program are consistent with one another.

“I go to what President Trump said, which is full dismantlement of the nuclear program and no enrichment, those are his two red lines, and I listen to what Netanyahu said yesterday, which is, ‘I don’t trust them, but we need full dismantlement of the nuclear program and no enrichment,’” he said.

McCormick noted that former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, Israel’s opposition leader, said the same thing as Netanyahu about Iran in their meeting. 

“If the deal would come together in line with what President Trump has said, that would be something that would be welcome,” McCormick added. “It would be a huge step forward for the region and a huge step forward for the world.” 

Asked if Republicans in the Senate would accept a deal that fell short of those lines, McCormick first said that while he is not privy to the details of the current negotiations with Iran, “I don’t necessarily believe any of what I read [in the media]. I’ll believe it when I hear the president … I’m not going to talk about something that doesn’t exist yet.” 

The senator pointed to a letter signed by nearly all Senate Republicans urging the president to reject any deal that does not include the full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program.

“I’ve been with the president when he’s talked about this, and I’ve heard him talk about dismantling [the Iranian nuclear program] … That’s the position that I think he’s taken and that I would take,” he stated.

When one negotiates with Iran, McCormick said, the first consideration must be to “take Iran at its word when it says it wants to destroy Israel and the United States,” and the second is that “there’s a history of untrustworthiness.”

“If you start with those two premises, then you have to get an outcome where the likelihood of a reconstitution of a nuclear Iran program is not something that is in the cards,” he said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress last week that the current negotiations with Iran are only about its nuclear program and not its terror proxies or ballistic missile program, though related sanctions remain in place.

However, McCormick said, “that doesn’t mean U.S. policy is only going to deal with [the nuclear program], and my basic view is Iran has been a bad actor and any … reducing sanctions should also require the complete termination of any support for terrorist proxies.”

Asked if that doesn’t contradict an offer to lift sanctions in exchange for a nuclear-only deal, McCormick said, “I don’t know what the deal is, but any treaty would ultimately come before the Senate and those are the kinds of questions I’ve asked.”

McCormick expressed confidence that the Trump administration would not try to circumvent the Senate, saying that “for any agreement to last, it needs to come through the Senate.”

The senator rejected the framing that there are two dueling foreign policy camps in the Trump administration, the more traditional Republicans and the “restrainers,” saying that Trump has been “very consistent” and that he has “a realpolitik view of supporting American interests.”

“I’ve seen lots of administrations … There are always conflicting views. That’s how good policies are made. You have a policy process where people get to argue and the president gets to decide,” he said.

Trump, McCormick said, has “made it very clear that the Israelis are our closest ally in the Middle East. There is no one that’s done more to support Israel … He’s been very clear on his stance on antisemitism. So listen, these are complex problems … but I think the administration stance has been a very clear one, and the president keeps coming back to peace through strength, which I think is one of the defining pieces of this foreign policy.”

As for the relationship between the U.S. and Qatar, which hosts Hamas leaders in its capital and represents Hamas’ interests in hostage and ceasefire negotiations with Israel, McCormick said: “From a realpolitik perspective, Qatar is an important part of bringing together the possibilities of a peace deal, but I think any funding that’s supporting terrorist organizations or any historical support should be an important consideration in the relationship.”

The senator posited that “our relationship with Qatar is moving in the right direction, but ultimately it depends on changing behavior where it’s not supporting groups that aren’t in line with U.S. objectives or allies of the United States.”

When it comes to concerns that Qatar is spending large sums of money to try to gain favor and influence the U.S., McCormick drew a distinction between the $400 million plane Qatar is planning to gift Trump to be used as Air Force One and then donated to his library, and Qatar’s large contributions to American universities.

McCormick has “concerns about the plane from a security perspective and an intel perspective. Obviously, we want to make sure that … there’s no national security risk associated with it.”

However, he called the donation of the plane “a sort of transaction between the U.S. government in many countries that happens in all sorts of different forms … It’ll go through whatever ethics review.”

McCormick said that funding for universities, however, is a major concern, not only from Qatar but from China, “particularly if there are motivations tied to it.”

“No one has been a stronger voice on antisemitism on campus than me,” he said. “Any foreign money that can be tied to supporting groups that are leading this antisemitism, I’m very opposed to. I think President Trump cracking down on these universities for their antisemitism, looking at the sources of funding, making federal funding contingent on dealing with antisemitism and making sure universities are doing their role is necessary.”

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa left the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter on Wednesday to head to the Vatican for his first-ever conclave to select the next pope. He departed as the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, but some have speculated that he could have a new title — pope — in the coming weeks.

“This is a moment during which we need to be united in prayer, first for me, because this is a time in which I carry a great and important responsibility. And we must pray for the church, for we are a part of a big body which is [the] universal church, the Catholic Church. I am sure that your prayers, all together, will bring the right choices for the good of the universal church,” Pizzaballa said in a recorded statement before his departure. 

Pizzaballa is widely viewed as one of the favorites to succeed Pope Francis, who died on Monday. The vast majority of popes have come from Italy, where Pizzaballa hails from, though he has lived in Israel for the past 35 years and is fluent in Hebrew. His knowledge of the Middle East, as well as his support for inter-religious dialogue, are viewed as advantages, while his age, 60, is seen as too young for a pope, according to Politico. 

Pizzaballa moved to Jerusalem in 1990, when he pursued a master’s degree in the Bible at Hebrew University while studying and teaching at the Franciscan Faculty of Biblical and Archaeological Sciences in Jerusalem. He later became responsible for the pastoral care of Hebrew-speaking Catholics and then was elected Custos of the Holy Land, a senior position in the church in Israel, Palestinian-controlled territories, Jordan, Syria, Cyprus, Rhodes and part of Egypt, from 2004-2016. 

Pope Francis appointed Pizzaballa to be the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem in 2020, and made him the first-ever cardinal based in Jerusalem in 2023. 

Pizzaballa said that the appointment of a cardinal in the city elevated the “voice of Jerusalem” within the Catholic Church. 

Wadie Abunasser, who was the spokesman of the Catholic Church in Israel for 30 years and is now coordinator of the Holy Land Christian Forum, a Christian laity group in Israel, told Jewish Insider that he hoped the honor bestowed on Pizzaballa would lead to recognition of Jerusalem as a city whose patriarch’s elevation to cardinal would be fast-tracked.

Ben-Gurion University Vice President Michal Bar Asher-Siegal, who is an expert in Christian-Jewish relations, told JI that Pizzaballa’s advancement to cardinal was “crazy, it shows the importance of Jerusalem in Pope Francis’ eyes … There are only 130 cardinals in the world.”

The promotion “reflects the importance of [Jerusalem], but also the person,” Bar Asher-Segal added. “[Pizzaballa] is an important figure who reached an important status.”

Pizzaballa, according to a profile by prominent Catholic affairs reporter John L. Allen Jr. from 2016, was “very much Francis’s man.” The pope entrusted Pizzaballa with organizing a peace prayer summit in the Vatican in 2014 with Israel’s then-President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

More recently, Pizzaballa, who was appointed cardinal only days before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel, made waves with his public positions on the subsequent war. Pizzaballa called the massacre “barbaric.” Later that month, Pizzaballa answered in the affirmative when asked if he would be willing to be exchanged for Israeli children taken hostage by Hamas in Gaza: “If this can lead to freedom, to bring the children home, no problem. There is total willingness on my part.” 

Yet, when two Catholics in Gaza were shot, Pizzaballa accused Israel of killing them “in cold blood,” though the IDF said that soldiers shot in response to an RPG that was fired from near the church. In December 2023, photos of the Pizzaballa wearing a keffiyeh, a traditional Palestinian scarf, courted controversy in Israel. 

From the start of the war, Pizzaballa campaigned to be able to visit Catholics in Gaza and spoke out about their plight. As of last year, there were 1,017 Christians in Gaza, 135 of whom are Catholic; about 300 people, mostly Christians, were living in the Holy Family Catholic Church compound in Gaza. 

According to the Catholic publication First Things, the patriarchate told Catholics in Gaza not to comply with the IDF’s evacuation order in Gaza City, for fear that it would be viewed as “complicity in an Israeli campaign to depopulate Gaza [that] risked setting Mideast Muslims against their Christian neighbors.” At the same time, they informed the IDF that Christians would shelter in the church and Israel facilitated the flow of food and supplies to them.

Israel allowed Pizzaballa to enter Gaza days before Christmas last year and he met with the community that had been living in the church compound from the start of the war. 

Abunasser said that Pizzaballa “has especially cared, since the start of the war, for the Christian presence in Gaza. He was the only church leader who repeatedly asked the Israelis, despite all the risks, to go and visit.”

The 2016 profile said that some in the Middle East have “long looked on [Pizzaballa] with suspicion because of his closeness to Israel and Jewish culture.” 

“In the zero/sum political game of the Middle East, in which a friend of Israel often is automatically seen as an enemy of Palestine and the Arab cause, all that has made Pizzaballa suspect in the eyes of some Arab clergy, and something of an arresting choice to lead a patriarchate whose membership is overwhelmingly Arab,” Allen Jr. wrote at the time.

Allen wrote that those critics highlight a comment Pizzaballa reportedly made about Palestinian leaders blaming Israel for all of their problems: “If the weather isn’t good, the cause is the occupation.”

Pizzaballa “talks relatively openly and the pope listened and was very interested. That means [Pizzaballa] brought the topic of Christians in the Holy Land to international attention,” Ben-Gurion University Vice President Michal Bar Asher-Siegal, who is an expert in Christian-Jewish relations, said.

In an interview with First Things this year, Pizzaballa referred to the Palestinian Authority as “weak,” which he said left Catholics vulnerable to attack.

Bar Asher-Segal said that Pizzaballa has not hesitated to criticize the PA, under whose rule Christians “suffer attacks from Muslims and in villages where Muslims are the majority, they are pushed to the sidelines. There have been very difficult attacks in Ramallah and Bethlehem … He speaks out against the Palestinian Authority, where Christians are targets of hate and the PA does nothing.”

“It takes courage to come out against the PA,” Bar Asher-Siegal added. 

Pizzaballa “talks relatively openly and the pope listened and was very interested. That means [Pizzaballa] brought the topic of Christians in the Holy Land to international attention,” Bar Asher-Siegal said.

The cardinal has also spoken out against Israel’s “neglect” of its Christian community, she continued. She pointed out that Christians are the most educated population in the country, but many emigrate, a matter of concern for Pizzaballa.

Christians in Israel have increasingly complained of harassment, especially in Jerusalem, Bar Asher-Siegal said, arguing that there has been a major increase in recent years of incidents of Jews spitting on Christians and vandalizing their property. 

“Israel said it is committed to freedom of religion and taking care of the holy sites in Jerusalem, but it isn’t meeting its commitments … Israel comes out very bad here … It’s a strategic and moral mistake,” she said. 

Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Aryeh King told JI that he had looked into the matter and that the Jerusalem Police said there had not been a rise in such incidents. 

Abunasser said that Pizzaballa “played a major role in improving ties with political authorities in Israel, the Palestinian Authority and even Jordan. He improved relations with Muslims and Jews on the religious and political level … He is very respected among the diplomatic corps in Israel and Jerusalem.”

The cardinal, Abunasser continued, “is wise and knows, despite all the contradictions and challenges, how to manage things even in difficult times. He succeeded in imposing his respect on everybody, including those who might sometimes disagree with him.”

King, someone who has clashed with local Christians in the past, said that “there are others who led a very anti-Israel line. I can’t say that he did. Some Christians did, but he is not like that.”

The Jerusalem deputy mayor has led protests against Christian missionaries in Jerusalem, though he emphasized that he also spoke out against recent incidents of harassment against the local community.

“There’s a clear line. We have no problem with Christians who mind their own business, but we will fight against Christians trying to change Jews’ religion,” King said. “I don’t remember [Pizzaballa] as someone who led such steps in recent years.” 

“He is really a special person who enjoys wide respect among Jews and Arabs,” Wadie Abunasser, who was the spokesman of the Catholic Church in Israel for 30 years and is now coordinator of the Holy Land Christian Forum, said. “He is a person who is charming and close to the people.” 

“Jerusalem is a microcosm of Jewish-Christian relations,” King added. “It’s a very sensitive place and there are constantly things happening in interreligious relations … I am deputy mayor and pretty involved in what is happening in the Old City and east Jerusalem, and I can’t point to him as someone who acted against Jews.”

King posited that “maybe there’s a place for optimism if [Pizzaballa becomes] the head of the church and he understands what is happening in Jerusalem where there are politically hot conflicts between religions.”

Abunasser said that Pizzaballa is well-liked across different populations in Israel and beyond.

“He is really a special person who enjoys wide respect among Jews and Arabs,” Abunasser said. “He is a person who is charming and close to the people.” 

Pizzaballa “is someone who always, like Pope Francis or Jesus, gives priority to the weak people. He cares for the weak and the poor,” he said.

Abunasser said he heard many stories from disadvantaged people about how Pizzaballa helped them, though the cardinal himself would keep his efforts quiet — “even his close associates sometimes don’t know what he does in that regard.”

“I discovered that he started many initiatives in the Latin Patriarchate. He launched several microfinancing projects to help unemployed people, especially in the Bethlehem area,” he said. 

Abunasser also highlighted reforms and improvements that Pizzaballa made to the administration of the church, both as Custos of the Holy Land, who is in charge of holy sites, and as the Latin Patriarch.

“[Pizzaballa’s] long service in the church of the Holy Land is something that was known worldwide. The church of the Holy Land is always in the news, not only in the media but also in the church. Therefore, I believe he has a good reputation,” he added.

Despite his enthusiasm for Pizzaballa, Abunasser emphasized that he is not lobbying for him to be pope. Abunasser pointed out that, contrary to regular politics, campaigning and self-promotion are frowned upon in Vatican conclaves.

“Even [Pizzaballa] himself, when people joked with him ‘you will be the next pope,’ he said ‘please don’t curse me.’ He believes we must trust the spirit,” Abunasser said.