Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) told Jewish Insider on Friday that he’s inclined to view the Trump administration’s strikes last month on Iran’s nuclear facilities as a “success,” if negotiations with Tehran resume and barring substantial future retaliation from Iran.

His comments largely echo sentiments shared earlier in the day by Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) at the Aspen Security Forum, suggesting an increasing willingness by moderate, national security-minded Democrats to publicly acknowledge positive outcomes of the strikes, even if they maintain other concerns about the process that produced them.

“I will acknowledge the successfulness of the Israeli attacks and how back-foot the regime was. The fact that they didn’t launch the thousands of missiles,” Warner told JI on the sidelines of the forum. “I was concerned about an attack that didn’t bring Congress along. And I do think there was a huge process foul when the Gang of Eight wasn’t notified and the Republicans [were]. Trump[’s first administration] never did that — but I have never contested the success.”

Warner, the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he’s been pleased that there has not been ongoing asymmetric retaliation against the U.S. by Iran, such as cyber, sleeper cell or Iraqi militia attacks.

“If the current status quo is the same a year from now and it actually leads towards further negotiation — success.”

Warner, Coons and other top Democrats had cautioned the administration against unilateral action against Iran without congressional approval just days before the attack.

“Let’s make no doubt that the Iranian regime [are] bad guys, and that is why I’ve been such a consistent supporter of Israel,” Warner told JI.

“Iran’s, at least so far, been shown to be more of a paper tiger,” Warner said. “If we could just get to the resolution in Gaza, there really could be a fresh start.”

The senator said that his ongoing concern is how President Donald Trump has responded to the attacks, declaring that Iran’s nuclear program had been completely obliterated.

“The president, within two hours of the strike, set an arbitrary, almost impossible standard to meet, in terms of ‘total obliteration,’” Warner said. “To get the enriched uranium you’re going to need troops on the ground. And there are more than three sites — the vast majority [of the activity] was [at] those three, but there was some bad stuff happening elsewhere.”

He said the intelligence community had also been pressured to “contort itself to meet” the assessment Trump put forward.

In the immediate aftermath of the strikes, Warner and other Democrats expressed frustration that the Trump administration took days to brief Congress about them. Warner said he’s received “some additional clarity” in the weeks since the strikes about their effects. But he said that without physically sending operatives into the facilities, it’s difficult to know for sure the impacts of the strikes.

“Other nations have made assessments that were more in the multiple months” of delay to Iran’s nuclear program, “but I’m not even sure that’s the right metric,” Warner said. “It was a success. So the question is, what’s next? That, I don’t have visibility on.”

Going forward, Warner emphasized the need for negotiations to bring International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors back into Iran, adding that he wants to look further into the source of the delays in resuming talks.

Warner said he’s also seeking information on the timeline on which Iran would be able to build a less sophisticated nuclear device that could be delivered in a truck, rather than via a ballistic missile.

Though he noted that U.S. intelligence had not assessed that Iran was actively constructing a nuclear weapon, he said he had heard reports about an Israeli assessment that offered a different view and that he is looking further into it.

Asked about the fluid situation in Syria, in which Israel went, in the span of just a week, from floating normalization with the new Syrian government to bombing key government facilities in response to attacks on the Druze population, Warner indicated he’s still gathering information.

He said that Israel is “appropriately … very protective of its Druze population,” adding that he does not know at this point whether the Syrian government forces attacking the Druze population are doing so at the orders of that government. 

He said he’s hopeful that Israel and other parties involved will not miss an opportunity to find a peaceful resolution that could defuse a major longtime threat to Israel’s north.

Warner said he also wants to see Trump use his “enormous influence in Israel” to “[force] Bibi’s government into a return of the hostages, a ceasefire,” saying that would open up opportunities for transformational change in the region, including Saudi-Israeli normalization.

Warner said that while he’s been critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel and the IDF deserve credit for their surprise accomplishments in taking down Iran’s proxy network and in their strikes against Iran itself.

“The [Jewish community’s] concern is real and understandable,” Warner said. He said that he has been struck by the “level of anger, animosity, vile things said” in anti-Israel protests that have targeted him — “and I’m not Jewish. And I can only imagine.”

“Iran’s, at least so far, been shown to be more of a paper tiger,” Warner said. “If we could just get to the resolution in Gaza, there really could be a fresh start.”

Asked how concerned he is about the possibility of homeland attacks against the Jewish community carried out by or in the name of Iran, Warner said that U.S. intelligence monitors potential threats fairly comprehensively, but indicated that he’s most worried about radicalized lone-wolf attacks, like those in Washington and Boulder, Colo.

“The [Jewish community’s] concern is real and understandable,” Warner said. He said that he has been struck by the “level of anger, animosity, vile things said” in anti-Israel protests that have targeted him — “and I’m not Jewish. And I can only imagine.”

Warner expressed frustration at the way that the Palestinian cause has crowded out other global issues on college campuses. He said that it “would be healthy” if young people “have the chance to get exposed to other things in the world,” offering as examples the conflict in Sudan — which he said has been more deadly than Gaza and Ukraine combined — and the military junta in Myanmar.

On the subject of the Houthis, who have ramped up attacks against commercial shipping and Israel in recent weeks, Warner called the group a “tough nut to crack,” noting that a protracted Saudi and Emirati campaign against the Iran-backed terrorist group in Yemen had failed to put the issue to bed. But he said that the U.S. can’t rule out further military action against the group.

“I hope that those plans would be kept classified and not shared … on a device that’s not secure,” he quipped, referencing the Signalgate scandal, which he said had prompted concern from the Israeli government.

******

Last week’s Aspen summit, which typically prioritizes bipartisan and nonpartisan discussion and solution-making, became particularly politicized after nearly all Trump administration speakers canceled their participation, followed by a handful of foreign and private sector leaders and former government officials disappearing from the week’s agenda.

The issue was a frequent topic of discussion both on the main stage and across the Aspen Meadows campus last week, seen by many as a sign of the ways that intense partisanship has infiltrated U.S. foreign policy, once seen as a less antagonistic space.

Warner’s own panel featured himself and Coons, but not a Republican senator, as has been tradition.

Nevertheless, Warner said that bipartisanship on foreign policy issues still lives in the Senate, noting that the Intelligence Committee had passed an Intelligence Authorization Act recently in a nearly unanimous vote.

Looking ahead, he said the “easiest place to rebuild that consensus is around China,” which he described as an unprecedented competitor. He said there has been a long and difficult journey across multiple administrations to refocus on China, but he said there has been bipartisan success in pushing back against China.

He also argued that the Trump administration’s transactional and short-sighted approach to foreign policy goes against a longtime bipartisan tradition of viewing U.S. international relationships as an effort in “mutual trust-building.”

He said that his Republican colleagues privately disagree with many of Trump’s more outlandish foreign policy efforts — like annexing Canada. “At some point, there’s got to be a break,” he responded, when pressed on the fact that some Republicans defend Trump’s policies publicly despite those private disagreements.

Warner told JI that the bill the Intelligence Committee recently passed would cut the size of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. But, despite offering biting criticisms of DNI Tulsi Gabbard, Warner said that the reform efforts are not a reflection of or specifically prompted by concerns about her conduct in the role.

“I’m very comfortable with the idea of bringing the mission closer to what it was originally, but also making sure that people who are at the ODNI get returned to their original home agency and don’t get [fired],” Warner said.

Clarifying comments that he made on the panel about close U.S. intelligence partners in the Five Eyes group curtailing their intelligence sharing with the United States, Warner said he was not aware of specific instances in which that had happened, but said that U.S. partners are concerned about the state of the U.S. intelligence community.

“The challenge about intelligence sharing is [that] this is all based on trust,” Warner said.

One November afternoon last year, Jackie Junger and Jacqueline Katz, both therapists at a private practice in Dallas, sat down with their colleagues for their weekly team meeting. This one-hour gathering was a lifeline for the therapists, where they could discuss challenges their clients were facing and receive advice from their fellow practitioners. 

When a non-Jewish therapist asked for help better understanding a Jewish client who was “experiencing trauma with everything going on,” Junger and Katz — both Jewish — were eager to offer insight about the surge in antisemitism in the United States, in the hopes of helping their colleague better serve her client. But before Junger, 29, and Katz, 61, could speak, their supervisor, Dr. Dina Hijazi, shut down the conversation. 

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, because you’ll get a one-sided response,” Hijazi told the therapists, according to legal filings. 

The next day, Hijazi emailed the team and asked them to avoid discussing the “Palestine Israel topic” because she has “great pain” around the issue. But no one had mentioned the events in the Middle East at that meeting. Junger and Katz each responded to Hijazi’s note: Why, they wondered, would it be considered “one-sided” for Jewish therapists to speak about their understanding of antisemitism and Jewish trauma?  

Over the next five days, Junger and Katz would see their lives upended after they chose to raise concerns about antisemitism and double standards against Jewish practitioners and clients. 

That’s the key allegation at the heart of a federal lawsuit that Junger and Katz filed last month against D2 Counseling and its co-owners, Hijazi and Rev. Daniel Gowan. The two Jewish therapists claim they were discriminated against for objecting to their supervisors’ handling of antisemitism — and that, ultimately, they faced unlawful retaliation when they were fired days later. On the Monday before Thanksgiving, both received identical voicemails letting them know they had been terminated, saying they were no longer a “good fit” for D2. (An attorney representing Hijazi and Gowan declined to respond to detailed questions, citing the ongoing legal proceedings. The account in this article is based on an interview with Katz and Junger, allegations in their lawsuit and information shared by their lawyer.)

The incident was jarring for both Katz and Junger, they told Jewish Insider this week. But the biggest travesty, they said, is not that they lost their jobs: It’s that Jewish clients at their old practice should no longer expect to receive the highest level of care — because of their religion.

“This Jewish client — I don’t know who it is, obviously, I just know that it’s a Jewish client who is genuinely seeking support for something that they’re having trouble with in their life. It’s real trauma. I think most Jews can appreciate that it’s really traumatic, what’s happening,” Junger told JI. “And they’re not allowed to get competent health care. They have no clue.” 

*****

This case is only a single incident experienced by just two of the nation’s more than 100,000 licensed therapists. But it comes amid what Jewish mental health professionals in the United States have described as an increasingly hostile professional environment, where denunciations of Israel are expected and outright antisemitism is no longer a taboo, particularly after the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks in Israel. 

Earlier this year, the state of Illinois formally reprimanded a social worker who had created a blacklist publicly naming “Zionist” therapists. (The clinicians included on the list said it was just a pretext for targeting Jews.) 

In May, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) warned of a “persistent and pernicious pattern of antisemitism” at the American Psychological Association, the preeminent professional organization for psychologists in the U.S. 

Empathy is supposed to be the central tenet of the mental health field, but compassion and understanding are not always extended to Jewish therapists — or worse, their clients.

“Our role is really to facilitate the discussion, to honor their feelings, and to create a safe space — to create a space that [clients] can communicate what they’re experiencing internally, without any sort of feeling that, ‘I’m going to be shut down or marginalized or not taken seriously,’” Katz explained.  

It was clear to Junger and Katz soon after the Oct. 7 attacks that team conversations about what was happening in the Middle East would be different from other issues they’d been discussing for years. 

“We talk about current events a lot because these things affect our clients,” said Katz. The D2 team had talked about the war in Ukraine soon after it started; abortion access following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022; and gun control after a mass shooting at a Texas mall in 2023. 

A therapist helping a client work through issues with their sexuality might seek advice from a gay co-worker. Past meetings also included discussions of Mormonism and Islam, according to the complaint filed by Katz and Junger. Hijazi led a conversation about how to help clients who were having an emotional reaction to President Donald Trump’s reelection shortly after it occurred, according to the lawsuit.

“It’s very common to seek peer consultation, supervision from someone who has expertise, whether it’s lived experience or clinical experience,” Junger told JI. “If someone, let’s say, had cancer, and I had a client who’s going through cancer, I might reach out and say, ‘Hey, what would be helpful for me to know?’” 

Three days after the Oct. 7 attacks, when the D2 team gathered as they do each Tuesday, Hijazi and Gowan did not address the recent terror attacks. 

“We were all very shocked that we weren’t going to address the elephant in the room, as it were, and it quickly fell apart because one of my coworkers brought it up. ‘Aren’t we going to talk about what happened? We’re all very upset and suffering here,’” said Katz. “And it was shut down.” 

Lesson learned, according to Katz and Junger: Don’t bring up Israel or Gaza again. It wasn’t an overt order, but the palpable discomfort from Hijazi and Gowan kept a lid on future conversations.

Still, Hijazi’s strong reaction to the conversation about antisemitism a year later, in November 2024, surprised Junger and Katz. No one had mentioned Israel or Gaza. But Hijazi followed up with an email requesting that the “Palestine Israel topic” not be discussed. 

“I have great pain around this as I know some of you do as well,” Hijazi wrote in the email, which was shared with JI. “In order for me to work and be present with my clients I have asked that this be kept out of the noon meeting.” (What Hijazi did not share is that her family is Palestinian — a fact her daughter discussed in an online blog post viewed by JI, but one Hijazi didn’t mention to colleagues.) 

Katz and Junger did not see how a question about the trauma of a Jewish patient in Texas could be extrapolated to extend to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, nor did they understand why Hijazi chose to shut down future discussions of Jewish trauma. Separately, they each responded with lengthy emails, screenshots of which were included in the lawsuit.

“I believe every single one of us has Jewish clients, and the more we understand, the better we can service our clients,” Junger wrote in her email.

Katz took issue with Hijazi letting her own emotions guide the discussion, a therapist no-no. 

“As a managing partner in this practice I think it was essential for you to be able to manage the inquiry without adopting the victim role and personalizing it to your pain,” Katz wrote in another email. “I understand that you were protecting yourself by leaving the room, however the impact was that some of us felt shut down and unheard.” 

The matter only escalated from there, playing out like most modern office dramas: over email, leaving a lengthy digital record. 

Hijazi banned the expression of “political or religious opinions” in the group meetings, under the rationale of “safety in the workplace.” “Emotional safety for the group,” she wrote, “will always come before personal agendas.” 

But Katz and Junger were still unsure what was political about their earlier meeting and decided to press the point about their concern for Jewish clients. “I think your failure to see that this was not a political conversation is a huge blind spot for you,” wrote Katz. Gowan responded by telling her she was “way over the line,” a sentiment Hijazi echoed. 

Over that weekend, on Sunday night, Junger chimed in, too. “I would love some clarification, as I am feeling lots of confusion,” she wrote. “Would wanting more clarity on a Black client experiencing racism violate that policy as well? How about talking about a client who is part of the LGBTQ community and experiencing trauma and discrimination? Are we allowed to talk about their lived experience? Or does this rule only apply to Jewish clients?” 

That was Junger’s final message to her bosses about the matter. Katz chimed in after, saying she had the same questions. 

A day later, they were both fired. 

“It was just outrageous behavior on their part, I think, and so punishing, really. You open your mouth here, and this is what happens to you,” said Katz. “If we weren’t Jewish, [the other therapist] wouldn’t have asked us for supervision. If we weren’t Jewish, we wouldn’t have spoken up. If we weren’t Jewish, we wouldn’t have been let go.”

Their contract required D2 to give them 30 days to finish seeing clients. But they were forced to move to a different office, and asked to pay tens of thousands of dollars stemming from a part of the contract with buyout options and a non-compete clause. (They have refused to pay.)

“I knew antisemitism was on the rise, but to have it so blatant in my face in this way was really shocking. It was honestly a little scary,” said Junger.

*****

Winning an employment discrimination suit is not an easy task. But the lawyers at the Lawfare Project and Winston & Strawn representing Katz and Junger are confident that they have a strong case. 

“It’s very rare to see a case like this, a discrimination retaliation case like this, where the employer’s actions are so brazen,” said Jaclyn Clark, the Lawfare Project attorney who brought the case. “I strongly suspect that the employer in this instance just thought that they could get away with it … So from my standpoint, beyond just shining a light on the issue of antisemitism in the mental health field, the politicization of Jewish trauma and all of those things, is also to put these smaller employers on warning.”

Orly Lobel, an employment law expert at the University of San Diego who looked over the complaint, described it as “a strong case, since it is all documented with email exchanges and there is no pretextual reason for the termination,” she told JI. 

Junger and Katz’s attorneys allege that they faced discrimination as members of a racial minority, leaning on a 1987 Supreme Court ruling as precedent. L. Camille Hébert, a professor at The Ohio State University’s law school, said the race-based argument could be a tougher bar to clear than if the therapists made an argument about religious discrimination. But she noted that the facts laid out in the complaint paint a picture of discrimination.

“If the facts are as alleged, that all subjects were allowed to be addressed in the meetings other than antisemitism, then there might be a cognizable claim of discrimination based on religion.  The defense of ‘workplace safety’ seems not to be a particularly strong one,” Hébert said after reviewing the complaint. 

*****

Jewish therapists aren’t the only ones worried about antisemitism in the field. People seeking mental health care are, too, and Junger and Katz say they are right to be concerned. 

After she was fired by D2, Junger created a list of Jewish therapists in the Dallas area to share with the people in the Jewish community who come to her asking for a referral. Since Oct. 7, she has seen more people seeking out a therapist who understands Jewish issues — and she understands why. 

“Maybe a while ago I would have been like, ‘No, it’s a therapist job to [listen]. They’re not political. It’s OK,’” said Junger. “Now I’m like, ‘I get that.’ It makes sense to want to have safety and know that you have a real safe space to be able to process things that are directly impacting us.”

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.”

Israeli leaders said they carried out a series of preemptive strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and key personnel early Thursday evening, declaring a national state of emergency as it prepares for anticipated Iranian retaliation.

U.S. officials took steps to distance themselves from the Israeli strikes, emphasizing that it was not involved.

Israelis were instructed to stay close to protected spaces and avoid gatherings, educational activities have been canceled and the Israeli airspace has been closed. 

The Israeli Embassy in Washington issued a statement that Israel had launched a “preemptive, precise, combined offensive to strike Iran’s nuclear program,” and that Israeli jets had been involved in the “first stage” targeting “dozens of military targets, including nuclear targets in different areas of Iran.”

“Today, Iran is closer than ever to obtaining a nuclear weapon. Weapons of mass destruction in the hands of the Iranian regime are an existential threat to the state of Israel and to the wider world,” the statement reads. “The State of Israel has no choice but to fulfill the obligation to act in defense of its citizens and will continue to do so everywhere it is required to do so, as we have done in the past.”

In a prerecorded statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the operation, named “Rising Lion,” was aimed at “rolling back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival,” and would “continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat.”

He said that Israel had targeted Iran’s nuclear enrichment and weaponization program, its enrichment facility in Natanz, its leading nuclear scientist working on the bomb and its ballistic missile program.

Netanyahu said that Iran has amassed enough uranium for nine atomic bombs in recent years, and taken “steps it has never taken before … to weaponize this enriched uranium” and if not stopped, could produce a nuclear weapon within a few months.

“When enemies vow to destroy you, believe them. When enemies build weapons of mass destruction, stop them,” Netanyahu said. “As the Bible teaches us, when someone comes to kill you, rise and act first. This is exactly what Israel has done today. We have risen like lions to defend ourselves.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement the U.S. did not participate in the strikes and urged Iran not to retaliate against American targets.

“Tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran. We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region. Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense. President Trump and the Administration have taken all necessary steps to protect our forces and remain in close contact with our regional partners. Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel,” Rubio said.

Just hours before the strikes, President Donald Trump said on social media the U.S. remains “committed to a Diplomatic Resolution to the Iran Nuclear Issue!” and “They could be a Great Country, but they first must completely give up hopes of obtaining a Nuclear Weapon.”

Dana Stroul, the former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East under President Joe Biden and the research director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the strike “appears to be the first wave of an Israeli campaign.”

“The initial target set in downtown Tehran, including what appear to be precise strikes at the residences of senior officials, suggests an intent to paralyze the leadership and command and control of the regime,” Stroul told Jewish Insider. “Follow-on sets of targets could be much broader and geographically diverse.”

The strikes come a day after the International Atomic Energy Agency voted to censure Iran for noncompliance with nonproliferation obligations.

“The Iranian regime appears to have grievously misunderestimated Israeli intent — in a post-Oct. 7 environment, the Israelis were not going to sit back and wait while Iran took additional aggressive steps in its nuclear program as the IAEA definitively confirmed its noncompliance,” Stroul added. “What remains unclear is whether or not President Trump gave the greenlight only days before his envoy Steve Witkoff was supposed to travel back to the region for another round of nuclear negotiations.”

Trump’s self-imposed two-month deadline for nuclear talks expired this week.

Stroul said that Rubio’s comments were “stunning.”

“The American secretary of state is unambiguously stating publicly that Israel made its decision on its own,” she explained. “When Rubio says: Iran should not target U.S. personnel or U.S. interests, there is a very real risk that the Iranians implicitly understand this as a green light to directly attack Israel. What is left unsaid is whether or not the United States will actively participate in the defense of Israel as it did when Iran directly attacked in April and October of last year.”

She said the “ambiguity or suggestion of daylight between the United States and Israel runs the risk of emboldening adversaries.”