The letter, released by JINSA on the third anniversary of Oct. 7, argues that such allegations may affect the way the U.S. and its allies conduct future conflicts
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A photograph shows destroyed buildings in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, on December 9, 2025.
Add JewishInsider on GoogleA group of more than 75 American military leaders is pushing back against allegations that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, arguing in a letter released Wednesday that the accusation is unsupported by the legal standard for genocide and contradicted by the conduct of the Israeli military during the war.
“As retired senior military leaders and legal experts, on this, the third anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 brutal attack on Israel, we reject claims that Israel committed genocide in Gaza,” the letter, released by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, says. “The allegations that Israel committed this crime do not meet the established definition and standards of genocide, are unsupported by established facts, nor do they stand up to common sense scrutiny.”
The signatories argue that a finding of genocide requires evidence that a protected national, ethnic, racial or religious group was targeted for destruction, in whole or in part, and contend that Israel’s actions in Gaza do not meet that standard.
“Israel has neither intended to, nor destroyed, Palestinians as a group in Gaza,” the letter reads. “All the evidence, in fact, points to the contrary conclusion: that, after suffering a barbaric, indiscriminate massacre by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), acting in justified self-defense, went to extreme lengths to protect civilians in Gaza, including from Hamas.”
The authors also dispute arguments that the number of civilian deaths establishes genocide, saying casualty figures from Gaza are unreliable.
“Genocide is not a quantitative crime; there is no number of civilian casualties that constitutes genocide,” the letter says. “Nor are the claimed casualty numbers from Gaza credible. Issued by Hamas themselves and, at the very least, not distinguishing between civilians and combatants, they cannot be relied upon.”
They argue that the war must be viewed in the context of fighting an enemy that operates among civilians, drawing on their own experiences commanding U.S. forces in similar combat environments.
“We understand that the loss of civilian life in Gaza is tragic, but we also know that such tragic outcomes do not necessarily violate the law of armed conflict,” the letter says. “Further, established legal precedent makes clear that civilian deaths occurring during combat, however tragic, are insufficient, by themselves, to support a finding of genocidal intent.”
“Many of the signatories to this letter have commanded United States armed forces in combat against enemies who regularly hide behind civilians and put those civilians intentionally in harm’s way,” the letter continues. “Fighting under those complexities is especially difficult.”
The letter then points to the extensive measures taken by the IDF to reduce civilian casualties as evidence that the military took precautions and lacked genocidal intent during its operations in Gaza.
“The IDF has provided civilians with numerous advance warnings, leaflets, phone calls, text messages, radio and TV broadcasts, and social media notices, evacuation instructions, protected corridors, and tactical pauses to help move them out of harm’s way,” the letter says. “Repeatedly, Israel has called off strikes because of the presence of civilians.”
The authors also cite Israel’s provision of humanitarian and medical assistance to Gaza as evidence that its conduct is inconsistent with an intent to destroy Palestinians as a group.
“More than 3.5 million tons of food, 48,000 tons of medical supplies, 5,000 tons of baby food, and up to 15,000 cubic meters per day of water desalinated by Israel have been sent into Gaza,” the letter says. “Over half a million Gazan children were vaccinated during the war and some 5,000 Gazans evacuated for medical treatment abroad.”
“These are not the actions of a genocidal state but of a professional military ethically and legally committed to the protection of civilian life,” the authors add.
They condemned “inflammatory statements” by some Israeli political officials that have been cited as evidence of genocidal intent, while arguing that those remarks do not reflect the conduct of the Israeli military. The letter did not point to any specific officials, though leaders including former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have been accused of such incitement.
“Such inflammatory statements are disgraceful,” the letter says. “Yet, while it deserves unequivocal condemnation, rhetoric from politicians uninvolved in military decision-making is in no way reflective of actual IDF operations.”
The signatories warn that how the Gaza war is judged could affect the way the U.S. and its allies conduct future conflicts, urging readers to apply what they describe as the established legal standards of the 1948 genocide convention.
“Failure to do so incentivizes future adversaries to deliberately endanger civilians and then exploit civilian suffering to portray lawful operations as genocide, weaken public support, and divide our alliances,” the letter says. “The precedent established today regarding Israel will shape the conditions under which American forces fight tomorrow.”
Analysts say Israel's enemies are weakened, but warn of unresolved wars, strained ties with Arab neighbors, growing international isolation and a failure to learn the lessons of Oct. 7
MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images
Israeli soldiers clean the gun of a tank at a position near Israel's border with the Gaza Srip on May 4, 2025.
On the third anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terror attacks on Israel, the Jewish state’s borders are more secure, but there are still dangers looming and lessons to be learned, according to military and national security analysts.
Dan Diker, president of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, told Jewish Insider on Tuesday that Israel “is in a better place in terms of its security.”
“Kinetically, militarily, in counterterrorism and on the battlefield, we are in a much better place,” he said. “We have defensible borders. That’s an important point. It’s not only in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank], but we have them 10 kilometers deep into Lebanon, security zones in [Syria] up to 20 kilometers, and some strategic depth in Gaza. We have multi-border strategic depth that we need to survive, and a consensus that we’re not going anywhere.”
“We are safer and more secure than we were three years ago,” said Yaakov Katz, author of While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East. “Iran is significantly weaker, and its nuclear program is significantly weaker. Hezbollah is a fraction of what it was and Hamas is a fraction of what it was.”
The wars of the last three years “created amazing opportunities on all fronts,” Katz said. “We can create new alignments, agreements and security arrangements like never before. But that requires political will and courage. … It could be that this will go to waste.”
Katz expressed concern that there has been “no resolution” to any of the conflicts that emerged since Oct. 7.
Israel’s enemies “are weaker today, but they will rebuild, like they always do,” he said, “and the threat will return and emerge stronger and bigger if there isn’t some kind of end strategy.”
Diker argued that “the shock and awe of the intelligence collapse on Oct. 7 has shaken Israel’s political, military, intelligence and security echelons to their core. It intuitively created a greater sense of modesty and self-criticism about the ‘conceptzia,’” the Hebrew term for groupthink in the defense establishment ahead of the attacks.
One of the misconceptions that allowed the Oct. 7 attacks to take place, Diker said, was an overreliance on technology, for which Israel’s current, multi-front military presence is correcting.
“We can withdraw to international lines once [Iranian] terror proxies are disarmed, but … we are the only ones who can disarm them. They will never do it on their own and no one else will do it. The thought that we didn’t need to have a division or many brigades of soldiers in Gaza was false,” he added.
Diker said that Israel’s concept of national security relied in recent decades on deterrence, early warning, decisive victory and defense, but that since Oct. 7, it has added a new pillar: prevention.
“We are crouched and ready to pounce and destroy any sign of enemy movement, as opposed to waiting to respond to enemy fire or malign action. I think that prevention pillar is evident in Israel’s massive use of force against Tehran, its courage in initiating very daring counterterrorism strategies, like the beeper strategy [against Hezbollah], which was very high-risk and high-value,” he said.
Katz, however, said that the government has not learned some of the important lessons of Oct. 7.
“The refusal to properly investigate and study what went wrong puts us in a bad position, because we can repeat these mistakes,” he said. “Example in point, the FlyDubai [near-hijacking] had similar contours to how [the Oct. 7 attacks] happened. There was a belief that everything will be OK, and some other guy is in charge. In the end, no one was in charge and something that could have been prevented was not.”
Ksenia Svetlova, a former Knesset member and executive director of the Regional Organization for Peace, Economics and Security, said that “tactically, [Israel is] in a better situation, because we mostly took care of Hamas and Hezbollah. They’re not at the gates anymore.”
However, she warned that Israel’s strategic position has declined because of regional weaknesses.
“Oct. 7 and the Iran war showed [Arab allies’] weaknesses,” she said. “The Gulf states couldn’t defend themselves [against Iran] and America is not rushing to defend them. The only one defending itself and them is Israel, and there are some things the Emiratis are doing. Overall, we see the Arab Middle East’s weakness, and two non-Arab countries are setting the tone, Iran and Turkey. And our alliances are with the Arab states, not Iran and Turkey.”
Those countries saw how Gulf states behaved in the last year, and are factoring that in. Svetlova said, “We’re in a worse situation because they were exposed.”
At the same time, she noted that no Arab state with which Israel has diplomatic relations cut off those relations or closed its embassy in Israel, which some did in past conflicts.
“There are deep interests that these relationships are based on, and they are the best and only way to build the relations,” Svetlova said. “Hamas and Islamic fundamentalist extremists are a shared enemy. … We have a lot to offer and [Arab allies] have a lot to offer.”
However, she warned against taking those relationships for granted.
“We have the strongest, broadest and most significant relations with the UAE,” Svetlova said, but pointed out that Abu Dhabi did not celebrate the anniversary of the Abraham Accords this year. “It’s not because they don’t value the accords … but everything this government does in the West Bank creates tensions.”
Svetlova noted that Israel’s consistently peaceful borders in the past three years were the ones with Egypt and Jordan, countries with which Israel has peace agreements.
But those countries were destabilized by the war, she said, pointing to weekly demonstrations in Jordan for nearly two years. She said that Jerusalem’s handling of the war in Gaza, such as its calls for residents of Gaza to be able to emigrate via Egypt, harmed the relationship.
“It will take years to rehabilitate relations with our neighbors,” Svetlova said. “We could have taken advantage of the opportunity to bring those around us closer. Instead, we are eating away at the security of our friends, countries like Jordan that shot down Iranian missiles and cooperate with the U.S., and weakening our own security.”
Israel’s international standing has shifted dramatically in the West, as well.
“There’s no question that three years after Oct. 7, Israel finds itself more isolated than before,” Katz said. “Any of the sympathy or solidarity that it benefited from and enjoyed in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack has long disappeared.”
Katz said Israel may face unprecedented challenges as a result, in terms of economic sanctions, isolation, resolutions in international institutions and charges in international courts.
“This is a whole new front that Israel today is currently completely unprepared for. If, for example, European countries as well as the United States start to sanction banks, financial institutions and construction companies, this could start to impact every person who lives in Israel,” he added.
Diker warned that Israel must do more to counter nonmilitary attacks, lest they further damage Israel’s national security.
“The major challenge now is fighting the weaponization of genocide against our people. That hasn’t been solved [and] that is really hurting us,” he said. “The notion that Israel is an apartheid genocidal state means something far-reaching and very dangerous … [that] anybody who is amenable to Israel or supports Israel is all of a sudden a supporter of genocide, which means the enemies of Israel go after [them].”
Diker said that while there is a widespread public consensus that there is a major nonmilitary element to the war — “economic, political, social, academic and in the media, not just public diplomacy or PR problems” — the government has not taken that aspect seriously enough.
“We are in a better situation because we understand, and I think we are trying to convince our allies, that this is part and parcel of an Islamic war on the West,” he said. “This is such an important part of our national security.”
However, he added, “Israel has yet to publicly declare that the non-military multidimensional Iranian, Russian, Chinese, Turkish, Qatari ideological warfare and political warfare is officially a national security threat. Until that happens, the budget and prioritization that Israel must assign to this war won’t be there. That’s why we keep getting it wrong.”
Diker suggested that Israel adopt hybrid warfare, a phrase often used to refer to Russian influence campaigns.
“All versions of nonmilitary warfare have to be embraced, collected and mobilized against our enemies,” Diker said.
With an acrimonious election set for the end of the month, politicians have been placing blame on each other, the security establishment and beyond for the failures of Oct. 7, but no state commission of inquiry has been formed to investigate.
“The same leaders responsible for the greatest failure are still in their position,” Katz lamented. “There’s no culture of accountability in Israel. You can say it doesn’t make a difference, but I think it does.”
Katz noted that the societal and political issues that divided Israel before Oct. 7 have not been resolved, and that poses an additional danger to Israel.
“Oct. 7 was the clearest example that when you have no social cohesion, you are going to pay a real price on a national security level,” he said. “Oct. 7 happened after five elections in 3.5 years, and a year of judicial reform that ripped the country apart. … All those fissures in society, all those issues remain and have gotten even bigger: Haredi [conscription in the IDF], judicial reform, ‘yes Bibi,’ ‘no Bibi,’ left, right, the Palestinian question. Everything is still there.”
Addressing the UNGA, Trump said, ‘Will a deal be made … or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic?’
Brendan Smialowski-Pool/Getty Images
President Donald Trump speaks during the 81st United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations Headquarters on September 22, 2026 in New York City.
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he faces a “big decision” between making a deal with Iran and escalating military conflict, as he predicted the sides would reach an agreement following the midterm elections.
“I have a big decision to make,” Trump told the U.N. General Assembly in New York, on the first day of the high-level week. “Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before? … Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again? Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?”
The president has recently made similar statements suggesting he must choose between negotiations and further confrontation, though there appear to be no serious negotiations underway and U.S. strikes have been sporadic.
"I have a big decision to make,” Trump said at the UN. “Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before? … Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic? … I believe we’ll make a deal right after the [midterm] election.” pic.twitter.com/LYB5f2i0Fd
— Jewish Insider (@jewishinsider) September 22, 2026
Trump said he believes an agreement with Iran will ultimately be reached after the U.S. midterm elections in November, arguing that Tehran is waiting to see how Republicans perform.
“I believe we’ll make a deal right after the [midterm] election because it doesn’t make sense for them not to,” Trump said. “They’re waiting to see how I do in the midterm election. What they don’t realize is that I’m not running.”
Even absent a deal, Trump argued that U.S. efforts in Iran have yielded success, including stopping Iran from being the “bully” of the Middle East.
“For 51 years, the fanatical Iranian regime has ruled by bloodshed and mass murder, spreading death and carnage and chaos across the entire Middle East and beyond,” Trump said. “They were the bully of the Middle East, but they are the bully no more.”
While no bilateral sit-downs between Trump and Iranian leadership were scheduled, Trump said during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had a “very good meeting” with Iranian officials on Tuesday.
“It was a meeting that lasted for three hours … They had a very good meeting, very productive meeting, and they have another one scheduled in the near future,” Trump said. “We’ll see how it turns out, but, certainly, it’s to their advantage to make a deal, and if we can do that, it’s preferable.”
Prior to the meeting a U.S. official had told CNN that Trump said he would be open to arranging a meeting with Iranian officials in New York “if the conditions are right,” or delegating senior advisors traveling with him to meet with them. Axios further reported that mediating Arab countries had been trying to arrange a meeting as well.
Trump called on “all nations” to “join us in enforcing the complete economic isolation of Iran until they stop their attacks on commercial shipping, relinquish their nuclear ambitions and cease their support of terror.”
Praising international support for Washington’s stance, Trump thanked the U.N. Security Council for passing a resolution in March condemning Iranian attacks on maritime trade.
“That resolution, I’m pleased to say, received more co-sponsors from U.N. member nations than any Security Council resolution in history,” Trump said. “That’s something. Now we must be equally united in maintaining pressure.”
He added that the U.S. Navy has recently escorted more than 1 billion barrels of oil out of the Strait of Hormuz, maintaining that “more oil is flowing than at any point since the start of the war.”
He also dismissed reports suggesting the U.S. military is running dangerously low on munitions as a result of the conflict.
“We have more munitions than we could ever possibly even think of using, and we’re building them at levels that we have never done before. We are adding to our stockpiles faster than we have ever been able to do before,” he said.
Trump noted that 18 new munitions facilities are currently under construction by defense contractors, promising that the expansion will lead to the “very rapid deployment of missiles of every type and ammunition of every type,” as well as faster resupply for allies.
Turning to the Middle East more broadly, Trump touched on the situation in Gaza, where implementation of his administration’s 20-point peace plan remains stalled as Hamas refuses to disarm. The president thanked countries that joined the Board of Peace, as well as those that committed personnel to secure Gaza.
“We ended the war in Gaza, saving untold thousands of lives. We also brought home all the remaining hostages, both living and dead, every single one of them,” Trump said. “Nearly 30 countries have joined the board, which I am honored to chair, and we’re thankful to many of those member nations for contributing billions and billions of dollars to relief. I also want to thank those who have committed troops, police, and training to help stabilize Gaza, including Indonesia, Morocco, Albania, Kosovo, Kazakhstan, Egypt, Jordan and more.”
Rep. Wesley Hunt, made a series of inflammatory remarks about Saudi Arabia during his military service and failed Senate bid that could complicate his confirmation
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) leaves a meeting of the House Republican Conference at the Capitol Hill Club on Wednesday, January 22, 2025.
Before being nominated to be U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia earlier this week, Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) pointed to his experience serving as a military diplomatic liaison to Saudi Arabia to offer strident criticisms of the U.S. ally.
The past comments could prove to be an issue in his confirmation process, or lead to a frosty reception if he is confirmed, a prospect that currently appears uncertain.
As previously reported by Jewish Insider, in 2022, Hunt suggested that he did not view Saudi Arabia as a “true ally” and highlighted the Saudi nationality of many involved in the 9/11 attacks.
“I learned a lot about what our interests need to be and who we need to be in the business of supporting for the future, because [Israel is] our one true ally in the region,” Hunt said during a virtual event with AIPAC.
He added that the U.S. “cannot let our guard down” with Middle East partners generally because “some of these countries are bad actors. They’re rogue nations, some of them.”
During his failed Senate campaign, Hunt — along with many other Texas Republicans — made his opposition to Islamic Sharia law a central element of his campaign, repeatedly pointing to his own experience in Saudi Arabia and Iraq as an example of its dangers.
“People who dismiss Sharia law as fear-mongering have never lived under it,” Hunt said. “I lived in Saudi Arabia. I lived in Iraq. I’ve seen what that system looks like in real life, not on cable news. Public beheadings happened there not long ago. Women couldn’t even drive when I was stationed there.”
Hunt also said, of Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), “He’s been soft on this because he’s never faced what I’ve seen. He’s never stood face-to-face with evil in its purest form. He’s never witnessed the public beheadings, the brutal treatment of women, or the barbaric enforcement of Sharia law.”
He said that Sharia law “should be banned in America” and joined the Sharia-Free America Caucus, warning that Sharia law is on the rise in America, though no U.S. jurisdiction enforces the Muslim legal code.
Other U.S. officials have historically been critical of Saudi Arabia’s restrictive laws for women and other elements of the country’s judicial system, which have since been loosened.
Also during the Senate campaign, Hunt said he had not felt safe, during his time living in Saudi Arabia, from jihadi sympathizers following the killing of Osama bin Laden.
“These are our allies that we are working with every single day, and we were actually fearful of our lives,” Hunt said at the time. “Now, imagine letting people, with that mindset, come to our country, and you wonder why we are waking up to having dead national guardsmen … the mentality of these people never ended. It never stops. The jihad never ends. We are the infidel.”
Semafor reported on Thursday that some Republican senators harbor concerns about Hunt’s nomination and are unlikely to allow it to move forward quickly.
Graham’s stumble comes one week before the special election runoff
Sen. Darline Graham, R-S.C., arrives for the Senate Judiciary Committee vote to move the nomination of Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche out of committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Tuesday, Aug 4, 2026. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) said at the final GOP primary debate to replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), one of Congress’ most engaged members on foreign policy, that she is “not that informed on national security.”
Graham made the comments after being asked at Tuesday’s debate, which was hosted by Newsmax and South Carolina ETV and Public Radio, if she believed Taiwan and the South China Sea were national security issues for the United States.
“I’m just going to be honest here. I’m not that informed on national security, but I do support the military,” Graham said. “My brother was in the Air Force for 33 years, so I will do everything I can to support the military. My dad was in the army. I’m not a polished politician up here. National security is not my thing, not my area of expertise. But I do support the military.”
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), Graham’s opponent in next week’s special election runoff, responded by describing Taiwan as “a definite ally” of the U.S. and praising President Donald Trump for “enabling Taiwan to defend themselves against China.” Norman has served in Congress for nearly a decade, and has touted his legislative experience as a strength on the campaign trail.
Shortly after the debate concluded, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who has endorsed Norman in the runoff, criticized Graham for her answer.
“Lindsey Graham was well informed on the United States’ national security. Darline Graham admits she’s not,” Haley wrote on X. “This is not something you inherit. And it’s critical in the U.S. Senate.”
At the start of the debate, Graham said while responding to a question about the cost of living that she trusted Trump “to get the Strait of Hormuz open.”
Asked if she supports continuing the U.S. war in Iran, Graham said, “I fully trust President Trump when it comes to the war in Iran. Forty-seven years this has been going on. Iran is the weakest they have been in 47 years. The one thing that concerns me is we cannot let them get a nuclear weapon. So I trust President Trump and everything he’s doing, I think he’s got this, and I trust him on it.”
Graham later cautioned, however, that she was not committed to supporting U.S. boots on the ground in Iran, a move that Trump has not indicated he’s considering.
“I think we should stand with Israel. They’re one of our strongest allies, so I definitely support standing with Israel,” Graham said. “I am a little concerned about troops on the ground. I don’t know that that’s necessary just yet. I would like to make sure that we try all economic solutions before we put troops on the ground.”
Norman, meanwhile, said that while he has been supportive of the president taking out the Iranian regime and its nuclear program, he believes the administration needs to justify why it is continuing the war and said that the U.S. should end its operations against Tehran.
“They were a severe threat, and he had the courage to do that. Now, I think that we’ve got to end it. I think that he’s going to have to tell the American people what it’s going to take,” Norman said. “If the Straits of Hormuz are still dominated by a country that’s supposed to be decimated, we’ve got to have some understanding on that because I’m not for endless wars. You win them and you get out.”
The South Carolina senator knocked Norman for voting against the National Defense Authorization Act on several occasions, which Norman responded to by pointing to his concerns about the size of the federal defense budget and the national debt.
While discussing U.S. support for Israel, of which Lindsey Graham was one of the most prominent champions in Congress, Norman described himself as a proponent of a strong U.S.-Israel relationship and vowed to continue being an ally to the Jewish state. He also praised Israel for what he characterized as its willingness to put troops on the ground in Iran to complete its military objectives.
“Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. If you go there, that’s God’s country, and we have continued to maintain good relations,” Norman said. “The president, I think, has paid many a trip over there. You go over there, it changes you. It just does. … From what we’re hearing in Congress, they are ready, and willing and able to take out Iran if it means putting troops on the ground. They’re trained soldiers and they are true patriots. Yes, they are a friend, and we have to remain a friend.”
The South Carolina runoff between Graham and Norman is being held next Tuesday, August 25. Trump is headlining a campaign rally for Graham on Friday in Myrtle Beach.
Plus, Trump puts Oman in the crosshairs
Shalev Shalom
Israeli President Isaac Herzog meets with Jared Kushner at the President's Residence in Jerusalem on Aug. 17, 2026.
Good Monday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
President Donald Trump confirmed to Fox News this morning that the White House is communicating directly with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and said that Tehran should “raise the white flag of surrender,” as the 60-day memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran — which was intended to lead to the creation of a permanent peace agreement but was quickly deemed moot by both parties — officially expired today without a deal in sight.
Jared Kushner separately told Fox News about the status of talks with Iran that Trump is “focused on economic pressure” but is still open to reaching an agreement, adding that dialogue between the White House and “different areas of the Iranian government” is “probably more robust than it’s maybe ever been” and that the conversations are “positive”…
Trump also threatened in his interview to “bomb the sh*t out of” Oman if the country “gets in the way,” amid Muscat’s negotiations with Tehran over the Strait of Hormuz.
Speaking later to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said he doesn’t think Oman “behave[s] very well” and that the U.S. would “handle them very easily.” He also reaffirmed his recent claim that he intends to declare the strait a U.S. territory, saying he “think[s] it’s a great idea”…
Responding to Trump’s threat, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) announced he intends to introduce a war powers resolution when the Senate returns from recess to prohibit U.S. military action against Oman…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had “deep and constructive discussions” with Board of Peace head Nickolay Mladenov and Kushner in Jerusalem today, where the parties agreed to establish two working groups: one on the “disarmament and demilitarization of Gaza,” which they agreed should happen before “any reconstruction,” and a second on sanitation and public health concerns in the enclave.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog also met with the group and said he was “impressed that Israel’s security interests are an important and central element of their plan”…
After the meetings, Kushner told Fox News that he predicts there will be progress in starting to demilitarize Gaza “in as little as 30 days” and beginning to fill in Hamas’ terror tunnels “in the next 60 to 90 days.”
Despite Trump stating in his interview that Israel should not be conducting any more strikes in Gaza, Kushner said the Board of Peace would “not restrict Israel’s right to defend itself” and that if Hamas doesn’t follow through on its commitments, Israel will “have a lot more support from the U.S.” to “finish the job.” He called his Sunday meeting with Hamas leaders “cordial” and said they “said all the right things” but that they are “hard to trust”…
Trump said today it’s “most appropriate” that he “stay out of” Israel’s upcoming elections but added that he “may endorse somebody” anyway….
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi disputed claims by Masrour Barzani, prime minister of the region of Kurdistan, that his office was attacked by Iranian drones: “Kurdish friends should be vigilant against false-flag ploys to sow discord between neighbors,” Araghchi said on X, claiming that Iran has historically “protected” the Kurds. It was a striking characterization given that Iran has repeatedly struck Kurdish opposition bases in Iraqi Kurdistan, including during the current war, and has a decades-long history of suppressing its own Kurdish population…
New York City leaders are condemning a series of inflammatory posters opposing a new housing development in Chelsea that use antisemitic, racist and homophobic language, including a call to “stop Zionist occupation of Manhattan,” tying the project to “foreign wealth dirty zionist money” and claiming that “Talmudists are trained to cheat.”
City Hall called the posters “vile” and claimed the rhetoric “has absolutely no place in our city’s political discourse,” while Mark Treyger, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, said, “Disagreement over housing policy is legitimate. Dehumanizing your neighbors is not”…
Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Dan Goldman (D-NY) continued to spar this week over the University of Washington’s decision to cancel a planned speech by antisemitic influencer Hasan Piker, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
After Goldman argued initially against Jayapal’s denunciation of the school, the congresswoman said she “completely disagree[s] with [Goldman’s] analysis of free speech”; Goldman responded that students have ample access to “Piker’s racist and anti-American views,” but the university has a responsibility to prevent discriminatory conduct or a hostile environment for Jewish students that could interfere in their ability to participate on campus…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at AIPAC’s involvement in tomorrow’s special election in California’s 14th Congressional District, where state Sen. Aisha Wahab is facing off against former Dublin, Calif., Mayor Melissa Hernandez, who is backed by the pro-Israel group.
Florida will also hold its primary elections tomorrow, where several pro-Israel and Jewish candidates are facing off against far-right and far-left extremists. Read more on the races and their implications here.
The Sephardic Rabbinical Conference will conclude in New York with speakers including Israeli Consul General Ofir Akunis; Daniel Rosenthal, vice president for government relations at UJA-Federation of New York; Rabbi Elie Buechler, director of programs at the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center; and rabbis from around the world.
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FDD’s Behnam Ben Taleblu said that successful U.S. economic pressure may lead Iran to retaliate in the fall in an attempt to impact the elections
Screenshot
Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Ludovic Hood moderates a panel with Behnam Ben Taleblu, the senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Iran program (center), and Hudson Institute fellows Michael Doran and Zineb Riboua, August 13th, 2026
Behnam Ben Taleblu, the senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Iran program, warned on Thursday of potential Iranian escalation — military or otherwise — in the run-up to the midterms, with the goal of disrupting the elections.
Taleblu said on a panel at the Hudson Institute that, ahead of November, “my fear for the president prior to the midterms … is not failure. My fear for the president now is success.” He said that U.S. economic pressure alongside the blockade has been highly effective and will have success in squeezing Iran’s economy and oil exports, potentially bringing retaliation from Iran, even in the event of another diplomatic agreement.
“What you might actually have now is the Islamic Republic, once we reverse the economic pressure, they might lean in on asymmetric military pressure, and they might do so at a time that might deliver some sort of an October surprise or constrain his options, or create one surrender option or one major military engagement option, come October, prior to November,” Taleblu said.
A senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps advisor, Mohammed Reza Naqdi, told PBS earlier this week that Iran intends to prolong the war until the next administration and that it maintains significant capacity to attack at a time of its choosing.
Taleblu said that the U.S. needs to “prepare for success” and anticipate what Iran will do next, and to prepare contingencies for those situations.
“If you do turn it off, if you do try to pursue diplomacy, if you do try to pursue a deal, if you do try to handhold and arm-twist the media and markets just to make sure that … this global financial crisis doesn’t emerge — if you do all of that, I hope you use the time well here in this town to prepare for how Iran is preparing,” Taleblu said.
All three experts on the panel — Taleblu and Hudson Institute fellows Michael Doran and Zineb Riboua — predicted that the U.S. will be reengaged in negotiations with Iran by Thanksgiving and that there will be further U.S. or Israeli strikes before the holiday. Doran predicted that strikes are more likely after the midterms and the Israeli elections, which are scheduled for Oct. 27.
The three diverged on whether the Strait of Hormuz will be reopened by Thanksgiving.
Doran praised the administration’s strategy overall but said that the U.S. hasn’t achieved all of its stated goals and there are no easy solutions to Iran’s remaining drone and missile stockpiles, with which it can continue to hold the Strait of Hormuz hostage.
“The Iranians don’t have to hit every tanker in order to close the strait. … We have to eradicate the drone program; that is nearly an impossible mission short of carrying out a regime change policy, or short of destroying all of the export capacity of the Iranians, wiping out Kharg Island — and this is a step that Donald Trump doesn’t want to take,” Doran said, given concerns about attacks on the Gulf and a potential refugee crisis from Iran.
Ultimately, he said, the path forward will be determined by political decisionmakers in the U.S., adding that there is at this point no easy military solution and that the conflict may continue for months or years to come.
Taleblu downplayed the oft-repeated notion that the new Iranian leadership is measurably younger or more hardline than the previous leadership, arguing that the war had just accelerated existing trends that had already been in place, and that the current leadership is still of the same generation and background as the previous group.
He added that Iran’s decision-making apparatus is now more diffuse and is concentrated in the Iranian institutional cabal, which will not bow easily to pressure.
Plus, CA considers making Jews an ethnicity
Leonardo MUNOZ / AFP via Getty Images
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani arrives for a news conference at Gracie Mansion in New York City on March 9, 2026.
Good Thursday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced today that his Office to Combat Antisemitism will be releasing a municipal plan to combat antisemitism, Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman reports.
The mayor marketed the plan as the “first-in-the-nation,” even as former Mayor Eric Adams already released a “blueprint” for combating antisemitism on his last day in office, which included the city adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism — a policy that Mamdani repealed on his first day.
The move comes days after Mamdani hosted a roundtable with rabbis in the city who asked the mayor to back off his attacks on Israel, a request that Mamdani did not reference or commit to addressing in his remarks…
The California state Legislature is considering a bill to require state agencies to include “Jewish” as an ethnicity option on all forms that collect demographic data. The move would make California the first state to officially consider Judaism as more than a religion for identification purposes…
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit yesterday brought by the Trump administration against Harvard University alleging that the school showed “deliberate indifference” to antisemitism on campus in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks.
The judge ruled that the few campus incidents cited by the administration were “too isolated and episodic” to find “any institutionalized noncompliance with Title VI persists at Harvard to this day”…
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said on X today that she had communicated her “concerns” to the University of Washington about its decision to cancel an appearance by far-left, antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker, and encouraged student groups who “want to hear from Mr. Piker to work with the University to ensure they can proceed.”
Piker had earlier this week denounced Democrats who didn’t “speak out against this clear violation” of the First Amendment due to his “position as a prominent critic of Israel”…
Former Democratic Maine Senate nominee Graham Platner is expected to headline a Labor Day rally for the Hancock County Maine Democrats next month, his first public appearance since dropping out of the Senate race after he was accused of rape by a former romantic partner…
White House advisor Jared Kushner is planning a trip to Israel next week with Board of Peace head Nickolay Mladenov to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials to discuss the Hamas disarmament deal, Axios reports…
CENTCOM announced today it is undertaking efforts to establish the “first-ever multi-domain, multinational attack drone task force,” including consulting with and inviting regional partners to join, that will work to utilize unmanned, one-way attack drones “from above, on, and below the sea” in the Middle East…
The U.S. has lost roughly a quarter of its fleet of MQ-9 Reaper drones in the war with Iran, sources told The Washington Post, as the armed drones have been targeted by Tehran and its proxies in Yemen and Iraq…
The Pentagon is sending the USS George Washington aircraft carrier to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East, as reports and lawmakers indicate that conditions aboard the ship are deteriorating after a record 200 days without a port call; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dismissed the concerns about the Abraham Lincoln today as “completely misrepresented”…
Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC), facing a runoff special election to be the GOP nominee for her late brother’s Senate seat, announced she is co-sponsoring the Jewish American Security Act, the U.S.-Israel FUTURES Act, a bill on Iran sanctions and a bill on Iranian human rights and internet access…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at how Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is avoiding contending with the anti-Israel turn of her preferred successor, San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, in her race against state Sen. Scott Wiener.
President Donald Trump will appear with Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the GOP candidate for New York governor, at an event on Long Island honoring law enforcement officials.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), a member of the Squad, will appear at a rally in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., alongside anti-Israel progressives running against Jewish Democrats Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), as well as socialist Colorado Democratic congressional nominee Melat Kiros.
We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat shalom!
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Plus, Josh Kushner and Bob Iger ball out
Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Breakthrough T1D)
Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) questions witnesses during a hearing held to examine a future without Type 1 Diabetes with a focus on accelerating breakthroughs and creating hope at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on July 09, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Good Wednesday afternoon.
This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.
Today’s Daily Overtime was curated by JI U.S. Editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik.
📡On Our Radar
Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking
A State Department official pushed back on Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz’s comments in southern Lebanon today, where he said the IDF would remain deployed in a security zone, contrary to the agreement signed between Washington, Jerusalem and Beirut.
“The United States expects all parties to act in a manner consistent with the Framework they agreed to, and Israel clearly stated that it has no territorial ambitions in Lebanon. A permanent military presence in South Lebanon is not consistent with the commitments made in the Framework, or the long-term peace and security of both states,” the official told Axios…
Sources told Reuters that Israel and Lebanon have agreed that countries including Britain, Italy, Switzerland and Indonesia could contribute troops to an international force meant to oversee Hezbollah’s disarmament; an Israeli official denied any decisions had been made on the issue…
President Donald Trump continued to boast about the success of the U.S. campaign against Iran, stating again in a post on Truth Social today that the U.S. “has total control over the Strait of Hormuz” and that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is “decimated and fleeing.”
Meanwhile, out of the 166 ships that have transited the strait so far this month — a significant decrease from the average before the war — only two are known to have used the U.S.- and Oman-backed route, according to The Wall Street Journal…
In a rare interview with Western media, top IRGC advisor Mohammad Reza Naqdi told “PBS News Hour” that Iran is prepared to continue hostilities through the end of Trump’s term and accused the U.S. of waging a “war without strategy”…
The New York Times documents the efforts being made by Gulf countries to construct routes to move oil out of the region that do not rely on the Strait of Hormuz…
Board of Peace head Nickolay Mladenov denied in a post in Hebrew today that there is any financial agreement between the board and Hamas, refuting a report by Israeli public broadcaster Kan that the board would cover Hamas’ debts up to $400 million.
The disarmament roadmap states that the new Palestinian technocratic government will “assess the legitimate commitments to suppliers, contractors and other parties — up to a total amount of no more than $400M — and address them”; Mladenov said in his post that such processes “are not channeled through Hamas” and that “all accounts are open to full scrutiny by the donor governments”…
The publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times, Michael Morris, penned an open letter to Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) today pressing the senator over his repeated votes to block U.S. military sales to Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
“I apologize for being blunt, but please, stop lying to me and your constituents. I hear you claim, over and over again, that you support Israel — that your support is ‘ironclad.’ It is not,” Morris wrote…
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) denied today that the more than $30 million of support she received from AIPAC’s super PAC in her failed run for U.S. Senate backfired, saying on CNN that those who criticize AIPAC “maybe don’t understand what the group is” and that she’s “proud of the friendships and the relationships I have there [and] the really good Americans” who make up its membership…
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is stepping away from her role at the end of the month, Trump announced today, in order to spend more time with her family. The president said Leavitt will now serve as “one of my top outside advisors”…
Josh Kushner, managing partner of the venture capital firm Thrive Capital, and former Disney CEO Bob Iger have agreed to purchase a controlling interest in the Los Angeles Lakers for a record-breaking price of $12.5 billion, JI’s Matthew Shea reports…
⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today
An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead
Keep an eye on Jewish Insider for a look at local Jewish political organizing efforts in major cities across the country.
The Hudson Institute will hold an event examining the state of the ongoing conflicts in the Gulf with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Behnam Ben Taleblu and Hudson’s Michael Doran, Ludo Hood and Zineb Riboua.
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Trump told reporters in Ankara that ‘Turkey has been in many ways much more loyal than other countries’
Win McNamee/Getty Images
President Donald Trump speaks to Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after arriving at Etimesgut Air Base for the annual NATO Summit on July 7, 2026 in Ankara, Turkey.
President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that his administration was preparing to lift congressionally mandated sanctions on Turkey as he weighs moving forward with the sale of coveted F-35 fighter jets to Ankara.
“We’re going to be taking the sanctions off,” Trump said alongside Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, referring to lifting the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).
“It’s time to do that. We don’t want to sanction friends. It’s very simple,” he continued. “We’re working very closely with [Secretary of State] Marco Rubio and with [Treasury Secretary] Scott Bessent and with [Defense Secretary] Pete [Hegseth] and everybody else.”
"We don't wanna sanction friends," Trump said at the NATO summit as he announced he was preparing to lift sanctions on Turkey.
— Jewish Insider (@jewishinsider) July 7, 2026
"It's very simple."
Read more: https://t.co/FM9Me9HQQk pic.twitter.com/HjwESQs5M6
The CAATSA sanctions were imposed by Congress in December 2020 during the final weeks of Trump’s first administration due to Turkey’s acquisition of Russian S-400 missile-defense systems. The Trump administration had, the year before, announced it would be banning Turkey from the F-35 fighter jet program over the same issue, which Congress codified. Defense experts and lawmakers have previously told Jewish Insider that Turkey still maintains the Russian hardware, which makes lifting the sanctions legally complicated.
The Trump administration noted last month that it planned to review Ankara’s eligibility to receive the F-35s, a move that has already drawn bipartisan pushback in Congress. Asked whether he is still considering the deal despite these remaining legal restrictions, Trump said it was “something, certainly, we would consider.”
“It’s a decision we’re going to make,” Trump said. “We have a very good relationship. I can tell you, many people, including the people sitting right here, think, ‘Why wouldn’t we do that?’ We have a better relationship with Turkey and Turkey has been in many ways much more loyal than other countries.”
Throughout the exchange, Trump repeatedly emphasized his close ties with Erdoğan, describing the two as “great friends” and crediting the Turkish leader with playing an instrumental part in neighboring Syria.
“Because of [Erdoğan], we have a very good relationship with the new leader of Syria,” Trump said. “I approved [Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa] along with [Erdoğan]. We were the two that really wanted him, and he’s done a great job.”
Trump also lauded Turkey for playing an “extraordinary” role in helping wind down the military conflict between the U.S. and Iran, downplaying criticism over Ankara’s increasingly hostile relationship with Israel.
“They could have gotten into the fight on the other side,” Trump said of Turkey’s role in the Iran war.
“They are a nation that’s been very good, they’ve been extraordinary in many ways with respect to our relationship, including trying to end the war with Iran — or whatever you call it, it’s not even a war, it’s a military operation, it’s a denuclearization,” he added.
The president told Fox News that Washington is nearing a decision on additional strikes against Iran, arguing that Tehran has dragged out negotiations and must now ‘pay the price’
Getty Images
A large plume of smoke rises over Tehran after explosions were reported in the city during the night on March 28, 2026 in Tehran, Iran.
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday morning that the U.S. could soon launch additional strikes against Iranian power plants and bridges, raising the prospect of a broader military campaign against Tehran as he accused Iran of dragging the U.S. along in diplomatic negotiations.
The president’s comments to Fox News’ Trey Yingst came hours after the U.S. military announced it had targeted Iranian air defense, ground control and surveillance radar sites in response to Iran downing a U.S. Army helicopter on Monday. Iranian state media, meanwhile, claimed attacks on U.S. military facilities in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday morning that Iran had “taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them” and warned that Tehran would now “have to pay the price.”
Trump made similar threats regarding targeting Iranian power plants and bridges as a way to escalate hostilities when he was unsatisfied with negotiations in April, though such strikes were not carried out.
Trump also disclosed new details about the incident that precipitated the latest U.S. action: According to the president, an Iranian drone became lodged between the two pilots of a U.S. Apache helicopter who guided the helicopter into the sea, where they were rescued “for the first time in U.S. military history” by an unmanned sea drone.
Iranian FM Abbas Araghchi indicated Tehran is prepared to respond with further strikes
CENTCOM/X
Sailors aboard USS George H.W. Bush conduct night flight operations in the Arabian Sea.
The U.S. military launched what it called “self-defense strikes” in Iran on Tuesday evening in retaliation for the downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter by an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday.
A U.S. official told Politico and Axios that the strikes targeted Iranian radar and air-defense sites.
In announcing the start of the operation at 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday, CENTCOM called the mission “ a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression.”
The military action was widely anticipated after President Donald Trump declared earlier on Tuesday that the U.S. military “must, of necessity, respond” to Iran’s attack on the American asset. Prior to Tuesday’s exchange, Trump had indicated that a comprehensive diplomatic agreement between Washington and Tehran to end the war was in its “final throes” and could potentially be finalized in “two or three days.”
Regional experts had speculated that any U.S. military response would likely be limited in scope and unlikely to derail negotiations or trigger a return to fully fledged conflict, but Iranian leadership indicated it is prepared to launch further attacks.
“Our Powerful Armed Forces will leave no attack or threat unanswered,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated on X following the U.S. airstrikes. “Despite its defeats on the battlefield, the U.S. opted to test our determination. Leave our region if you want to be safe. History of the Persian Gulf has many chapters on dire fates of intruding outsiders.”
The Senate minority leader was pressed by MS NOW’s Joe Scarborough on his view of the U.S. and Israel’s war achievements
Samuel Corum/Getty Images
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) makes a statement alongside House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) outside of the West Wing at the White House on January 17, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) did not directly address whether the degradation of Iran’s military infrastructure should be viewed as a positive outcome, instead emphasizing the war’s potential economic and geopolitical consequences.
Over the course of the past week, U.S. officials have indicated that Iran’s military capabilities have been severely weakened. President Donald Trump has described Iran’s military as “decimated,” and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified at a congressional hearing this past week that the Iranian regime was “largely degraded.”
When asked by MS NOW’s Joe Scarborough on Monday’s edition of “Morning Joe” whether that degradation was a “good thing,” Schumer called the question “premature.”
“You can’t [answer that question] because it’s a premature question,” Schumer said. “What is going to happen in the next several months? Is it worth it? Will the world economy collapse?”
“I can ask that question,” Scarborough replied. “I’m simply asking on the military side: Is it good — regardless of whether we agree with going in or not — is it good that Iran’s military infrastructure has been seriously degraded?”
Schumer again asserted that it could not be answered without understanding the full implications of the current conflict.
“In all due respect, if you ask the American people, if you have the choice of degrading the military structure in Iran, but having gasoline be $6 a gallon and our economy falling into a deep recession where millions lose their job, what do you think?”
Schumer ultimately signaled agreement with that underlying point, while maintaining his broader concerns.
“The fact that the leader [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei is gone, no one regrets that. The fact that Iran has less ability to create military trouble [is a good thing], no one disputes that. But you have to look at the consequences.”
Schumer argued that Congress would have had a clearer understanding of the potential economic and geopolitical consequences had lawmakers passed one of several war powers resolutions — an effort that has been voted down by House and Senate Republicans with several Democrats joining them on several instances within the past month.
“If Republicans had voted with us on the War Powers Act, all these questions would have been asked ahead of time instead of Donald Trump’s willy-nilly — one day yes, one day no,” Schumer said.
President threatens further attacks if Iran blocks Strait of Hormuz; teases nation-building effort
The White House via X Account/Anadolu via Getty Images
U.S. President Donald J. Trump sits at a table monitoring military operations during Operation Epic Fury against Iran, with U.S. flags visible behind him, in Washington, United States, on March 02, 2026.
President Donald Trump drew two contradictory timelines for the ongoing war in Iran in remarks on Monday, saying that the conflict was both drawing to a close and in its early stages.
In a call with CBS News, Trump said, “The war is very complete, pretty much. [Iran has] no navy, no communications; they’ve got no air force. Their missiles are down to a scatter. Their drones are being blown up all over the place, including the manufacturing of drones. … There’s nothing left in a military sense.”
The war has progressed faster than initially expected, the president added: “We’re very far ahead of schedule.”
Also Monday, the Department of Defense posted on X that “we have only just begun to fight, with a graphic of a missile interceptor and the text: “No Mercy.”
At a news conference after his CBS News interview, Trump was asked whether the war is “very complete” or “just beginning.”
“I think you could say both,” the president responded. “It’s the beginning of building a new country. We could call it a tremendous success right now, or we could go further.”
“And we’re going to go further,” Trump added.
In his interview with CBS, Trump considered further steps, saying that he is “thinking about taking … over” the Strait of Hormuz.
The president later posted on Truth Social: “If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far.”
The Strait of Hormuz is the only passage by sea from the Gulf to the open ocean and a critical chokepoint in the global energy market.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, said during a visit to Israel’s National Health Command Center on Monday that “our aspiration is to enable the Iranian people to cast off the yoke of tyranny; ultimately, it is up to them.”
“If we succeed together with the Iranian people, we will bring about a permanent end to the extent that such things exist in the lives of nations,” Netanyahu added. “We will bring about change, and we are already bringing about a massive shift in Israel’s international standing.”
The IDF Home Front Command reported only six missile launches from Iran to Israel in the past 24 hours, a significant slowdown from previous days of the war.
The IDF continued to strike targets in Iran, including a missile launcher, 10 minutes after it fired at Israel.
On Monday night, the IAF completed a wave of strikes against six major Iranian military airfields, destroying Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps aircraft, including combat helicopters.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun reached out to the U.S. to start direct talks with Israel on “permanent arrangements for security and stability on [its] borders.” He called for a “complete truce” ending Israeli military activity, and lamented that Hezbollah — which Beirut had agreed to disarm as one of the terms of its 2024 ceasefire with Israel — “wanted to achieve the fall of the State of Lebanon, under aggression and chaos.”
Israeli strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon continued, with overnight attacks on command centers and the facilities of the Al-Quard Al-Hassan Association, which funds the Iran-backed terrorist group and works with cash, as well as a cell of Hezbollah terrorists approaching IDF soldiers and a structure in which commanders of the elite Radwan Force were said to be gathering.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar met with U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis in Jerusalem on Monday. In his readout of the meeting, he noted that Hezbollah joined the war on Iran’s side “against the interest of Lebanon.”
“Over the past week there have been more attacks against Israel from Lebanese territory than from Iran,” Sa’ar said. “Weakening Hezbollah is a mutual interest of both Israel and Lebanon. I also said that Hezbollah initiated an attack against us and no member of the international community is acting to stop it besides us.”
Sa’ar and Hennis also discussed Israel’s decision not to evacuate residents from its northern border towns, in contrast with October 2023, and said that “the deployment of IDF troops in the border area is critical for preventing an invasion of Hezbollah’s ground forces and attacks against Israeli citizens and communities.”
The IDF estimated in recent days that over half a million Lebanese residents evacuated southern Lebanon.
Magen David Adom emergency services reported treating 76 people as a result of Monday’s missile attacks, two of whom were killed and 18 injured by missile debris.
Since the start of Operation Lion’s Roar, there have been 14 fatalities. MDA reported treating 667 people for injuries resulting from missile attacks, 511 of whom were injured making their way to shelter or in traffic accidents when stopping for a missile alert.
Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said Israel is entering the war’s second phase with ‘additional surprises’ as Trump says he’ll pick Iranian leader – or else
ABIR SULTAN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Israel's military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir salutes during the funeral of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin who was killed during the six-week 2014 war in Gaza, at a military cemetery in Kfar Saba on November 11, 2025.
The U.S. and Israel have almost total control of Iranian airspace, IDF Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said in a video statement on Thursday.
They “achieved near-complete air superiority over Iranian skies,” and Operation Roaring Lion, as Israel named the war with Iran, is entering its second phase, Zamir said.
The war is moving, he said, from the initial phase — beginning with Saturday’s “surprise strike” and followed by additional sorties to establish air superiority and degrade Iran’s ballistic missile array — to “further dismantle the regime and its military capabilities.”
“We have additional surprises ahead, which I do not intend to disclose. We will pursue our enemies, all of them, and we will overtake them,” Zamir added, paraphrasing Psalms 18:38.
Zamir said he is in “continuous contact with my American counterparts. We are fighting based on shared interests and shared values. We are fighting shoulder to shoulder. Through synchronized action, we are stripping the regime of its military capabilities, strategically isolating them and bringing them to a point of weakness unlike any it has known. This is truly historic cooperation״
The IDF Spokesperson’s Office said on Thursday that the military had struck over 300 of the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile launchers and advanced defense systems in over 113 waves of strikes in western and central Iran, neutralizing 80% of Iran’s aerial-defense systems and over 60% of its ballistic missile launchers.
CENTCOM chief Adm. Brad Cooper said in a press conference on Thursday that Iranian ballistic missile attacks have decreased by 90% since Operation Epic Fury, the White House’s name for the operation, began on Saturday, with drone attacks declining by 83%.
The U.S. military has bombed nearly 200 targets inside Iran, including dropping 2,000-pound penetrator bombs targeting Iranian ballistic missile launchers stored underground, and sunk over 30 Iranian navy ships.
“We’re not just hitting what they have, we’re destroying their ability to rebuild. And so, as we transition to the next phase of this operation, we will systemically dismantle Iran’s missile production capability for the future, and that’s absolutely in progress,” Cooper said.
President Donald Trump told Politico on Thursday, “We’re taking out a threat to the United States of America, major threat, … and doing it like nobody’s ever seen before.”
Iran has “no navy. They have no air force. They have no detection of air. It’s all wiped out. Their radar is all wiped out. Their military is decimated. All they have is guts,” the president said.
Trump also said he plans to have a decisive influence on the next leader of Iran. “I’m going to have a big impact [on Iran’s future leadership], or they’re not going to have any settlement, because we’re not going to have to do this again,” Trump said. “We’ll work with the people and the regime to make sure that somebody gets there that can nicely build Iran but without nuclear weapons.”
The U.S. plans to “work with them to help make the proper choice,” so that the next Iranian leader will not “lead to having to do this [war] again in another 10 years.”
Trump said that Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the war, was a poor choice: “The reason the father wouldn’t give it to the son is they say he’s incompetent.”
Also on Thursday, the IDF launched its 26th wave of strikes in the Dahieh neighborhood of Beirut —a stronghold of the Hezbollah terrorist militia — hitting over 500 targets, including some in residential buildings in the Lebanese capital that the military said were used for terrorist infrastructure and UAV storage.
“Hezbollah made a strategic error,” Zamir said in his video statement, “[and] despite it directly conflicting with the interests of the Lebanese people, chose to join the campaign. Hezbollah is paying a heavy price.”
Israel killed the head of Hezbollah’s firepower array, known as Fidaa, whom Zamir said was “responsible for the deaths of many Israelis.”
“We will not let up on the objective of disarming Hezbollah,” Zamir added.
Magen David Adom emergency services reported 44 people injured amid attacks from Iran and Lebanon on Thursday through early Friday morning, all while making their way to shelters. MDA treated and evacuated 502 casualties from the start of Operation Lion’s Roar, including 359 injured on their way to shelter and five traffic accidents during sirens; there have been 12 fatalities.
Netanyahu: Attacks were Israeli Air Force’s largest flyover in history
Mahsa / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images
A plume of smoke rises over Tehran after a reported explosion on February 28, 2026.
The U.S. and Israeli militaries planned attacks on Iran for months, marking “unprecedented cooperation,” Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF’s chief of staff, said on Saturday, hours after the launch of what Israel has called Operation Roaring Lion and the U.S. has called Operation Epic Fury.
“In recent months, under the direction of the political leadership, I have led — in coordination with my counterparts, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the commander of CENTCOM — a deep and comprehensive joint operational planning process. This reflects unprecedented cooperation between the IDF and the United States military,” Zamir said.
An IDF official speaking on condition of anonymity said that the two militaries “worked for thousands of hours” to increase its target bank “by hundreds of percent.”
The plan centered on “an intelligence effort … to identify an operational opportunity at the moment when senior regime officials would convene,” the official said. The IDF struck three such gatherings simultaneously and killed “several senior figures.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed in a video statement that one of those targets was Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, saying that the IDF likely killed him.
“Today, in a surprise attack, we destroyed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s compound in the heart of Tehran,” he said. “For three and a half decades, this tyrant sent terror throughout the world, immiserated his nation and worked all the time on his plan to destroy Israel.”
“That plan is gone and there are many signs that the tyrant is gone,” Netanyahu said. President Donald Trump later confirmed the news.
Netanyahu said that Israel plans to hit “1,000 terror sites” in the coming days.
Directing his remarks at the people of Iran, Netanyahu said, “Soon your moment will come in which you must go out on the streets … Help has arrived and now the time has come for you to unite for a historic mission … to bring down the regime and ensure your future.”
The strikes on Iran’s missile array and air-defense systems by 200 fighter jets were the Israeli Air Force’s largest-ever flyover, the IDF Spokesperson’s office said.
The IAF fighter jets struck 500 targets throughout western and central Iran, such as one in Tabriz, which was used for Iran’s surface-to-surface missiles. Another strike targeted an advanced SA-65 aerial-defense system near Kermanshah in western Iran, the IDF said.
The IDF sent warnings via social media to Iranian civilians living near weapons production and military infrastructure facilities: “Dear citizens, for your safety and well-being, we urge you to immediately evacuate these areas and remain outside of them until further notice. Your presence in these locations puts your lives at risk.”
Iran launched missiles and attack drones at Israeli population centers throughout the day, including ones that include cluster munitions, the IDF said.
“Cluster weapons are designed to disperse over a large area and maximize the chances of a harmful strike. Iran goes to great lengths in trying to maximize harm to Israeli civilians,” Nadav Shoshani, the IDF international media spokesperson, stated.
Zamir said that Operation Roaring Lion is “a significant, decisive, and unprecedented operation, to dismantle the capabilities of the Iranian terrorist regime — capabilities that constitute an ongoing existential threat to the security of the State of Israel. This is an operation to secure our existence and our future here, in the land of our forefathers, for generations to come.”
Since last year’s Operation Rising Lion, as the IDF called the 12-day war with Iran, “the radical Iranian terrorist regime has not abandoned its vision or its hostile intentions to advance its plan to destroy Israel. It has continued to promote its nuclear project, restore and accelerate ballistic missile production, and destabilize the region through the funding and arming of terrorist proxies,” Zamir said.
The IDF chief of staff also tied the operation to the holiday of Purim, which begins on Monday night, and celebrates the Jews of the Persian empire overcoming an attempted genocide.
“The Book of Esther teaches us that responsibility for our destiny rests first and foremost in our own hands — in courage, initiative, unity and the willingness to fight for our right to live here in freedom and in peace,” Zamir said. “Soldiers and commanders of the IDF… carry with you the vision of our forefathers.”
Shoshani wrote in a blog post that the timing of the operation was due to “a dangerous acceleration in [Iran’s] capabilities,” including long-range missile production and continued proxy funding.
“Israel reached a point where the threat was no longer ‘developing,’” Shoshani wrote. “The threat was direct and imminent.”
The objective of the strike, Shoshani said, was to “fundamentally reduce and degrade Iranian terrorist regime capabilities, eliminating long-term existential threats to the state of Israel.”
The IDF also called up 70,000 reservists to serve on Israel’s borders, the West Bank and Gaza to stop any infiltration attempts, as well as search and rescue forces prepared to go to the site of any Iranian missile strikes.
Israelis throughout the country spent the day going in and out of safe rooms and bomb shelters at the sound of air raid sirens, which blared more frequently in Israel’s densely populated center, reflecting the area Iran targeted.
IDF Home Front Commander Maj.-Gen. Shay Kleper said that “past experiences prove that the public’s strict following of protocol has saved many lives. The grit and responsibility of everyone is a key element in countering the threat.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar spoke about Israel’s decision to strike Iran and the operation’s objectives with 17 of his counterparts, in phone calls to Argentina, Austria, Germany, India, Italy, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Latvia, the European Union, France, Canada, Australia, Ecuador, Greece, Ethiopia, Singapore and North Macedonia.
With Gvili’s return, no Israeli hostage — living or deceased — is being held in the enclave for the first time since 2014
Amir Levy/Getty Images
Israeli tanks stationed near the border with the Gaza Strip on September 17, 2025 in southern Israel.
The IDF announced on Monday that it had uncovered the remains of deceased hostage Ran Gvili at a Muslim cemetery in eastern Gaza City and would be bringing them back to Israel for burial — recovering the final hostage of the Gaza war and marking the first time since 2014 that no Israeli captive, alive or deceased, is being held in the enclave.
Gvili, a 24-year-old member of the Israeli Police Special Forces, died in combat while protecting Kibbutz Alumim in southern Israel during the morning of the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks. His body was then abducted by Hamas and taken into the Gaza Strip where he was buried by the terrorist group.
Dentists and forensic experts deployed to the cemetery were able to identify Gvili’s remains after the IDF had tested hundreds of bodies, according to The Times of Israel. In return, Israel is prepared to hand over at least 15 Palestinian bodies to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
“Following the completion of the identification process by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, in cooperation with the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate, IDF representatives informed the family of the deceased hostage Sergeant First Class Ran Gvili, that their loved one has been identified and will be returned for burial,” the IDF said in a statement.
Addressing members of the Knesset on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, “My friends, members of the Knesset, a short while ago we returned Ran Gvili, a hero of Israel. I commend the commanders and soldiers of the IDF and the ISA [Shin Bet intelligence agency] for the perfect execution of this sacred mission … We all wore the [hostage] pin, and now that the mission is complete, the time has come to remove it.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog also thanked those “involved in the operation,” adding that the people of Israel are “moved to tears” and removed his own yellow hostage pin in a video.
“Finally, Ran has been returned home to his family in Israel,” said Herzog. “After many difficult years, for the first time since 2014, there are no Israeli hostages in Gaza. An entire nation prayed and waited for this moment.”
Hamas had held several Israeli hostages for over a decade, including Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who crossed into the Gaza Strip in 2014 and 2015, respectively, and were held alive by the terror group, as well as the remains of IDF soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, who were killed during the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas. All four were returned to Israel in the aftermath of Oct. 7, either through hostage-release deals or recovery efforts by the IDF.
Prior to Gvili’s return, Hamas had been accused of intentionally delaying the release of the Israeli hostages in order to prolong its survival and gain leverage. However, Trump told Axios that the terrorist group helped locate Gvili’s remains.
“[Hamas] worked very hard to get the body back,” Trump said in an interview on Monday. “They were working with Israel on it. You can imagine how hard it was.”
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said that the recovery of the final hostage body proves the group is committed to the terms of the Gaza ceasefire.
“The discovery of the body of the last Israeli captive in Gaza confirms Hamas’s commitment to all the requirements of the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, including the prisoner exchange,” Qassem said in a statement. “Hamas will continue to adhere to all aspects of the agreement, including facilitating the work of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza and ensuring its success.”
White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff announced earlier this month that President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan is moving into Phase 2, a shift from a ceasefire and hostage release to the demilitarization of Hamas and reconstruction of the Gaza Strip — a pivot that could be accelerated by the recovery of the last hostage.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a statement to Jewish Insider, “At long last, after 843 days, the body of Ran Gvili, the last Israeli hostage held by Hamas, is home. It has taken far too long, but finally, all those who fought of the release of hostages can breathe a sigh of relief.”
“I will never forget meeting with the hostage families for the first time in Israel just days after Oct. 7. They have fought bravely and tirelessly for the return of hostages and did not give up until every single hostage was brought home. Today my heart is with all of the hostages, their families, and those who advocated for their return who can finally begin on the path to recovery and healing,” Schumer continued.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) also expressed relief for Gvili’s return on social media, noting that the former policeman “epitomizes the heart and soul of Israel.”
“It is with joy and deep sadness that the body of Ran Gvili has been recovered by the Israeli government, allowing him to go home and receive a dignified burial,” Graham wrote. “He fought like a tiger and to the death, taking terrorists down with him. His love for Israel, the one and only Jewish state, consumed his being, and he made the ultimate sacrifice.”
Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, also welcomed Gvili’s return in a post on X, adding that “healing can begin.”
“This is the moment we’ve prayed and fought for over the last agonizing 843 days,” Deutch wrote. “I’ve come to know so many families of the hostages over the past two years and I hold them all in my heart today.”
Roman Gofman’s supporters tout him as an Israeli patriot and Oct. 7 hero; his detractors say he’s unfamiliar with the agency
Prime Minister's Spokesperson's Office
Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement earlier this month that his military secretary, Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman, would become head of the Mossad, came as a surprise to the public, as journalists and experts had been confident that current Mossad chief David Barnea’s deputy, known only as “A,” had the job in all but name.
However, for those who know Gofman, his time in the IDF and his working relationship with Netanyahu, as well as the prime minister’s post-Oct. 7 predilection for bringing in outside candidates to take over defense institutions, Gofman was a natural choice.
Netanyahu appeared on Sunday before the committee that will determine whether Gofman’s appointment is finalized, and IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir and Gofman himself are expected to speak to the committee this week. Should the committee approve Gofman, he will enter the role in June.
Gofman has a limited public profile as Netanyahu’s senior military advisor. But in Israel, his face is fairly familiar, as he can be seen walking behind Netanyahu into the Oval Office and other high-level meetings, even as military secretaries don’t make public statements.
Gofman, 49, was born in Belarus, then part of the Soviet Union, and immigrated to Israel with his family at the age of 14. He was bullied in school and took up boxing to fight back, becoming the second-ranked young boxer in Israel in his weight category. He enlisted in the IDF Armored Corps in 1995 and has been in the military ever since, rising to the rank of Aluf, or major general.
In October 2022, Gofman was appointed commander of the National Center for Ground Training. A year later, when Hamas invaded southern Israel, Gofman drove from his home in Ashdod towards the Gaza border, without a bulletproof vest or a helmet. He took on Hamas terrorists at the Sha’ar HaNegev Junction, killing two and sustaining a severe wound to his knee, after which he found Israeli police officers nearby who took him to the hospital. In his first public remarks after the battle, he said: “We failed. … Now we’ll go forward and kill them all.”
Netanyahu chose Gofman as his military secretary in 2024, and he became one of the prime minister’s closest and most trusted advisors. As such, Gofman was a central figure in Israel’s decision to work with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to distribute food to civilians in Gaza, among other high-level moves.
Netanyahu has sent Gofman on multiple trips to Moscow for discussions on security matters, following the fall of former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, and Gofman is said to have played a key role in shaping Israel’s policies relating to Syria since then.
Maj.-Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen, who knows Gofman well from their years in the IDF, told Jewish Insider that “Gofman did what no military secretary has done in history. … Thanks to Roman, [Netanyahu] made significant decisions in running the war and … circumvent[ed] a system that sometimes leaves out the prime minister.”
Gofman, Hacohen said, “has strategic vision. Syria came as a surprise, and he had a decisive role in the decision [for the IDF] to go in.”
Hacohen said that Gofman’s background, as an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, is an advantage: “He knows that America is not the whole world and there are other forces we need to talk to and understand in depth.”
Several of Gofman’s current and former colleagues spoke to JI about the new appointee on condition of anonymity. They painted a picture of a passionate Israeli patriot who is well-read and informed on military history and international affairs, while being pragmatic and able to translate that knowledge into an operational approach. They said that Gofman is creative and takes initiative, but is also a good listener, who is willing to accept criticism and alternatives to his own ideas.
In the prime minister’s announcement of Gofman’s appointment as head of the Mossad, Netanyahu called him “an officer of great merit,” and praised his “significant involvement in the seven theaters of the war,” – meaning Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran – as well as his work with all intelligence and security services, including the Mossad.
“Maj.-Gen. Gofman has demonstrated creativity, initiative, stratagem, deep recognition of the enemy, absolute discretion, and the safeguarding of secrets,” the statement from the Prime Minister’s Office reads. “These qualities, as well as his leadership and courage, were evident at the outbreak of the War of Redemption, when he rushed from his home and fought in person against Hamas terrorists in the Western Negev, where he was severely wounded.”
Following the announcement, critics of Netanyahu — mostly in the media, not in the Knesset — made the argument that Gofman does not have the experience in intelligence to head the Mossad.
Prominent left-wing activist and pundit Yariv Oppenheimer, a former leader of Peace Now, was one of many who argued that Gofman’s close relationship with Netanyahu made him suspect.
“I don’t know this general … but I care about the big picture, which is that Netanyahu is treating this country like it’s his personal property. He wants a Mossad chief who is loyal to him before the country,” Oppenheimer said on a panel on Israeli public broadcaster Kan. “This is an unnatural appointment, and when something is not natural, it raises questions.”
Hacohen rejected the argument that Gofman is “loyal to the king and not the kingdom. It’s nonsense, because the king is the kingdom. They go together.”
Historically, some of the Mossad’s best-known leaders came from outside the organization, including Meir Amit, Zvi Zamir and Meir Dagan, the latter of whom not only came from outside the Mossad, but was a leading figure in former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s 2001 election campaign. Hacohen noted that the “the best intelligence agency in the world, the MI6,” also often has leaders recruited from outside the organization.
Hacohen also argued that Gofman learned “unique and significant” things about Israel’s broader security picture as Netanyahu’s military secretary, including the role of the Mossad, and that the job of the head of the Mossad is to “connect people with micro-experience, while seeing the macro.”
Sources who worked with Gofman have cited his creativity and his willingness to stand up to his superiors and against conventional wisdom. Hacohen said that Gofman “challenged the system everywhere he went. … He had the ambition and desire to ask questions and do better.”
In 2019, Gofman argued for greater deployment of IDF ground forces in sensitive arenas, which, six years later, was one of the conclusions the IDF drew following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. His remarks were made at a conference of IDF officers with departing Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, now a Knesset member. In footage of his remarks, Herzi Halevi and Aharon Haliva, who served as IDF chief of staff and head of intelligence, respectively, on Oct. 7, can be seen in the audience.
“We are ready to fight, but there is one problem,” Gofman said at the time. “You are not using us. Over time a very problematic pattern has developed, which is essentially the avoidance of using ground forces. And still, in the current reality, we have a lot to offer in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Syria … Time after time, [the IDF tells] people we have more relevant tools [than ground troops].”
Gofman’s critics also cite an incident from his time as commander of the IDF’s 210th “Bashan” Division, which is responsible for the front with Syria, that may be especially relevant in his new position as head of the Mossad, as it pertains to his treatment of spies.
Gofman authorized intelligence officers under his command to enlist then-17-year-old Ori Elmakayes, who was fluent in Arabic and ran a Telegram channel and other social media pages with news about the Arab world. The intelligence officers sent him classified information to publish online in an attempted influence operation, even though Gofman and the Bashan Division were not authorized to engage in psychological warfare.
Elmakayes was arrested by Israeli authorities in 2022 for publishing classified information and jailed for nearly two years, after which the indictment was dropped when the investigation found that the intelligence officers were working with Gofman’s approval.
After Gofman’s appointment as head of the Mossad was announced, Elmakayes posted on X that “Gofman abandoned me after initiating an operation in which I was used … Following his abandonment, I was falsely imprisoned … After he used me and ruined my life, Roman Gofman had no problem distancing himself from me despite knowing what I experienced. Such a person cannot be the head of the Mossad. If he abandoned me, what will stop him from abandoning Mossad agents if God forbid they get in trouble in different operations?”
The same year that he launched the influence operation with Elmakayes, Gofman wrote a paper for an IDF journal stating that commanders can act beyond their formal authority to enact the will of policymakers, citing the work of the contemporary Marxist philosopher Slavoj Žižek.
Another controversial paper by Gofman came to light after he was appointed Mossad chief: In 2019, he suggested in a paper for the IDF-run Israel National Defense College — where he received a master’s degree in political science and national security in cooperation with Haifa University — that, should Iran get too close to developing nuclear weapons, Israel should threaten to sell nuclear weapons to neighboring countries, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, to balance the region.
Gofman leads an outwardly secular lifestyle, but after growing up in the Soviet Union, he sought an education in Judaism and Zionism as an adult.
Gofman told Ynet military reporter Yossi Yehoshua that when he was in the IDF officers’ course, Gofman realized he did not know Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikva,” by heart. “I started to feel like I had no depth in the Zionist, Israeli subject, that there are a lot of things the soldiers could ask and I won’t know how to explain. … It shook me. I was going to be an IDF officer and I was missing so much. I was carrying this vacuum since my aliyah.”
During his undergraduate studies, Gofman also began studying at the Bnei David Pre-Military Academy in Eli, the flagship religious-Zionist institution, for a year of Torah study between completing high school and starting IDF service, many of whose alumni have climbed the IDF ranks.
“They accepted me as I was, without a kippah,” Gofman recalled. “I built a curriculum and came to study one day a week about Zionism, Israel, history, to explain to myself, first and foremost, who I am and what I am.”
“Only then did I suddenly feel that I have two feet on the ground, but a head in the sky. I know how to explain the Zionist idea,” he said.
A former colleague of Gofman said that he is “very well-connected to his roots, because he went through a personal process to connect to them. He knows how to make war, but he also knows what it’s for, the deeper ideology behind it.”
“To fight for Israel,” Hacohen said of Gofman’s search for meaning in his Judaism, “you need faith. We, in the Land of Israel, have many struggles. If those who came from the former Soviet Union were looking for a safe place, why would they come here? This is not just a place for fun or safety, it’s for the liberation of the Jewish people.”
Jewish military chaplains told JI about their drive to be ohr l’goyim, a light unto the nations
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Rabbi Laurence Bazer reading Hanukkah cards sent to Jewish servicemembers
The women’s basketball team at Rochelle Zell Jewish High School in Chicago was practicing earlier this month ahead of its annual Senior Night when an announcement came over the intercom, presenting a special guest. That’s where the video starts — one of those designed-to-go-viral tearjerkers showing a child reuniting with their parent who is in the military.
“He is joining us after leaving the military service in Europe,” the announcer says. Team members start to look around, smiling but confused, when they see that the door to the gym is open.
“We are grateful for his dedication, especially his daughter Hannah,” the announcer continues. That’s when one athlete, in a long-sleeve practice jersey and a ponytail, begins to cry and run toward the door. “Thank you for your service and sacrifice, and welcome home, U.S. Army Chaplain Rabbi Aaron Melman.” Everyone cheers. Throwing her arms around her father, Hannah sobs.
Melman, a Conservative rabbi who since 2021 has served as a chaplain in the Illinois Army National Guard, had just returned from a U.S. Army base in Western Poland. He submitted his request for leave back in September but didn’t tell his daughter, who was devastated most of all to learn his deployment conflicted with the pinnacle of her high school basketball career. (She was more upset that he would miss that game than her graduation.) When she hugged him, Melman took off his cap and revealed a light brown yarmulke that matched his fatigues.
“We made it happen,” Melman tells his daughter in the video, smiling. Days later, RZJHS won at Senior Night. Hannah scored four points.
For more than two decades after he graduated from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2002, Melman was a congregational rabbi in the northern suburbs of Chicago. He had thought, early in his career, about joining the military — his father served in the U.S. Army Reserves — but decided against enlisting, recognizing that serving in active duty would be challenging as he raised two young children.
But later, when his kids were older, the itch to serve returned. Melman was commissioned as an officer in the Illinois Army National Guard, a responsibility that typically required two days of service a month and two weeks each year, until he was sent to Poland earlier this year. That assignment made him one of several Jewish chaplains serving on the front lines of Europe, providing religious support and counseling to American soldiers — most of whom are not Jewish — who are stationed in Germany, Poland and other allied nations largely as a bulwark against Russia.
Many Jewish chaplains serve in the military only part-time. They fit the training into already-busy schedules leading congregations and providing pastoral care to people in their own communities.
Several military rabbis told JI that they view their mission as more than counseling the soldiers in their care and helping them deal with the hardships of military service. They explained that it’s also about reminding American Jews — many of whom have parents or grandparents who fought in World War II, Korea or Vietnam — about the value of service. During World War II, the military printed pocket-sized Hebrew bibles for Jewish soldiers. Today, some Jews don’t know anyone serving in the military.
“Most Jews in America are not connected in any way, shape or form to the United States Armed Forces. The common reaction many of us get, when we go into the armed forces here in the States is, ‘Oh, you don’t want to go into the IDF?’ or, ‘Why didn’t you go into the IDF?’ And for the record, I happen to be a very strong Zionist,” Melman told Jewish Insider in an interview last week. “One of the things for me that I’ve really grown to appreciate is trying to connect the younger generation of American Jews into joining or thinking about joining the military and how important it is.”
Rabbi Aaron Gaber spent nine months at Grafenwoehr, a major American base in Germany, starting last summer. As a member of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, his unit’s mission was to train Ukrainian soldiers, and Gaber was tasked with training Ukrainian chaplains. He took them to the Memorium Nuremberg Trials, a museum located inside the German courtroom where Nazi leaders were tried for their crimes after World War II.
“That created a whole conversation about moral integrity and personal courage. How do you say to your commander, ‘Don’t commit atrocities’? Or how do you keep your soldiers who are angry at what’s happening and want to do things that are unethical or immoral from doing that?” Gaber told JI. “That elicited a whole conversation on a theological level about light versus darkness, good versus evil, but also then on a practical level: How do you advise your commander in a way that gives him or her the option not to do something that shouldn’t be done?”
Most of Gaber’s job, when dealing either with Ukrainian troops or American, involved assisting people who were not Jewish.
“As a rabbi, I got to make sure every week there was a Protestant worship service happening,” said Gaber, who returned from Germany in June (and specified that he did not lead those services).
Last year, he volunteered to spend the High Holidays in Poland and Lithuania. He drove between several different bases to make sure Jewish soldiers had access to religious services, food and learning opportunities tied to the holidays.
“I take the idea of ohr l’goyim, or bringing light to the world, I was able to bring light to the world. I was able to help Jewish soldiers celebrate their faith. If I met 10 Jewish soldiers through the entire two weeks, that was a lot. So it was individual work,” Gaber said. “In one case, I had one soldier travel, I think, three hours each way to be able to spend an hour with me. He couldn’t go by himself, so he had a noncommissioned officer, one of his squad leaders, go with him. That was the length that the military can and does go to make sure soldiers can access their faith.”
Ohr l’goyim is a phrase that comes up often for Jewish military chaplains. For Rabbi Laurence Bazer, a retired U.S. Army colonel who is now a vice president at the JCC Association and the Jewish Welfare Board’s Jewish Chaplains Council, those words — from the Book of Isaiah — commanded him to be a light unto the nations. “And that’s not just to our own fellow Jews, but to the rest of the community,” Bazer told JI.
A friend of his from the North Dakota National Guard once took Bazer, who served in the Massachusetts Army National Guard, to visit North Dakota’s state partner in Ghana. He sat down with a group of Ghanaian soldiers and told them to ask him anything they might want to know about Judaism.
“Now, these are all Catholic, Protestant and Muslim chaplains from the Ghanaian army,” Bazer recalled. “I said, ‘You could ask me, like, why Jews don’t believe in the New Testament, or Jesus, whatever.’ That’s part of the role that I love doing, of being, again, ohr l’goyim, a light unto the nations, to be able to share the positive, affirming side of Judaism so that they felt enriched. It was all in true fellowship of, we’re all servants of the Divine.”
Bazer spent his final years in the military in Washington, working full time in an active duty role at the National Guard’s headquarters. He oversaw the religious response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 racial-justice protests and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
“I was advising commanders up to four stars at a senior level about what’s going on religiously, which really meant the moral welfare of their troops,” said Bazer, who had served in New York during the 9/11 attacks and later led the chaplaincy response to the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013. “That emotional level affects readiness, and chaplains are the key to help that readiness.”
In 2023, Bazer was asked to go to Europe to lead Passover services and programming for Jewish troops. He led Passover Seders in Germany and Poland, and then drove between Lithuania and Latvia, delivering matzah and visiting with Jewish soldiers.
The Seder at Grafenwoehr took place on a large lawn on the base. After he spoke about opening the door for the prophet Elijah, a symbolic act tied to hope that the Messiah will come, a Christian chaplain on base who had attended the Seder pulled Bazer aside. He pointed to a tower that stood next to the lawn.
“He says, ‘You know, Hitler used to go up there and watch,’” Bazer said. The base — now so central to America’s operations in Europe — was once used by the Nazis. “To think that back then he used to watch the Nazis do formation, and now, in 2023 we’re holding a Passover Seder on the same base in the shadow of that tower is an incredible experience.”
A new memo announced an end to most religious exemptions allowing troops to maintain beards and long sideburns
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks to senior military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico on September 30, 2025 in Quantico, Virginia.
“No more beardos,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth declared during his lengthy speech to top military commanders in Quantico, Va., last week, announcing new, stricter grooming policies for U.S. servicemembers, which had been gradually loosened in recent years to allow more soldiers to maintain beards and other facial hair.
“The era of rampant and ridiculous shaving profiles is done,” Hegseth continued. “Simply put, if you do not meet the male-level physical standards for combat positions, cannot pass a [physical training] test or don’t want to shave and look professional, it’s time for a new position or a new profession.”
The new rules, circulated in a memo to military members, would end most existing religious exemptions allowing troops to maintain beards, returning to pre-2010 standards — when the military first granted an exemption to a Sikh soldier to maintain a beard in uniform. The regulations would present a potential obstacle to Orthodox Jewish servicemen who maintain beards. The policy also prohibits sideburns below the ear openings, potentially impacting servicemen who wear peyot.
Religious facial hair waivers will be “generally not authorized” under the new policy, and will require “individualized reviews” with “documentation demonstrating the sincerity of the religious or sincerely held belief … sufficient to support a good faith determination by the approving authority,” according to the memo. They will only be authorized in “non-deployable roles with low risk of chemical attack or firefighting requirements.”
The policy cites the need for military personnel to be able to wear protective breathing equipment that may not seal safely in the presence of facial hair. Repeated non-complicance may lead to individuals being separated from the military.
“The military obviously has its need for discipline and uniform adherence,” Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad), told Jewish Insider. “At the same time, it has been, and we hope it will continue to be, cognizant that certain individuals, for them to serve and accommodation will be necessary, and as in the past, if everything else about that particular person adheres to military standards, then they should get the dispensation they need.”
“The military has shown an ability to balance its requirements with enabling Jewish personnel to serve with distinction. I hope they can do [so in] this case as well,” Shemtov added.
Rabbi A.D. Motzen, national director of government affairs at Agudath Israel of America, told JI that his group is also tracking the issue.
“If the new religious exemption procedures make it more difficult for soldiers or chaplains to maintain beards or sideburns that conform with their religious beliefs, it is a matter of concern for us,” Motzen said. “Agudath Israel has championed religious freedom in many settings including the military and has fought for those rights on the local, state and federal levels and in the courts. We have fought for the rights of Jews as well as members of other faiths such as Sikhs. We hope that this administration, which strongly supports religious freedom, will clarify the new guidelines and ensure that the same religious liberty principles will be applied to the new grooming guidelines.”
Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Brad Schneider (D-IL), the co-chairs of the Congressional Jewish Caucus, released a joint statement on the new policy with the chairs of the Congressional Asian American Pacific Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus.
The statement calls Hegeth’s comments “appalling” and an “insult to the millions of Sikh, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Americans who have answered the call to serve.” The lawmakers said that any attempt to “eliminate or stigmatize beard accommodations … risks marginalizing communities that have long faced discriminatory grooming standards in the military.”
“Time and time again, these brave men and women have shown that they can practice their faith while serving honorably and effectively,” the statement continues. “Freedom of religion is a fundamental right that our nation’s servicemembers defend and have the right to exercise themselves. Religious accommodations for beards, which were permitted under the first Trump presidency and repeatedly upheld by the courts, must remain in place.”
The Democratic lawmakers said that the administration must offer further clarity on how they will uphold religious liberty for servicemembers.
The policy is also expected to impact servicemembers granted medical waivers to maintain beards due to a skin condition that disproportionately affects Black men.
In an interview with JI, Nunn says the U.S.-Israel military relationship is crucial to pushing the boundaries of defensive technological development, keeping Americans safe and staying ahead of global adversaries
AP Photo/Altaf Qadri
U.S. Congressman Zach Nunn speaks to the Associated Press at a hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, June 18, 2025.
For Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA), the U.S.-Israel military relationship is crucial to pushing the boundaries of defensive technological development, keeping Americans safe, staying ahead of global adversaries and even providing advancements in sectors far removed from the battlefield.
Nunn is a rising national security voice on Capitol Hill, chairing the national security task force of the Republican Study Committee, is an Air Force veteran with experience in the Middle East and is also a longtime former intelligence officer. He hails from a competitive district in southwest Iowa, which includes much of Des Moines and stretches to the state’s southern border.
“We know that not only is Israel our best military partner for the region, it is the best stabilizing force,” Nunn, who led a pair of successful amendments in last week’s National Defense Authorization Act markup on the House floor aimed at improving U.S.-Israel military cooperation, told Jewish Insider in a recent interview. “Not only is Israel a force for good in the region, it’s one of our best innovative partners out here, and national defense begins with a tech and human capability that’s able to execute on it. And that really is funded through democracies that allow this type of innovation to take place.”
One of Nunn’s amendments, cosponsored by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Don Davis (D-NC), would establish a Defense Innovation Unit field office in Israel.
The DIU, which has offices throughout the U.S. and is headquartered in Silicon Valley, is a relatively new Pentagon body aimed at allowing the military to move more quickly to adopt emerging commercial and dual-use technologies — a “fast-track for a largely challenged defense apparatus … to onboard new technologies more quickly,” Nunn explained.
The tech sector, he said, starts on the West Coast, in Silicon Valley, and extends to “the East Coast, which in my mind is Tel Aviv.”
“I think that we have seen some of the best innovations coming out of Israel. Part of it is need, part of it is just the innovative spirit that Israel has brought to the fight on this,” he continued. “How do we onboard this so that the best technologies — and, candidly, the best tactics, techniques and procedures that Israel is literally field testing right now — can be replicated so that we help defend the men and women in uniform?”
He said that such efforts will save U.S. taxpayer money, help the U.S. keep ahead of its key adversary in Beijing and even provide advances in civilian technology. Precision-guidance weapon capabilities that Israel is developing can also be applied in precision agriculture techniques in Iowa, Nunn said.
Nunn’s other amendment, cosponsored by Davis, would require the Pentagon to review and report to Congress on progress made toward an integrated air and missile defense infrastructure in the Middle East, strategies and options for expanding those efforts and lessons learned from recent attacks throughout the region. Both amendments were incorporated into larger packages of amendments and passed by voice votes.
Of all the U.S.’ global allies, Nunn said, Israel is providing the most practical proving ground for new defensive technologies.
“It’s one thing to be able to do drills, to do innovation, to come up with new technologies. It’s another thing to be able to have to deploy them in the field … find out how they work and then be able to change your … tactics and employment in real time,” Nunn said. “That makes us much safer than just having the ideal weapons system on the shelf, to know how it’s going to work in battle and how our men and women in uniform can be best protected by it.”
Nunn noted that he was tied for the record of most amendments, nine in total, secured in the 2026 NDAA on the House floor.
Asked more broadly about the push from some, on both sides of the aisle, for the U.S. to reduce its focus and posture abroad, Nunn argued that relationships like the one with Israel pay dividends for the U.S.
“Peace through strength matters, and a peaceful Middle East is a lower cost to the American taxpayer,” Nunn said. “At the same time, it’s Israel who took out Iran’s missile defense systems. It’s Israel who’s provided the intelligence that has allowed us to not only save money, but save lives here on the home front. It’s Israel and the Mossad and IDF, who have taken out Iranian proxy groups, whether they be Houthi rebels, Hamas or Hezbollah, that have sent death squads after great leaders here in the United States.”
Efforts like the amendments he led, Nunn said, create American jobs, save the U.S. money, create technologies that can be used in both military and civilian applications and reduce the burden on the U.S.’ own forces.
“The United States is getting the best possible return when we partner with allies,” Nunn said, a position on which he said President Donald Trump and most members of Congress should be able to agree.
“Peace through strength matters, and a peaceful Middle East is a lower cost to the American taxpayer,” Nunn said. “At the same time, it’s Israel who took out Iran’s missile defense systems. It’s Israel who’s provided the intelligence that has allowed us to not only save money, but save lives here on the home front. It’s Israel and the Mossad and IDF, who have taken out Iranian proxy groups, whether they be Houthi rebels, Hamas or Hezbollah, that have sent death squads after great leaders here in the United States.”
Nunn noted that he was in the region, visiting Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates on the eve of the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear program in June.
He said that the U.S. strikes would not have seen the same level of success without Israel “doing all of the prep work on the front end,” and that the U.S. bombings sent a strong message to Iran and other adversaries.
“Clearly, President Trump is in a different league of presidents when it comes to negotiation,” Nunn said. “He’ll offer you peace. If you say no to it, he’s prepared to make sure that you can no longer be a threat to the world. I think that that sends a very important message to the next iteration of negotiations here with Iran. … The president has emboldened our allies, but also sent a very clear message to Iran that this is where it ends.”
“That’s a message that saves lives, saves taxpayer dollars and advances us when we look at emerging threats, whether they be in Moscow, Pyongyang and certainly Beijing,” Nunn continued. “The amount of investment that we have to make on the front end is much lower because we have those partnerships that amplify our ability, than if we were to have to do this all on our own, whether it’s domestically or internationally.”
Asked about the path forward with Iran, Nunn said that Trump’s approach to the conflict is distinctly different than that of past presidents. He said he was told by an Arab leader the day before the American strike on the Fordow nuclear facility that the Iranians had told that Arab leader that they believed they would secure further concessions from the U.S. by dragging out talks.
“Clearly, President Trump is in a different league of presidents when it comes to negotiation,” Nunn said. “He’ll offer you peace. If you say no to it, he’s prepared to make sure that you can no longer be a threat to the world. I think that that sends a very important message to the next iteration of negotiations here with Iran. … The president has emboldened our allies, but also sent a very clear message to Iran that this is where it ends.”
Nunn said that Iran now “has the opportunity” to cease its malign activities — funding for terrorism, weapons sales and development of nuclear and conventional weapons — and turn toward peace and collaboration with Israel and the United States.
The Iowan is also leading a bill to codify and build upon the maximum-pressure sanctions on Iran and ensure the enforcement of U.S. oil sanctions, describing it as a companion to the administration’s military strikes. He said the broad Republican support for the effort shows the conservative support for holding Iran accountable, for backing Israel and for providing relief to the Iranian people.
Nunn said he’s personally flown missions out of the Al-Udeid airbase in Qatar — the largest U.S. airbase in the Middle East — and that he agrees with the stance Trump took on the Israeli strike on Hamas officials in that country.
“In many ways there’s a shared concern here that Iran is the real radical, unhinged aggressor in the region, and there’s greater security by standing up not to a fellow Islamic state, but a state that is truly an autocrat and intends to threaten the rest of the world,” Nunn said.
“Qatar has been a great ally to us for decades now,” Nunn said. “They are a recognized partner in this. At the same time, there are bad actors everywhere. And as the president highlighted, I fully endorse — when Hamas is operating knowingly or unknowingly in a region — we’ve got to be able to decapitate that threat so it can’t reconstitute.”
He said he wants to see the U.S., Israel and the U.S.’ Arab partners pull closer together to counter threats from Hamas and other adversaries through the Abraham Accords and similar mechanisms.
“In an ideal situation, we never would have had these strikes to take place in the first place. We would have been able to share the intelligence and we would have eliminated this Hamas node working together,” Nunn said. “That’s the vision where I want to get to.”
The Abraham Accords, Nunn said, are helping to create a pathway for the region that Arab leaders remain excited about, based on recent visits to the region. He added that while many Arab countries’ populations remain hostile toward Israel, the tenor of anti-Israel public discourse has improved.
“In many ways there’s a shared concern here that Iran is the real radical, unhinged aggressor in the region, and there’s greater security by standing up not to a fellow Islamic state, but a state that is truly an autocrat and intends to threaten the rest of the world,” Nunn said.
The journalist talked to JI about his new book, While Israel Slept, describing the failures leading up to the Oct. 7 attacks and what Israel can do to ensure they don’t happen again
Courtesy
Yaakov Katz/book cover
In the two years since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, there have been many books in multiple languages published on the topic — personal accounts, tales of heroism, a hostage memoir — but While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East by Yaakov Katz and Amir Bohbot may be the most comprehensive.
In the book, Katz, the founder of the MEAD (Middle East-America Dialogue) and former editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post, and Bohbot, a veteran Israeli defense reporter, answer the biggest questions about that day, going through the events leading up to the attacks, including the fateful night before.
The book also dedicates chapters to stark warnings that an Oct. 7-style attack could happen again if Israel does not make necessary changes.
In an interview with Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov and Asher Fredman, the executive director of the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, on the “Misgav Mideast Horizons” podcast last week, Katz said that his “deepest fear is that this could happen again.”
“Eventually, quiet will set in,” Katz said. “And I fear that Israel will fall back in love with the quiet and will neglect, to some extent, the vigilance that it will require to prevent Hamas from being able to … reconstitute itself.”
While Katz said he is skeptical Hamas could again launch attacks at the scale of Oct. 7, “to prevent them from rebuilding and reconstituting … will require a major effort that Israel has never really done.”
“Israel fought wars, we walked away and threw away the key, but we’ve never maintained the success … [except] in the West Bank, after Operation Defensive Shield in 2002. … Israel created operational freedom, and then it retained the operational freedom, so in the almost 24 years since, Israel goes in and out of the West Bank as it sees fit,” he said.
Katz noted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has talked about creating a similar situation in Gaza.
“The proof will be in the pudding … If [the IDF] doesn’t do that and just says, ‘We’ll jot down the target, we’ll build up the target bank,’ that’s falling right back into the trap that led to Oct. 7,” he stated.
The IDF has also made structural changes to how it gathers intelligence, Katz said, and there is more coordination between intelligence bodies than before and a better flow of information to the decision-makers.
“I think there’s more vigilance today by the IDF in the way it watches the borders along Israel,” he said. “That preemptive policy, if you see just a rocket being moved or you see a bad guy driving in a car or you see a tunnel being dug — we’re now applying it very much in Lebanon … Israel continues to operate pretty freely in Lebanon. This is part of that new policy. I think that in the aftermath of however this war does end, that will be integral to keep Hamas from reconstituting itself in a way that it could pose another major strategic threat to Israel.”
While Israel Slept is meant to provide “a look at the entirety of what happened,” Katz said.
“What were the different alarm bells that we now know were sounding … in IDF headquarters and Shin Bet headquarters? What were the earlier signs that we know about?” Katz said. “How did Israel fall into a state of complacency? … How was the policy of containment created?”
Katz said both former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Netanyahu should have “refuse[d] to accept a reality that a genocidal terrorist group is living alongside our border.”
“If you look at the way Israel approached Hamas and approached Gaza, it was as if we’re stuck,” he said. “We don’t have an alternative … [to] this game of whack-a-mole every two years or so, where we hit them on the head.”
Israel viewed Hamas as “the bottom of the totem pole” of threats, far below Iran and Hezbollah, Katz said.
Another entrenched — and incorrect — belief in Israel’s political and military establishments was that helping Gaza economically would make Hamas less likely to attack Israel, Katz argued.
“When Naftali Bennett became prime minister in the summer of 2021, he was announcing to the whole world with great pride how he allowed in 10,000 [Gazan] workers” to Israel, said Katz, who was an advisor to Bennett from 2013-2016. “We now know that during his period as prime minister, they were preparing for this invasion and he just got lucky that it didn’t happen on his watch.”
In addition, Katz said that Israel’s general defense doctrine was not to launch preemptive wars in response to conventional military buildups, pointing to Hezbollah’s amassment of 150,000 missiles.
“That has changed,” he said. “The issue of preemption now seems like it’s setting in as the new policy for Israel, which is … the only way forward.”
Katz is also the author of Weapons Wizards, about Israel’s defense industry, and had been working on a follow-up book before Oct. 7. He now views the Israeli military’s reliance on technology as part of what allowed it to remain complacent for so long.
One such kind of technology was defensive. With the Iron Dome, Israel “was able to swat missiles out of the sky like they were mosquitoes. It made it seem like the missile threat is nothing … not a strategic threat.”
When Hamas fighters crossed into Israel via tunnels during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge, Israel sought to address that problem with technology as well, building a border fence with a deep underground element.
“They put these teams of the smartest soldiers and scientists together with sonar experts, seismic experts, geologists … They come up with a system that can detect where a tunnel is being dug, when it’s being dug. They’re so sensitive that they can tell what tool is being used to dig the tunnel: a jackhammer, a shovel, a bulldozer,” Katz said.
“How many people crossed into Israel on Oct. 7 in a tunnel? Zero.” he added. “They blew about 60 different points of entry in the border [fence] and that’s where they came in. … The technology created a false sense of security that we are impenetrable.”
Israel was also overreliant on intelligence technology, Katz said.
“There were hundreds of Hamas [terrorists] in the initial wave [into Israel on Oct. 7] and there wasn’t a single one who could call up his Israeli handler and say, ‘We’re coming,’” Katz said. “We had no agents or informants on the ground in Gaza. We thought we knew everything by listening to them, by watching them. We had neglected the basics of intelligence collection, which is human intelligence.”
Katz said the IDF and Shin Bet have invested in building up greater resources on that front since Oct. 7.
“Contrast Gaza with Lebanon, with the amazing pager attack, with what Israel did in Iran, taking out nuclear scientists and the top military leadership. You see that when Israel allocates the resources, the attention and the focus, it can do incredible things,” he said.
Katz also spoke out against the “huge distraction” of the government’s planned judicial reform that consumed the country in 2023, as well as the outsized public protests against it.
“The right will say that the left and the protesters, and especially those who were the reservists who threatened to not follow orders … weakened the military and the left, or the anti-judicial reform protesters would say the government, in its refusal to stop … and be willing to understand that dividing ourselves made us vulnerable, made us exposed. However you look at it, in the end, the responsibility is upon the government,” he said.
When Israel Slept includes several stories of senior defense officials warning the government that the deep divisions in Israel posed a security threat and Israel’s enemies would take advantage of the discord; though, Katz noted, no one specifically warned that Hamas was planning an invasion.
Katz said the weakening effect on Israel by the extremely tense political atmosphere should have been obvious to the country’s leaders: “We’re at each other’s throats. We’re ripping ourselves apart on the streets. … If we saw this division on the streets of Tehran or Damascus, would we not try to fan the flames just a bit to achieve our objectives in those countries and among our adversaries? Why would we think they would not do the same to us?”
In addition, Katz said, Hamas chose to launch its attack in October 2023 because Israel-Saudi normalization talks seemed to be coming to fruition, and because Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar believed “the alliance between Israel and the U.S. had been weakened and that the Americans under then-President [Joe] Biden would not stand with Israel. … He was wrong.”
In general, though, Katz pointed out, “they’re a genocidal terrorist group. They don’t need an excuse to want to kill us and attack us. It’s something they wake up to every single day. Terrorists like Hamas and Islamic Jihad seek our destruction.”
Hamas’ understanding of the Israeli psyche went beyond taking advantage of the divisions of early 2023, and was a part of its hostage-taking strategy.
“From day one … I could have said, ‘We’re going to win this war, because we’re going to bring down Hamas … but the hostages, we won’t get them back.’ And you would have looked at me and said ‘You’re crazy, that’s not a victory.’ And I could have said the opposite, we’ll win the war because we get the hostages back, but Hamas will remain in power, and you also would have said, legitimately, ‘What are you talking about? That’s not victory,’” Katz said.
“If there weren’t hostages, the war would have ended much earlier,” he said. “Part of this is because we the Israeli people — and I think this is something that the world does not recognize — are still very much hurting, are still very much in our trauma. And as long as the hostages remain in Gaza … the Israeli people will not be able to recover, rehabilitate and heal, and this will make this conflict, unfortunately, continue.”
In an interview with ‘The Bulwark,’ the former national security advisor argued that the argument in favor of restricting military aid is ‘much stronger’ than it was a year ago
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan speaks during a news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on January 13, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Wednesday that the “case for withholding weapons from Israel today is much stronger than it was one year ago,” adding that he now backs such efforts.
“The thing that we were grappling with throughout all of 2024, which is not the case today, is that Israel was under attack from multiple fronts,” Sullivan, who served under President Joe Biden, told The Bulwark’s Tim Miller. “It was under attack from Hezbollah, from the Houthis, from Syria, from Iraq, obviously from Hamas and from Iran itself. So the idea of saying, ‘Israel, we’re not going to give you a whole set of military tools’ in that context was challenging.”
“The case for withholding weapons from Israel today is much stronger than it was one year ago,” Sullivan added. “One, they don’t face the same regional threats. Two, there was a ceasefire hostage deal in place and the ability to have negotiations, and it was Israel who just walked away from it without negotiating seriously. Three, there is a full-blown famine in Gaza. And four, there are no more serious military objectives to achieve. It’s just bombing the rubble into rubble.”
Sullivan, who was tapped as the inaugural Kissinger Professor of the Practice of Statecraft and World Order at the Harvard Kennedy School, suggested that the political makeup of the Israeli government could affect the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship.
“If nothing changes in their government — if it continues to be a far-right government that pursues the same policies — then it won’t be the Israel we’ve known,” Sullivan said. “I think a lot of Israelis would say they wouldn’t recognize that Israel. And obviously, that should have an impact on the relationship.”
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told JI: 'Senior Department of Defense officials will no longer be participating at the Aspen Security Forum because their values do not align with the values of the DoD.'
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
Defense Intelligence Agency Director Jeffrey Kruse testifies during an annual worldwide threats assessment hearing at the Longworth House Office Building on March 26, 2025 in Washington, DC.
The 2025 Aspen Security Forum kicks off today and finds itself unexpectedly thrust into the ideological fights gripping the administration.
The Defense Department announced Monday that it would be withdrawing numerous senior military and civilian officials who had been set to speak at the conference.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told Jewish Insider: “Senior Department of Defense officials will no longer be participating at the Aspen Security Forum because their values do not align with the values of the DoD. The Department will remain strong in its focus to increase the lethality of our warfighters, revitalize the warrior ethos, and project ‘Peace Through Strength’ on the world stage. It is clear the ASF is not in alignment with these goals.” Spokesperson Kinglsey Wilson offered even more pointed criticism to right-leaning outlet Just the News, saying the conference “promotes the evil of globalism, disdain for our great country, and hatred for the President of the United States.”
It’s tough criticism of a forum that prides itself on bipartisanship and aims to foster cross-partisan dialogue and solution-making, even as those attributes are in short supply in today’s Washington. The forum said in a statement, “we will miss the participation of the Pentagon, but our invitations remain open. … The Aspen Security Forum remains committed to providing a platform for informed, non-partisan debate about the most important security challenges facing the world,” noting that voices across the political spectrum will be speaking this week.
Many had been hoping to hear Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, who was originally scheduled for a panel discussing the evolution of warfare, speak about his agency’s leaked report suggesting the strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities had minimal effects, but Kruse was among the speakers withdrawn by the Pentagon.
Among the administration speakers still scheduled to appear are hostage envoy Adam Boehler, speaking on Thursday, and Tom Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria. Barrack will be speaking on a Friday panel about the Middle East alongside former CIA Director David Petraeus and former Deputy National Security Advisor Dina Powell McCormick.
Wednesday’s Israel-focused panel will feature former IDF Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog, former Biden administration official Brett McGurk and author and “Call Me Back” podcast host Dan Senor.
An Iran-focused panel on Thursday will include former U.S. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, former CEO of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Rachel Bronson and Johns Hopkins professor Vali Nasr.
There’s likely to be plenty of discussion throughout the week about the ways the Trump administration’s strikes on Iran will shape policy in the Middle East — and throughout the world — going forward, and about the ongoing impacts of the war in Gaza.
Former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will be speaking on Friday on a panel with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper and former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson will also be speaking Friday, on AI and cybersecurity issues, respectively. Former Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo will speak on Thursday about international aid and trade.
Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE), John Cornyn (R-TX) and Mark Warner (D-VA) will lead the conference’s annual “View from the Senate” panel on Friday.
We’ll be keeping an ear out for discussion about the internal debates between hawks and isolationists taking place within the Trump administration over America’s role and engagement in key global arenas — from the Middle East to Ukraine and Asia. We’ll also be tracking proposed efforts to restructure the U.S. intelligence community.
Expect a significant focus throughout the week on the many ways that the Trump administration’s unpredictable foreign policy — from its recommitment to providing Ukraine military aid to the status of tariffs against key countries, along with the recent, sweeping cuts to the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development — is shaking up global affairs, how the private sector and foreign countries are adapting and how leaders can attempt to maintain bipartisanship on foreign policy.
Iran unlikely to escalate attacks against the U.S. after strike on nuclear sites, but the war with Israel will continue, experts say
Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Iranian worshippers burn the flags of the U.S. and Israel during an anti-Israeli rally to condemn Israeli attacks on Iran, after Tehran's Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran, on June 20, 2025.
Iran is unlikely to initiate attacks against the U.S. after the American strike on Islamic Republic nuclear sites, but it will continue to launch missiles at Israel, experts told Jewish Insider on Sunday.
Hours after the U.S. bombed nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan in Iran, Raz Zimmt, director of the Iran program at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, told JI that he doesn’t “identify a great desire — to say the least — of the Iranians to escalate with the U.S. … If they have a sharp reaction, it could drag in the Americans, who said that the matter is finished for them after they strike Iran. The U.S. has capabilities that could threaten the survival of the regime.”
Zimmt said it was likely that the Iranians would have a “symbolic reaction,” possibly targeting a U.S. military base in the region but with advance warning, similar to their response to the killing of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020.
“We shouldn’t underestimate Iran’s capabilities — their missiles are a big concern — but those who think we’re on the verge of World War III and that all the American bases will burn need to understand that the central goal of the Iranian regime is to survive, so I don’t think they’ll do that in the foreseeable future,” Zimmt added.
However, he said, hours after Iran shot 25 missiles at Israel on Sunday morning, causing damage in central Israel and Haifa, “Israel is another story. I think [Iran will] continue what they’re doing in Israel.”
Oded Ailam, a former senior official in Israel’s defense establishment and a researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, told JI that Iran may choose not to escalate with the U.S. and instead “take out their anger on Israel with an increase in ballistic missiles,” but he said an Iranian attack on U.S. military targets in the region was still possible.
“The Iranians probably have not decided yet. It can go either way,” he said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X that “we were in negotiations with the U.S. when Israel decided to blow up that diplomacy. This week, we held talks with the E3/EU when the U.S. decided to blow up that diplomacy. What conclusion would you draw?”
Ailam said that while, in the short term, Iran was unlikely to return to the negotiating table “as a matter of national pride, it would look like a total defeat,” they would probably reenter talks farther down the line.
“I don’t know when it will happen, but I think the Iranians will very cautiously try to reach out to the Americans to negotiate and say they want to try to salvage some uranium enrichment for civilian needs,” he said.
Zimmt, however, said it was “clear that they won’t go back to negotiations.”
“The more significant thing in the weeks and days ahead is what they do in the nuclear arena,” he said. “Do they announce that they’re quitting the [Non-Proliferation Treaty]? In the end, I think their decision is connected to the question to which we don’t have an answer: what capabilities they still have.”
The lesson that Iran likely learned from the past week and a half, Zimmt posited, is that “being on the verge of having a nuclear weapon is not enough. They need to have a nuclear weapon. I’m not sure they can do it, though.”
“If, theoretically, they can use a few hundred centrifuges that remain and a few hundred kilos of uranium and try to break out [to weapons-grade enrichment] in a hidden place, they may consider it. I doubt they’ll do it now, when Israeli planes are flying over their heads, but I assume they would wait some time and reconsider their nuclear strategy,” Zimmt explained.
Initial satellite photos published by the Associated Press showed damage to the entrances of the nuclear facility in Fordow, which is under a mountain, as well as damage to the mountain itself. David Albright, president and founder of the Institute for Science and International Security, wrote on X that the photos appear to show that the bombs were dropped on a ventilation shaft into Fordow’s underground halls.
Ailam said that “the damage is very extensive.” According to his analysis, the attacks “neutralized” Iran’s ability to use its 400-kg stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% purity and turn it into weapons-grade (90% enriched) uranium.
“They don’t have the capability because they don’t have the centrifuges anymore,” he said. “It’s not terminal; if we want to ensure the nuclear weapons program is totally destroyed, we need to strike the 400 kg or reach an agreement in which it is removed from Iran, but this has significantly damaged the Iranians’ ability to rapidly reach military-grade enrichment.”
U.S. intelligence agencies said that the stockpile, held at the Isfahan facility, was harmed, but Israel has not yet released a similar assessment, Ailam said.
However, Zimmt said that it is harder to know the extent of the damage to the nuclear program without more extensive satellite photos of the nuclear sites.
“The Iranians are trying to present a picture that it was not significantly damaged, but there really is not much to rely on yet other than IDF reports,” he said.
IDF Spokesperson Effie Defrin said on Sunday that the Israeli army “has more targets. We are prepared for the campaign to continue and must prepare for any developments.”
Ailam said that Israel “did not entirely meet [its] goals. It was mostly Israel, but with the help of the U.S., we partially removed the immediate threat from the nuclear program and the massive ballistic system and [Iran’s] ability to manufacture 300 ballistic missiles a day. That was an existential threat to Israel.”
“But we are not at the point where we can say we removed all the threats and finished the whole bank of targets. It’s a huge country,” he added.
Zimmt said that the U.S. strike on Fordow was “the cherry on top” of Israel’s war against Iran, and that it’s time to wind down.
“Of course we can continue. We can always try to further degrade the nuclear program, but … as long as the goal was, foremost, to severely damage the nuclear program, the goal was — if not already achieved — it’s very close … I think the time has come to think of how to end this, even if it’s unilateral. If they attack, we can react, but we need to aim to finish in the coming days,” Zimmt said.
As for talk about regime change, Zimmt said it would be “impossible” through airstrikes.
Ailam said that every major attack on Iran creates “cracks in the regime’s wall and stability, and reveals this regime to be an empty vessel.” However, he said that there are not powerful enough forces within Iran that have risen up against the regime yet. “When it will happen is hard to say, but the more [the regime] suffers blows, the closer it gets.”
IAF strikes centrifuge and weapons production sites after 25 Iranian missiles intercepted with no casualties in Israel
KHOSHIRAN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
Smoke rises from locations targeted in Tehran amid the third day of Israel's waves of strikes against Iran, on Sunday, June 15, 2025.
Israel struck a centrifuge production site in Tehran early Wednesday, after successfully intercepting more than two dozen missiles launched by Iran toward Israel in the preceding hours.
Over 50 Israeli Air Force jets flew to Iran, where they struck a facility in which centrifuges were manufactured to expand and accelerate uranium enrichment for Iran’s nuclear weapons program, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said.
”The Iranian regime is enriching uranium for the purpose of developing nuclear weapons. Nuclear power for civilian use does not require enrichment at these levels,” the IDF said.
The IDF also said it struck several weapons manufacturing facilities, including one used “to produce raw materials and components for the assembly of surface-to-surface missiles, which the Iranian regime has fired and continues to fire toward the State of Israel.” Another facility that the IDF struck manufactured components for anti-aircraft missiles.
IDF Spokesperson Effie Defrin said on Wednesday that the IDF “attacked five Iranian combat helicopters that tried to harm our aircraft.”
“There is Iranian resistance, but we control the air [over Iran] and will continue to control it. We are deepening our damage to surface missiles and acting in every place from which the Iranians shoot missiles at Israel,” Defrin added.
Defrin said on Tuesday evening that, as a result of Israel’s air superiority in western Iran and the Tehran area, the Islamic Republic’s military efforts “have been pushed back into central Iran. They are now focusing their efforts on conducting missile fire from the area of Isfahan.”
Defense Minister Israel Katz said that “a tornado is passing over Tehran. Symbols of the regime are exploding and collapsing, from the broadcast authority and soon other targets, and masses of residents are fleeing. This is how dictatorships collapse.”
Most of the projectiles fired from Iran toward northern and central Israel overnight were intercepted, and no injuries or fatalities were reported.
In addition, Iran launched over 10 drones at the Galilee and the Golan on Wednesday morning, all of which the IDF intercepted.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Israel is running low on Arrow interceptors used to shoot down long-range ballistic missiles from Iran. Israel also uses the David’s Sling system against Iranian missiles. The Arrow is manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries. The U.S. has augmented Israel’s air defenses with its THAAD system, but is concerned about its own stock of interceptors. The IDF told the Journal that “it is prepared and ready to handle any scenario.”
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wrote on X that Iran “must give a strong response to the terrorist Zionist regime. We will show the Zionists no mercy.” On his Persian X account, Khamenei evoked Khaybar, the site of a massacre of Jews by Muslims in the 7th century, along with an image of a man with a sword entering a burning castle.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed that it shot Fatah-1 hypersonic missiles at Israel, which move faster than the speed of sound and cannot be detected by missile defense systems. However, there is no evidence on the ground in Israel of that being the case.
Iranian state media reported on Wednesday the interception of an Israeli drone near Isfahan, with footage of an aircraft that looks like an IAF Hermes 900. The IDF declined to comment.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar wrote a letter updating the U.N. Security Council on Israel’s Operation Rising Lion against Iran. The operation is “aimed to neutralize the existential and imminent threat from Iran’s nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs” and “specifically targets military facilities and critical components of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, as well as key individuals involved in Iran’s efforts to achieve nuclear weapons.”
Sa’ar noted the Islamic Republic’s “public threats to eliminate the State of Israel, in stark violation of the UN charter, and its continued attempts to achieve the means to accomplish this by rapidly developing military nuclear capabilities, as well as its ballistic missile program.” He pointed out that the International Atomic Energy Agency censured Iran in a recent Board of Governors decision for its non-compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Sa’ar’s letter came after two missives from Iran to the UNSC about Israel’s strikes on the country.
Also Wednesday, the first Israeli rescue flights arrived from Cyprus, meant to help some of the over 100,000 Israelis stuck abroad while Israel’s airspace is closed. Israel Airports Authority said that 2,800 Israelis were expected to return on Wednesday. Israeli airlines El Al, Arkia, Israir and Air Haifa will be making further emergency flights to repatriate Israelis.
China’s foreign ministry said that it was telling citizens to leave Israel and Iran, and Russia’s ambassador to Israel, Anatoly Viktorov, said that the families of Russian diplomats left Israel via Egypt on Tuesday.
Iran has launched about 400 ballistic missiles and hundreds of drones at Israel, hitting 40 impact sites since the beginning of the operation on Friday, according to the Israeli Government Press Office. There have been 24 fatalities and over 804 injured, eight of whom are in serious condition. About 3,800 people have been evacuated from their homes and 18,766 damage claims were submitted to the Israel Tax Authority.
Iran launched less than a dozen missiles at Israel in the quietest night since start of the war
Amir Levy/Getty Images
People look at a crater in the ground after a missile strike on June 17, 2025 in Herzliya, Israel.
Israel killed Iran’s new top military commander and confidante of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei days after eliminating his predecessor, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office announced on Tuesday, after a night in which missile launches from Iran towards Israel slowed down significantly.
The Israeli Air Force struck a command center in Tehran, killing Ali Shadmany, Iran’s chief of war general staff, who had authority over the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iranian military.
Shadmany, whom the IDF Spokesperson’s Office called “one of the closest figures to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,” was on the job for four days after Israel killed his predecessor, Alam Ali Rashid, early Friday.
“In his various roles, Shadmany played a direct and central role in shaping Iranian offensive operations targeting the State of Israel,” the IDF stated. “His elimination is the latest in a series of targeted strikes against Iran’s top military leadership, dealing another significant blow to the command structure of Iran’s armed forces.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said in the Knesset on Tuesday that he “would recommend to whoever the job [of chief of war general staff] is offered to consider it well, and whoever responds positively should be very careful.”
Also Tuesday, the IAF struck dozens of military targets in western Iran, maintaining its control over the airspace and destroying surface-to-surface missile storage and launch sites, as well as UAV storage sites.
Israel struck the building from which Iranian state news channel IRINN was broadcasting on Monday. The explosion interrupted a news broadcast and rubble could be seen falling on screen. The IDF sent warnings to the civilian population in the area before the strike.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that “the propaganda and incitement broadcast authority of the Iranian regime was attacked by the IDF after the broad evacuation of the residents of the area. We will strike the Iranian dictator everywhere.”
Monday night and the early hours of Tuesday morning were the quietest since the beginning of the war with Iran on Friday. The IAF intercepted 30 projectiles launched from Iran toward Israel, with sirens mostly in northern and central Israel and no reports of injuries or damage to property.
On Tuesday morning, Iran launched additional missiles at Israel, triggering sirens in the center of the country, including Jerusalem and the West Bank. The IDF said it intercepted most of the projectiles. Magen David Adom reported 14 injuries at eight impact sites, including a bus depot in Herzliya where the blast created a four-meter-wide hole in the ground.
The USS Nimitz, the U.S. Navy’s oldest aircraft carrier, headed from East Asia to the Middle East on Monday, according to the U.S. Naval Institute.
Israel bracing for further retaliation; ‘Freedom is granted to those who are ready to fight for it,’ IDF Chief of Staff Zamir says
SAN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
Smoke rises from a location allegedly targeted in Israel's wave of strikes on Tehran, Iran, on early morning of June 13, 2025.
Over 100 drones launched by Iran and its proxies at Israel were intercepted on Friday morning, as Israelis continued bracing for further retaliation after the IDF launched Operation Rising Lion, reportedly destroying Iran’s main enrichment site in Natanz and killing Iran’s top three military officers.
“Iran launched over 100 drones at Israel and we are working to intercept them,” IDF Spokesperson Effie Defrin said, hours after Israel struck Iranian nuclear sites and eliminated senior military figures, including Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Commander Hossein Salami.
Three hours later, Israeli media reported that the drones had been shot down and the IDF Home Front Command lifted its directive for Israelis to stay near their safe rooms and shelters.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned on X prior to the drone strike that Israel “should anticipate a severe punishment … With this crime, the Zionist regime has prepared itself for a bitter painful fate, which it will definitely see.”
Some of the projectiles were launched from Iraq, and the IDF prepared for possible launches from Lebanon and Yemen, where the Houthis have shot missiles provided by Iran at Israel every few days in recent months.
Jordan reported intercepting some Iranian UAVs over its territory, saying that it will not allow Iran to violate its airspace.
While President Donald Trump said the U.S. will defend Israel from Iranian retaliation, other Western allies who assisted when Iran shot hundreds of missiles at the Jewish state in the April 2024 attack did not. The U.K. does not plan to help Israel, the Times of London’s defense editor, Larisa Brown, posted on X, in contrast with October, when it sent two fighter jets and a refueling tanker to the region after Israel struck Iranian military sites. Paris affirmed Israel’s right to defend itself and expressed concern about Iran’s nuclear program, but stopped short of publicly offering support.
The IDF Home Front Command ordered all schools and non-emergency offices closed on Friday and Saturday and told all Israelis to stay close to shelters and safe rooms for much of Friday morning. “Many alerts are expected in this campaign,” Home Front Command head Maj.-Gen. Roni Milo said in a message to the public.
Ben-Gurion Airport was evacuated and Israel’s airspace was closed. Israelis were ordered not to gather in synagogues; the chief rabbis said to listen to the Home Front Command instructions and to read Psalms. The Tel Aviv Pride Parade scheduled for Friday and the Hostage Families Forum demonstration scheduled for Saturday were also canceled.
The strikes on Iran came a day after Trump’s 60-day deadline to reach a deal with the Islamic Republic expired — though the president said he planned to continue talks — and after the International Atomic Energy Agency released a report saying that Iran violated the non-proliferation treaty. Iran is thought to have enough highly enriched uranium to make 10 nuclear weapons in under two weeks, in addition to several months to assemble a bomb using that material.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said that Israel launched the strikes because “the time had come, we had reached the point of no return. We could not wait to act, we had no choice. Recent and distant history taught us that when faced with ambitions to destroy us, we cannot bow our heads and as such, we will fight to ensure our existence.”
“Freedom is granted to those who are ready to fight for it,” Zamir added. “We are embarking on this campaign together with one goal before us, to ensure a safer future for the State of Israel and its citizens. With faith, together and in a joint effort, we will win.”
Zamir added that “beyond the technology, the arms and plans of action, we carry an additional unique element, the Jewish and Zionist spirit beating within us. In the name of this spirit and with faith in the justice of our way, our actions will speak for us.”
The IDF said that it struck over 100 targets in Iran. Among them was an underground facility in which the top officers of the IRGC air force were gathered, according to Defense Minister Israel Katz’s office. Israel also targeted IRGC commander Hossein Salami, and senior officers in the Iranian military, including its chief of staff and his deputy, as well as top officials in the regime’s missile and air-defense programs, as well as nuclear scientists. The Mossad established a drone base in Iran, from which strikes on Iranian missile systems were carried out.
The strikes also reportedly targeted the areas of nuclear sites in Natanz and Isfahan, with some reports saying the Natanz enrichment site was destroyed, and at least six military bases, including Parchin.
The IDF called up thousands of reservists, including in the Air Force, Home Front Command, intelligence and the Technology and Logistics Directorate.
The Israeli National Security Council sent a warning to Israelis abroad to avoid displaying Jewish and Israeli symbols in public, attending large Jewish or Israeli events, and posting their location or future plans on social media.
An Israeli government source admitted that some public statements made prior to the attacks were made to trick Iran and the public, including a message sent to journalists that Thursday night’s security cabinet meeting was about hostage negotiations. The source would not confirm whether that strategy included a message that Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Mossad head David Barnea would be meeting with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff ahead of talks with Iran in Oman; Dermer and Barnea were scheduled to leave on Friday, but the former appeared in photos taken in Israel released by the government early Friday morning.
Israel was reportedly concerned that remarks by Trump that Israel “might attack” would tip off Iran to its plans, and asked the president to subsequently post on social media that “the US seeks a diplomatic solution.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar held calls with his counterparts in Germany, Italy and the E.U.to inform them about Israel’s actions against the Iranian threat.
“The whole world saw and understood that the Iranians were not ready to stop and we had to stop them. The latest IAEA report illustrated the serious violations,” Sa’ar said. “We know that challenging days lie ahead, but we have no other choice.”
The United Arab Emirates Foreign Ministry said it “condemned in the strongest terms” the Israeli strikes, and “expressed its deep concern for maintaining stability and security in the region.”
Saudi Arabia also released a “strong condemnation and denunciation of the blatant Israeli aggressions against the brotherly Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Plus, U.S. pours cold water on Macron’s Palestinian summit
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
State Department Sikorsky HH-60L Black Hawk helicopters as they fly over Baghdad towards the U.S. embassy headquarters on December 13, 2024.
Good Thursday morning.
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to analysts about the significance of the evacuation of some State Department personnel and military families from the Middle East and the likelihood of a military strike on Iran’s nuclear sites. We report on the defeat of two resolutions in the Senate yesterday to stop weapon sales to Qatar and the UAE, and cover comments by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on the status of the Qatari luxury jet gift. We talk to GOP senators about French President Emmanuel Macron’s campaign for international recognition of a Palestinian state, examine the findings of a new Quinnipiac poll that illustrates deepening partisanship over Israel, and have the scoop on a push by the Orthodox Union calling on the Senate to pass the Educational Choice for Children Act. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Van Jones, Rev. Johnnie Moore and Rabbi Abraham Cooper.
What We’re Watching
- The House Appropriations Committee will conduct its full committee markup of the 2026 defense and homeland security funding bills.
- The House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on the Department of Defense’s 2026 budget request with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.
- The Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs will hold a hearing on the nomination of Sean Plankey to be director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
- The Zionist Organization of America is holding its annual legislative lobbying day at the Capitol.
- Argentine President Javier Milei is being presented with the Genesis Prize today at Jerusalem’s Museum of Tolerance.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV
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.”
PARIS PUSHBACK
French President Emmanuel Macron’s campaign for international recognition of a Palestinian state and championing of an upcoming United Nations conference on the subject despite U.S. opposition has received a frosty reception from Senate Republicans, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports. France is set to co-chair “The High Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution” with Saudi Arabia at the U.N. headquarters in New York next week. Several senators described it as a distraction from U.S. efforts to secure peace in the region while praising the Trump administration’s decision to urge U.N. member states against participating.
Republican reactions: “It certainly sounds like they take us for granted and think that they can act without consequence. France has a long history of doing this in foreign policy. They’re consistently a problem and have been forever, but I’d say it’s very unhelpful of them at this present moment,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told JI. “They’ve generally had a cozy relationship with Iran that is purely driven by economic ties, maybe some historic ties. It makes no sense to me. I don’t think it’s well received by our administration,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said.
Read the full story here with additional comments from Sens. John Kennedy (R-LA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Markwayne Mullin (R-OK).
ON THE HILL
The Senate defeated two resolutions aimed at blocking certain weapons sales to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, with five Democrats voting with nearly all Republicans against both resolutions, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
What happened: The 56-39 votes came as a pressure tactic from some progressive Democrats on the two U.S. partners and the Trump administration over dealings between President Donald Trump and the two Gulf states — Qatar’s provision of a luxury jumbo jet to serve as Air Force One and the UAE’s investment of $2 billion in a Trump-linked cryptocurrency. Democratic Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) voted against the two resolutions. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) voted present.
Up in the air: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed on Wednesday that the memorandum of understanding between the Trump administration and Qatar for the gift of a luxury jet worth $400 million to join the Air Force One fleet has not been completed and signed, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.
PAC ATTACK
A new super PAC funded by donors involved in Jewish and pro-Israel causes is targeting Zohran Mamdani as he continues to surge in the final days of New York City’s mayoral primary, tying the far-left Queens state assemblyman to a range of recent antisemitic incidents. In a 30-second digital ad released by Sensible City, the super PAC takes aim at Mamdani, a democratic socialist polling in second place behind former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, for supporting efforts to defund the police amid a rise in anti-Israel demonstrations and antisemitic violence fueled by Israel’s war in Gaza, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.
What it says: “It doesn’t stop,” the ad’s narrator intones over images of anti-Israel protests as well as antisemitic attacks, notably highlighting the alleged shooter of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington last month. “Day after day, streets blocked, demonstrations, some calling for killing, destruction — it’s not safe. Institution walls defaced with symbols to remind us of what can happen only because of who we are. The haters mean every word they utter. What can we do?”
POLL POSITION
A new Quinnipiac poll released on Wednesday underscores the growing partisanship over Israel, and the declining sympathies among Democratic voters towards the Jewish state, Jewish Insider’s Editor-in-Chief Josh Kraushaar reports. The survey asked respondents whether their sympathies were more with Israelis or Palestinians. A 37% plurality said Israelis, 32% said Palestinians and 31% said they don’t know — the narrowest advantage Israel has had since Quinnipiac began asking the question in 2001.
Partisan divide: The slippage was driven mainly by Democrats, who now are overwhelmingly more sympathetic towards Palestinians. Among Democrats, just 12% said their sympathies were more with Israelis while a record 60% said they were with Palestinians. By comparison, in November 2023, shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, the Quinnipiac survey found 41% of Democrats saying they were more sympathetic to Palestinians, while 34% said they were more sympathetic to Israelis. By contrast, Republicans remain overwhelmingly supportive of Israel and independents are still more supportive of Israelis than Palestinians. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of Republicans are more sympathetic to Israelis, while 7% are more sympathetic to Palestinians. The small share of Republicans more sympathetic to the Palestinians is unchanged since 2023.
EXCLUSIVE
The Orthodox Union on Thursday announced a national advocacy effort calling on the Senate to pass the Educational Choice for Children Act, which is part of the budget reconciliation bill recently passed by the House and under consideration in the Senate and could open up a new funding stream for Jewish families aiming to send their children to Jewish day schools, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.
New goal: The campaign, run jointly by the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center and the Teach Coalition, OU’s state-level advocacy arm, will include digital, print and grassroots advertising, urging Orthodox Jews to contact their senators to support the ECCA and double the funding recommended in the House bill. The OU is aiming to mobilize 50,000 people to contact their senators on the issue.
SOLIDARITY PUSH
“It’s not the firebombs and hunting of Jewish people in the streets of America right now, it’s the appalling silence of people that know better and won’t say better,” CNN commentator Van Jones told some 600 attendees of the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation’s (AJCF) 25th anniversary gala dinner on Wednesday at Pier 60 in Manhattan. Jones was honored at the gala for his work promoting Black-Jewish relations, which includes launching the Exodus Leadership Forum, a group that aims to renew the Civil Rights Movement-era alliance between the Black and Jewish communities, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.
Looking to history: “It was a small number of Black folks who held on to the cultural DNA of ‘justice for all.’ It was a small number of Jews who held on to the cultural DNA of ‘repair the world,’” Jones said, reflecting on the Civil Rights Movement, in which American Jews played a meaningful role. “When you put those two bits of cultural DNA together, you get a double helix of hope for humanity.” Jones called on Black people and Jews to partner together again amid a different kind of crisis. “We have to do it again,” he said.
Worthy Reads
A Socialist in Gracie Mansion?: The Free Press’ Olivia Reingold considers Zohran Mamdani’s chances of beating former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to become mayor of New York City. “To a rising number of New Yorkers, particularly the young and college-educated, Mamdani is a welcome alternative to a 67-year-old member of the Democratic establishment. As canvassers broke off to start knocking on doors, 33-year-old bar owner Roberto Beltre told me he supported Mamdani because ‘the ideas that we hear at these protests are never said by any of these other politicians.’ His girlfriend, 31-year-old Mercy, chimed in: ‘He’s saying everything that I want to hear. It seems unlikely, but I hope that he can win.’ The thing is—he can. In only a few months, he’s managed to surge from polling at 1 percent, to second place in the race with the endorsement of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. A new poll commissioned by a pro-Mamdani PAC shows him just two points behind Cuomo in a head-to-head race. Other recent polls show Cuomo winning—but only in the eighth or 10th round under New York City’s ranked choice voting system.” [FP]
What’s Next in Gaza?: The Times of Israel’s founding editor, David Horovitz, writes about the continued lack of clarity over Israel’s next steps in Gaza, exacerbated by a growing disconnect between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump as well as the IDF. “Some military sources speculate that the IDF may eventually be asked to oversee a controlled return of the Gaza populace to their largely ruined home areas, under a process that would necessitate screening the returnees to ensure that Hamas forces do not simply come back with them. However nice in theory, the idea is impractical. The IDF is not capable of controlling, much less screening, large masses of civilians. … At the same time, domestic and global criticism of the war is growing — especially since the government chose in March not to move ahead with the second and third phases of the January deal it had unanimously endorsed, which was intended to secure the release of all hostages and end the war, and instead resumed the military campaign. Growing, too, is US presidential impatience, in part reflecting deepening dismay from within Republican ranks, and Trump has vast weapon-supply and diplomatic leverage to exert over Netanyahu should he so choose.” [TOI]
Word on the Street
Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh threatened on Wednesday to attack U.S. bases in the region if conflict arises, saying, “Some officials on the other side threaten conflict if negotiations don’t come to fruition. If a conflict is imposed on us … all U.S. bases are within our reach and we will boldly target them in host countries”…
Iran announced plans today to expand its uranium enrichment and install advanced centrifuges after a U.N. atomic energy agency resolution declared it in violation of nuclear obligations…
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine declined to definitively say on Wednesday whether they believed Iran would use a nuclear weapon if it acquired one, as they testified before the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports…
The Knesset on Thursday struck down a bill that would have called an election later this year, with Haredi parties agreeing to another week of negotiations on penalties for yeshiva students who avoid the IDF draft, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports…
Israeli Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, chairman of the United Torah Judaism party, resigned today and will join the opposition, but the rest of the Haredi bloc remains part of the coalition…
Ezzedin al-Haddad, known as the Ghost of al-Qassam, has been named as the new leader of Hamas in Gaza following Israel’s assassination of his predecessor Mohammed Sinwar, and before that Yahya Sinwar…
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the U.S. and Israel-backed aid distribution mechanism, reported that a bus carrying more than two dozen members of its team were “brutally attacked” by Hamas on Wednesday night, resulting in at least five fatalities, multiple injuries and concerns of some team members taken hostage…
The IDF recovered the bodies of two deceased hostages from Gaza on Wednesday, that of Yair Yaakov and another whose name has not yet been approved for publication…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told U.S. envoy Tom Barrack that he is interested in the U.S. acting as a mediator in an updated security deal ultimately leading to a full peace agreement between Israel and Syria, Axios scooped…
Rev. Johnnie Moore, an evangelical Christian pastor and former Trump advisor, and Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa this week. On potential Israel-Syria normalization, Moore told Reuters, “I think peace is very possible, if not probable”…
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday stating that the Trump administration cannot detain nor deport Columbia University anti-Israel protest leader Mahmoud Khalil. The ruling does not take effect until Friday, leaving time for the government to appeal…
At a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on antisemitism, Democrats repeatedly highlighted Trump administration delays in disbursing already allocated Nonprofit Security Grant Program funds. Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX), the subcommittee chair, argued that policy changes, aggressive prosecutions and condemnations of antisemitic ideology are equally or more important than funding…
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers wrote to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday, again demanding that Francesca Albanese, U.N. special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, be dismissed from her position, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…
The DETERRENCE Act, bipartisan legislation which increases penalties on individuals who commit crimes on behalf of the Iranian regime or other foreign adversaries, passed the Senate by unanimous consent on Tuesday…
Asif Rahman, a former CIA analyst, was sentenced to just over three years in prison on Wednesday for unlawfully retaining and sharing top secret records about Israeli plans for a strike on Iran on social media…
Ira Stoll writes in the Wall Street Journal about Harvard Memorial Church, owned and operated by Harvard University, where the minister has repeatedly bashed Israel from the pulpit, calling the war in Gaza “increasingly genocidal,” saying “We know what hell looks like … it looks like Gaza today” and arguing that the anti-Israel encampment on campus was “right to lament and decry the death of so many innocent people in Gaza”…
Nathan Diament, the executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, argued in an op-ed titled “Congress must act against the American intifada” that “Congress is failing to meet the urgent demands of the moment” and must open application for the National Security Grant Program, increase its funding to $500 million for 2026 and allocate $200 million of the Department of Justice’s existing grants to local police specifically for increased patrols and police presence at faith institutions…
Leland Lehrman was named as the executive director of the MAHA Institute, a policy center that previously operated as a super PAC supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign. Lehrman has repeatedly espoused his belief in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and, speaking on a far-right radio show, argued that Jews communicate with the devil and discussed “high-level Jewish Illuminists, or Lucifer worshipers”…
Columnist and writer Miranda Devine described her experience interviewing President Donald Trump for her new podcast “Pod Force One,” calling him “a bountiful host” who will “quite literally offer you the food off his plate”…
Apollo Global Management announced that it will not interview or extend offers to the class of 2027 this year, breaking with its tradition of extending future-dated offers. CEO Marc Rowan said he agreed with criticism of hiring young recruits too early…
The trial of three teenagers accused of raping a 12-year-old Jewish girl, calling her a “dirty Jewess,” began yesterday in Paris…
Pic of the Day
Some 100 LGBTQ+ leaders from North America met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem yesterday, as part of the Jewish Federations of North America’s LGBTQ+ mission to Israel.
Birthdays
Founder and managing partner of the investment firm Thrive Capital and the co-founder of Oscar Health, Joshua Kushner turns 40…
Senior of counsel at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, Martin Edelman turns 84… Retired sportscaster for NBA games on TNT, has also been the play-by-play announcer of multiple Super Bowls, NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals and the World Series, Marv Albert (born Marvin Philip Aufrichtig) turns 84… Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit since 1991, now on senior status, Judge Andrew Jay Kleinfeld turns 80… Former solicitor of labor in the Nixon and Ford administrations, then a senior partner at Gibson Dunn, William J. Kilberg turns 79… Social psychologist, he is the director of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University, Leonard Saxe turns 78… Israeli statesman and scholar who has served in multiple ministerial and leadership positions in the Israeli government including 20 years as a member of the Knesset, Yosef “Yossi” Beilin turns 77… Rabbi at Temple Beth El in Santa Cruz County, Calif., for 40 years, now emeritus, known as Rabbi Rick, Richard Litvak… British Conservative Party member of Parliament from 1992 until last year, his father was a rabbi, Sir Michael Fabricant turns 75… Professor at the University of Florida’s Hamilton Center, his 2022 book is The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People, Walter Russell Mead turns 73… Dental consultant and recruiter, Kenneth Nussen… Peruvian banker and politician, José Chlimper Ackerman turns 70… Senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and professor at Georgetown’s Center for Jewish Civilization, Danielle Pletka turns 62… Television producer and executive, he was the CEO of Showtime Networks until 2022, David Nevins turns 59… EVP of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) in Washington, D.C., Rabbi Levi Shemtov… Film and television actor, known for his role as Louis Litt in the legal drama series “Suits,” Rick Hoffman turns 55… SVP for politics at NBC, Carrie Budoff Brown… Founder of Singularity Communications, Eliezer O. (“Eli”) Zupnick… Canadian tech entrepreneur, television personality and venture capitalist, Michele Romanow turns 40… Partner at Enso Collaborative, Hanna Siegel… Co-creator of the Mozilla Firefox internet browser, he was the director of product at Facebook and then worked at Uber, Blake Aaron Ross turns 40… Associate director of health policy and the law initiative at Georgetown Law School, Zachary Louis Baron… VP at MediaLink, Alexis Rose Levinson… Multimodal transportation coordinator in the planning department of Montgomery County (Md.), Eli Glazier… Photographer and Instagram influencer, Tessa Nesis… Israeli windsurfer, he won a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Tom Reuveny turns 25… Lead consultant at AutoNate, Joel Bond…
Wayne Wall, the NSC’s new senior director for the Middle East, has a limited public profile, and pro-Israel leaders say they are unfamiliar with him
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The White House
Wayne Wall, an under-the-radar former military and intelligence official, is now the National Security Council’s senior director for the Middle East, a source familiar with the situation told Jewish Insider.
Axios first reported the news, citing a U.S. official and a source familiar with the issue.
Wall is among the first new hires at the NSC since the administration purged officials hired by former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, including those leading the Middle East, Israel and Iran portfolios.
Wall’s public record and online presence is minimal — a LinkedIn page matching his background appears to have recently been deleted, and his X account has no active posts. Searches indicate that he was, until earlier this year, active on the platform but has since deleted all of his posts and replies.
Several conservative and pro-Israel leaders outside of government and on the Hill contacted about Wall said they were not familiar with him until rumors began to circulate about his appointment to the NSC, which was not announced publicly. The NSC has not responded to requests for comment about his appointment.
A page on the site RocketReach appearing to match Wall’s background lists him as a division chief at the Defense Intelligence Agency and a former Army officer serving in the Middle East who holds a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
A preview of his deleted LinkedIn profile available through Google search results lists Wall as a retired Army officer with more than 23 years of active service and 14 years as a Middle East specialist.
Many of the conversations in which Wall appears to have been involved on X relate to cryptocurrency. The X account bio also describes Wall as a retired Army officer.
Wall follows just 49 accounts on the platform, mostly administration officials. Accounts directly related to the Middle East include the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, an anti-Israel think tank that has accused Israel of genocide, the Middle East Institute and the page for the Middle East program at the Chatham House. All three are among the most recent accounts he has followed.
Some of Wall’s first follows on the platform include right-wing figures such as former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO). He also follows LindellTV, the media company run by right-wing conspiracy theorist and MyPillow owner Mike Lindell, Newsmax and conservative influencers Diamond and Silk and Benny Johnson.
Wall’s predecessor, Eric Trager, was pushed out in May in what one official called a purge of “the Deep State” inside the NSC.
Moving Israel to the Pentagon’s Middle East command could lead to progress on the Abraham Accords, experts say
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U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, participates in a press briefing at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.
When Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi traveled to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., yesterday, the visit marked the beginning of a new phase in a military relationship between the U.S. and Israel that is already strong and extensive.
“The current operational cooperation and the planned improvements agreed during my visit attest to the mutual commitment between CENTCOM and the IDF to deal more effectively with the diverse and emerging challenges,” Kochavi said in a statement.
The U.S. military has 11 combatant commands, each of which has a specific geographic or functional mission. For instance, Cyber Command, which defends national security interests in cyberspace, and Africa Command, which strengthens the defense capabilities of African countries; and Space Command. Before Trump’s announcement, Israel, despite its geographic location, had fallen under European Command, which works closely with NATO on security issues in Europe.
Kochavi’s visit marked the first time the top IDF official had visited CENTCOM’s Tampa headquarters since former President Donald Trump announced in January, days before leaving office, that Israel would soon fall under CENTCOM’s area of responsibility, a shift from its current status as part of European Command (EUCOM). The announcement marked the culmination of years of unofficial cooperation between Israel and CENTCOM, whose mission is to “build cooperation among nations throughout the Middle East.”
The main reason for the longstanding arrangement was the icy relationship that historically existed between Israel and its Arab neighbors. But as Israel has begun cooperating with Persian Gulf nations — including recent diplomatic agreements with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, and reported behind-the-scenes coordination with Saudi Arabia — the U.S. made a change to its Unified Command Plan.
Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, Chief of General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, participates in a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on June 21, 2021 in Arlington, Virginia.
“The easing of tensions between Israel and its Arab neighbors subsequent to the Abraham Accords has provided a strategic opportunity for the United States to align key partners against shared threats in the Middle East,” the Pentagon said when it announced the change in January.
“We saw this as the next military step after the Abraham Accords,” said Michael Makovsky, president and CEO of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA).
Two months before the Trump administration’s policy change, JINSA authored a report urging the Pentagon to make such a change. Makovsky, one of the report’s lead authors, told Jewish Insider that he first began to raise the subject privately in 2018. After the Abraham Accords were signed last year, “we also got wind that this was being seriously considered,” he said, leading his organization to publish the report.
Part of JINSA’s goal in advocating for the change is to push for an expansion of the Abraham Accords, potentially even bringing a powerhouse like Saudi Arabia into the diplomatic agreement signed last year. “It could facilitate cooperation even with those countries [that the Israelis] don’t have diplomatic ties to,” Makovsky said. “Is it possible the Saudis could be part of some military architecture that Israeli is part of, without having diplomatic ties? It’s possible, especially if you have the United States as a leader in all this.”
The change has not yet formally happened — CENTCOM Commander Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. told a Senate Armed Services committee hearing in April that the transition should take place by the fall — but Kochavi’s visit to the Pentagon and the Tampa headquarters this week show that both Americans and Israelis are already taking the change seriously. “I am absolutely confident that we will be able to retain Israel’s military advantage,” McKenzie said at the hearing.
Army Gen. Stephen Townsend, left, commander, U.S. Africa Command, and Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr., commander, U.S. Central Command, talk before the House Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday, April 20, 2021.
So what does the change mean for U.S.-Israel military cooperation?
“Military officers are often quick to acknowledge that there is very close and ongoing coordination between Israel and CENTCOM on issues of common concern, but right now, of course, there is no full-time Israeli presence at CENTCOM,” said Michael Eisenstadt, director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Military and Security Studies Program.
When Israel is integrated into CENTCOM, the Israeli military will have staff stationed in Tampa. “Having a full-time military representative, or a team of representatives there, first of all, would enable Israel to see where they can contribute to CENTCOM’s mission on a day-to-day basis, rather than coming over for visits and having a set agenda,” like Kochavi did this week, Eisenstadt explained.
He compared the situation to that of college students who live off-campus, removed from the center of university life. “When you live in town, you come to school for classes, and then you go back home, and you don’t have a full understanding of what’s going on on campus,” said Eisenstadt. “When you live on campus, you have a much better handle of those things, and you get to know a lot more of the students” — and the same can be true of Israel’s new role at CENTCOM, Eisenstadt suggested. “Once the Israelis have representatives there, it will create opportunities for both official and informal networking with representatives from other countries, some of which Israel still doesn’t have diplomatic relations with,” he said.
Even before the move, Israel was edging closer to CENTCOM, with more collaboration happening between Central Command and the IDF. McKenzie said in April that Israel was historically not part of CENTCOM “particularly because of strains between Egypt and Israel. We are now well past that.” Former CENTCOM Commander Gen. Joseph Votel became the first leader of Central Command to visit Israel in 2018.
McKenzie told senators in April that the reason for moving Israel into CENTCOM was that “all of Israel’s threats really emanate from the east, which is in the CENTCOM area of responsibility.”
One of those threats is Iran. “You had a president [Trump] that’s very focused on Iran. Israel is a primary player on the ground pushing back against the Iranians, which is in the overriding interests of other CENTCOM members, such as Saudi, UAE, Bahrain and others,” Makovsky explained. “If your orientation is that the Iran threat is the most important challenge in the region, then it makes a lot of sense for this to happen.”
U.S. Army Paratroopers assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, deploy from Pope Army Airfield, North Carolina on January 1, 2020. – Paratroopers from 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division were activated and deployed to the U.S. Central Command area of operations in response to recent events in Iraq.
Even before this change, U.S.-Israel military cooperation was already strong. Eisenstadt pointed out that in some ways, this move just streamlines a relationship that already exists.
“The coordination is so extensive, I’m not sure [the move to CENTCOM] will, in practical terms, have a major impact,” Eisenstadt stated. The U.S. and Israel already “have this long-standing, deep dialogue on Iran. But again, having people there, it’s just always better.”
Advocating for Israel to become part of CENTCOM has not been a talking point for pro-Israel organizations other than JINSA, in part because the U.S.-Israel military relationship is already a deeply ingrained part of U.S. defense infrastructure. “I don’t remember it ever being something that people have been discussing,” Makovsky said. “It seemed as though the reason why we came to it was part of our general work on how to bolster the U.S.-Israel security relationship, and we thought this was a way that would strengthen Israel’s military capabilities.”
Makovsky said CENTCOM officials did not reach out to JINSA to discuss its report, although it garnered some attention on Capitol Hill late last year. In December 2020, several Republican senators, led by Tom Cotton (R-AR), introduced legislation to study the transfer of Israel from EUCOM to CENTCOM. Within a month, before the bill even got a hearing, the legislation was moot.
Running his own routes in Jerusalem and D.C., NFL-player-turned Congressman Anthony Gonzalez says parties must work together
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Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (center) visits Israel in August 2019 with a congressional delegation.
Thirty-four members of the 116th Congress previously served as mayors, 161 hold law degrees and 78 have served in the military. Only two are former NFL players. And one of those is Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, a 34-year-old freshman Republican lawmaker from Ohio.
Gonzalez, who visited Israel last week on a trip coordinated by the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation, sat down in Jerusalem with Jewish Insider to discuss his time in the Jewish state, his unorthodox path to Congress, his efforts to reach across the political aisle and his thoughts on the political future of his former teammate, Peyton Manning.
“When I left the NFL I was never sure exactly what would translate to the rest of my life,” Gonzalez told JI last week in the lobby of the King David Hotel. “When you leave something like the NFL, the concern is always that you didn’t develop any skills that translate into the traditional business world, or the non-NFL world.” But in fact, he said, “there are unbelievable parallels, both from a campaign standpoint, but more importantly from [the standpoint of] how to work with people who you may not agree with.”
Gonzalez, the son of a Cuban immigrant father, grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. He played college football at The Ohio State University, and was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in 2007. In 2012 he signed with the New England Patriots, but was released several months later and opted to retire from the sport, going on to earn an MBA degree from Stanford. In 2018, when a congressional seat opened up in Ohio’s 16th district, Gonzalez beat out two Republicans in the primary and trounced Democrat Susan Moran Palmer in November. Since taking office in January, the congressman has regularly pursued bipartisan initiatives and worked closely with several Democrat lawmakers.
“One flaw of American politics is that we simply do not sit together and talk through issues in a bipartisan way,” he said. “We do that in our silos, and then we come to the House floor and we argue like cats and dogs — it doesn’t make a bit of sense to me, but that’s what we do.” Gonzalez said that more conversations and discussions that reach across the aisle “will ultimately lead to better legislation and better lawmaking.”
Reps. Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH) and Steve Cohen, (D-TN) are seen in Rayburn Building in January 2019.
One issue in particular that Gonzalez has been working on with a Democratic colleague is foreign election interference. He and fellow freshman Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) have spearheaded a task force to address the role of foreign agents in spreading propaganda in the United States.
“What we wanted to do was come together as a bipartisan group and push legislation that will hopefully protect our infrastructure and also force disclosure on certain entities who are broadcasting propaganda into our country,” he said, pointing in particular to Russian networks including Sputnik and Russia Today. “These are two entities that are sponsored and controlled by the Russian government,” he said. “And if they’re going to be broadcasting into the country on stories that are pure propaganda, I think they need to disclose who they are.”
Gonzalez said he is confident if and when legislation from the task force comes to the House floor, it will receive widespread support.
“My belief is that this is one of those things that — when you read it and you understand the situation — you ask yourself, how is this not already a law?” he said. “I’m hopeful.”
The freshman Republican spoke to JI just a week after the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio — a few hours from where he grew up. Gonzalez said he hopes that when Congress reconvenes in September, real action can be taken on the issue.
“We need to have these debates,” he said. “Let’s put everything on the table and let’s work on things that are actually going to solve the problem. There are a lot of bills that we can talk about that will make us feel good, but probably won’t do much.”
Gonzalez added that “the one thing that I can guarantee is: If we do nothing, if we don’t work on our mental health issues, if we don’t have the debate about what sensible laws look like, nothing will change… If we don’t enact solutions, we’re going to be talking about this again in the not-too-distant future, and that’s horrifying.”
The Ohio Republican would like to see progress made on red flag laws, where guns can be removed from people deemed by a judge to be a danger to themselves and others.
“To me it just makes sense that if there is an individual who is threatening, has deep mental illness, is showing all kinds of signs that they are going to commit one of these mass murders, then I think we need to have the system where you are able to take the weapons away from that person and potentially commit them to an asylum of some sort,” he said. “We need a mechanism to step in and make sure that nothing horrible happens.”
And Gonzalez is aware that the issue of gun safety is a critical one to many American Jews, particularly in the wake of two fatal synagogue shootings in the past year. He said he has asked Jewish friends in his district: “‘Do you feel safe going to synagogue? Do you feel secure in the community?’ And the reality is a lot of them don’t right now, and security costs and insurance costs are going through the roof for a lot of our synagogues because of these attacks.”
Gonzalez said it is “shocking that we’re dealing with this in our country in 2019, but at the same time, I believe that we have a cultural sickness that is manifesting itself in a whole host of places. And unfortunately, antisemitism is one of those places.” He posited that there is no “quick fix” to the issue, but “there are things we can do from a funding standpoint to help provide security to make sure that… our Jewish brothers and sisters can worship in peace.”
While Gonzalez has criticized President Donald Trump — calling his attack on “the Squad” last month “wildly inappropriate” — he mostly tries to steer clear of the constant partisan squabbling.
“This job is about making law. That’s fundamentally what my job is,” he said. “My job is to advocate for policies that are going to benefit my district. And so that is what I focus all of my time and energy on. I’m somebody who doesn’t find… the tweeting and the 24-hour cable news cycle to be one that is particularly productive for lawmaking. I actually think it’s a complete disaster.” Gonzalez said he deleted his personal Twitter account from his phone “about a month ago. And I am so much happier. Twitter is a complete cesspool.”
Wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez #11 of the Indianapolis Colts runs a pass pattern against the Cleveland Browns at Cleveland Browns Stadium on November 30, 2008.
Gonzalez’s visit to Israel this month was his first to the country, and an opportunity he immediately jumped to take.
“The Middle East is a complicated place, and I think it’s incumbent on all members of Congress to understand the issues in the Middle East, understand who our friends are, who our allies are, what the state of play is and how we can partner forward,” he said. “Not to mention that I’ve always wanted to come here for its historical significance, religious significance and geopolitical significance.”
The freshman congressman pointed to the group’s meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, discussing ways Israel can partner with the U.S. on tech innovation and cyber security, as a highlight of the trip.
“We had a great discussion about where the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship can go,” Gonzalez said of the meeting. “He spoke eloquently about our ability to partner on cyber security, on big data and machine-learning initiatives specific to the intelligence community, but also the armed forces. And that makes perfect sense because Israel is so unbelievably innovative as a country and is so far ahead of the curve… when it comes to innovating on our technological future.”
One area that wasn’t much discussed in the sit down with Netanyahu? Peace or Palestinians.
“We didn’t get into that as much,” Gonzalez said. “We focused primarily on the U.S.-Israel relationship.”
The Ohio lawmaker chose to skip the delegation’s visit to Ramallah after learning that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas opted not to meet with the Republicans, despite meeting a similar Democratic delegation a week earlier.
But Gonzalez said he and his wife, Elizabeth, took time to explore the city of Jerusalem and meet average citizens.
“I’ve done that a handful of times throughout this trip,” he told JI. “I went for dinner one night with my wife and then we walked into the shopping areas and just talked to people. And I felt like I got a pretty well-rounded perspective on Israel.”
Gonzalez and Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) — who was also on the recent AIPAC trip — are the only former NFL players currently in Congress, but could more be joining the ranks soon? Peyton Manning, Gonzalez’s former Colts teammate, contributed to the Republican’s congressional campaign in 2018. And rumors that the legendary quarterback could enter politics himself continue to abound.
“He’s too smart for that,” Gonzalez said with a laugh. “He won’t. He’s not gonna run… he would win unquestionably, without a doubt… he’s an incredible competitor and he’s very smart. So I think he would do very well if he wanted to. But I would put the odds of him jumping into politics at zero.”
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