Keith and Aviva Siegel have seen the horrors of war up close and personal — torn from their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza and taken hostage deep into Gaza, where Aviva would spend nearly two months and Keith would be held for more than a year. 

And yet, little could have prepared them for what they would encounter at the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, where they spent five days last month volunteering at one of the world’s largest refugee settlements with the Israeli humanitarian group IsraAid as part of the couple’s pivot to humanitarian efforts around the world.

Aviva, who was a school teacher before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, choked up as she recalled the pregnant teenagers she met in the camp, where hundreds of thousands of people have fled from places such as South Sudan, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

One of the teens she met, a 15-year-old girl, had just given birth to her second child. She had her oldest child at age 13. “It was too much for me to carry,” Aviva told Jewish Insider from New York. “It was too much for me to carry because of so many things. You know, these girls, some of them have been raped, and there’s nobody in the world that’s protecting them, nobody.”

It was a familiar feeling for the couple, who have each recounted having seen fellow hostages after they had been sexually assaulted by their Hamas captors.

The people she met at the refugee camp, Aviva said, were “screaming out with no voice to tell how bad the situation is there. It took me to Gaza, to those moments, and so many moments and so many days of not knowing if I’ll ever live, if I’ll make it, if I’m visible, if anybody is doing anything they could to take me out of there.”

“I didn’t understand in Gaza how the world let us stay there for so long,” she said. 

The couple’s time in captivity — and after, as they became prominent activists lobbying for the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza — deepened their resolve to use their newfound prominence for good. From Kenya, the Siegels flew to Washington, where they met last week with First Lady Melania Trump. 

“We were at the White House, and I told the first lady about our experience in Kakuma at the refugee camp, and the hardships and the horrific life they have there,” Keith said. “I kind of feel like I carry them with me, in my heart and my soul and my thoughts, and just to be able to be their voice here in the U.S.” 

The couple exchanged experiences both with refugees in the camp and IsraAid staffers — many of whom are refugees themselves.

“I really felt like it was like a mutual understanding,” Keith said. “And also feeling like all of us, them and Aviva and I, have experienced suffering. All of us have experienced being hungry because we didn’t have food to eat, being thirsty because we didn’t have water to drink. Just the uncertainty, the lack of security and feeling like death could be imminent.”

Both Keith and Aviva said they were shaped by their early childhood experiences. Coming from apartheid South Africa, Aviva, whose family moved to Israel when she was 9, said that as a child, “I saw things that shouldn’t be in this world.” 

Being at the refugee camp, she explained, “brought me back to those days of being a kid in a place that is just a disaster. It’s a disaster.”

Growing up in the U.S., Keith said, “my parents raised me, and they showed me, by their example, tikkun olam. It’s one of the important concepts about values of the Jewish faith.”

“I’m sure my late parents would be very, very proud of me,” he added. “I feel like I’m continuing their legacy of things that were so important to them their whole lives. They were helping people in many, many different ways. Within their community, but also outside of their community and around the world.”

The Siegels were connected to IsraAid through Matan Sivek, a co-founder of the D.C. Hostages and Missing Families Forum and, with his wife, a leader of the group’s U.S. efforts. Sivek, who lives in Washington, joined IsraAid as the group’s head of strategic partnerships last year. 

The pairing between the Siegels and IsraAid was, as CEO Yotam Polizer told JI, “a spiritual match.”

“It’s an unbelievable privilege to have Aviva and Keith, because they are really bringing voice to the voiceless,” Polizer said. “They are, for me and for us, the best example of post-traumatic growth, which I believe is the essence of Israel — how these terrible, terrible tragedies could also turn into opportunities to support others and to build bridges.”

IsraAid has operated in the camp for more than a decade, and employs approximately 50 people there. Among the services it provides are health clinics, clean water access and schooling for some of the tens of thousands of children in the camp. 

“Keith and I aren’t special in any way,” Aviva said. “We are just two people that were kidnapped from Kfar Aza and spent time in the world’s darkness, Keith for 484 days, and me for 51 days. And we know what it’s like to need help. So we need to help them. We just need to help them.”

Keith became emotional as he talked about the organization’s work across the globe. “I know there are many, many other people all around the world that are in big trouble, and I feel like it’s my responsibility as much as I can to search to be aware of people that are in trouble, and do whatever I can do to help them.”

For him, the pivot to the humanitarian field also served a deeper purpose. “Helping others,” he said, “is part of my healing.”

A major chapter has ended in the war that began when Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, with the burial of Ran Gvili, the final hostage whose remains were returned earlier this week from Gaza and buried today in his southern Israel hometown of Meitar.

Yet thousands of Israelis continue to be called up for reserve duty and the final aim of the Gaza war — disarming Hamas and demilitarizing Gaza — has yet to be achieved. 

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, President Donald Trump said that “many countries say we really want to” disarm Hamas, and his advisor Jared Kushner presented the administration’s plan for the next steps in Gaza, which include the destruction of “heavy weapons, tunnels, military infrastructure, weapons production facilities and munitions” in Gaza in the next 100 days. Under the plan, only members of the police appointed by the Palestinian technocratic committee would be able to hold weapons, but Hamas is reportedly seeking to have 10,000 of its members, whom Israel regards as terrorists, remain in the police force. 

At the same time, Kushner’s slide deck was much more focused on the “New Gaza,” complete with Dubai-esque futuristic skyscrapers, than it was on the details of how to get Hamas to give up its weapons. “There is no Plan B,” Kushner said regarding Gaza’s future.

In Jerusalem and in Washington, officials expressed skepticism about the prospect of Hamas voluntarily relinquishing its weapons, and whether the International Stabilization Force described in the Gaza ceasefire deal will be up to the task of confiscating those weapons.They view Israeli military action in the Hamas-controlled half of Gaza as the likely scenario.

Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen, who sits on the Security Cabinet, told Kan Bet radio that while Israel is heaving “a great sign of relief with the return of the hero Ran Gvili … the central thing in stage two [of the Gaza ceasefire] is disarming Hamas and demilitarizing Gaza.” 

“The chance that [Hamas] will give up its arms willingly or that the international force being put together now will do the work, in my opinion, is not high,” Cohen said. “That’s why in the framework of talks between Israel and the U.S. … a timeline was established, meaning that if the international force succeeds, then good, but if it goes according to my estimation … then the State of Israel will ensure Hamas disarms. … We are determined to finish the job.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called in a post on X for Trump to “allow Israel to finish the job,” saying that “as to Hamas, nothing has changed. … They don’t seek peace. They only seek destruction. … This has gone on too long.”

Jonathan Ruhe, fellow for American strategy at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, noted to Jewish Insider that the International Stabilization Force meant to deploy to Gaza as part of the ceasefire “still lacks a clear mandate, or the troops to fill it out.” 

“Because Hamas won’t disarm peacefully, Arab and other Muslim countries consistently refuse to put their forces in harm’s way or risk causing collateral damage to Palestinian civilians,” Ruhe said. “The U.S. needs to adapt its strategy, which remains stuck on convincing Hamas to give over its weapons. Hamas thinks it won the war. … An emboldened and well-armed Hamas steadily undermines Trump’s plan of convincing international partners to invest their money and political capital in the hard work of building a new Gaza.”

Matthew Shea contributed to this report.

With all of the living hostages released from Gaza and an end (at least for the time being) of Israel’s war in the Palestinian territory, the coming months could offer the mainstream Jewish community something of a breather to assess the changed political landscape. 

In the war’s final months, the anti-Israel far left gained a foothold in Democratic Party politics, most prominently in the New York City mayoral race with Zohran Mamdani, but also in urban contests ranging from Seattle to Somerville, Mass. The antisemitic forces on the far right have been less of a political force, but have gained strength on podcasts and among younger right-wingers, and have been embraced to a greater extent by a few populist lawmakers like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). 

With the return of the living hostages, Israel’s success in degrading Hamas and additional enemies, and the apparent end of the Gaza war, Jewish optimists can plausibly argue that some degree of normalcy could creep back in the political sphere. Israel should become a less salient issue for low-information scrollers, with the war’s end reducing the constant anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda being fed on so many screens. 

With a ceasefire finally achieved, the anti-Israel forces have been remarkably silent, and have been exposed for the Hamas-sympathizing extremists that they always have been. That faction of the anti-Israel Democratic left is as politically exposed as it’s been since the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7, 2023.

There’s also the possibility that, with Israeli elections being held next year, a new Israeli prime minister would get elected, bringing with him or her a new Israeli government that may not be as polarizing to liberal critics of Israel back in the U.S. 

Jewish pessimists also have a plausible case to make. Support for Israel has declined in the past year, with the most significant slippage coming from Democratic Party voters and some independents. It’s hard to imagine it will rebound anytime soon. The youngest Gen Z voters are the most hostile towards Israel and have been even before Oct. 7. It’s reasonable to expect their future growth in the electorate will only grow the pool of anti-Israel voters.  

Furthermore, the rise of anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment isn’t happening in isolation; it’s a symptom of the rise of larger illiberal and extreme forces within both parties. The fact that polls show an upward tick in the toleration of political violence, growing antipathy to capitalism on the left, and growing sympathy for authoritarianism on the right is the broader context of the growing hostility Jews are facing, and it’s not showing any signs of abatement.

In the coming year, it will be important to track whether the political outlook for Jews is getting better or whether the trends we’ve seen worsen in the last couple years are accelerating. 

We’ll be debuting an election scorecard next week, examining the most meaningful elections in the coming year that will test the influence of the political mainstream against the extremes. Stay tuned: it will be worth bookmarking and tracking as we approach Election Day this November, and in the runup to next year’s congressional primaries.

Senators reacted with cautious optimism — and a degree of skepticism — to President Donald Trump’s announcement on Monday of a sweeping deal that would end the war in Gaza, see the release of the remaining hostages and facilitate reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) warned that the execution of the deal would require close monitoring of Hamas’ compliance and that long-term peace in the region will likely require eliminating Iran’s other proxies, in addition to Hamas.

“I hope Hamas agrees — we’ll get the hostages home. Distrust and verify with these guys,” Graham said. “A lot of loopholes if you don’t watch it, but I hope we can land this deal.”

“When you talk about normalizing the Mideast, I’m all for that. But after Oct. 7, we have to learn one thing: As long as radical Islamic terrorist groups exist, you can’t have a normal Mideast,” Graham continued. “I hope we can land this deal and bring the hostages home and start a new chapter in Gaza and the West Bank, but I will never support normalization until Hezbollah is dealt with. You cannot say the Mideast is a normal place as long as Hezbollah is a threat the way it is today.”

He said that he’s concerned that Hezbollah would replicate Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack if Israel and Saudi Arabia again begin to move toward normalization again before the Lebanese terror group is eliminated.

“If we do the Hamas deal, we should insist that the region deal with Hezbollah and take them both down, then eventually the Houthis,” he continued. “My takeaway of Oct. 7 is if you don’t have these radical groups in a box, you can never really achieve peace.”

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said that there are “some details to be filled in, but I think by and large this seems like a very encouraging development.”

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) was hesitant to offer an assessment of the deal before Hamas had agreed to the terms.

“It’s the deal that hasn’t happened yet. It’d be nice. I mean, I guess it would be great if we get the hostages back and we get a ceasefire and we get to rebuild Gaza. That all sounds really good. I’m glad that Trump cares about this. It seems optimistic,” he told JI. 

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) expressed some hesitation about engaging with the Qataris and taking a deal, but suggested Trump was ready to bring the conflict to a close. 

“It’s bold. It’s gutsy on the president’s part. I just will believe it when I see it. I’m just so skeptical of one side in this, getting Qatar in there and involved,” Cramer told JI. “Clearly we’re playing along a little. I don’t know. I just don’t know. I think the timing for Trump is sort of like, ‘Okay, now’s the time [for a ceasefire]. We’ve done the dance long enough.’”

Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) said he’s reviewing the plan, adding that the elimination of Hamas is a necessity.

“You can’t have Hamas promising the destruction of Israel,” he continued. “As long as there’s no threat, I see an opportunity here, but you can’t make a deal with somebody that wants to exterminate you.”

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Jim Risch (R-ID) praised the plan on X. “President Trump again shows his commitment to peace with his plan to bring all the hostages home, end the war in Gaza and transition to a future that allows the Palestinian people to prosper without Hamas’ terror schemes,” Risch said. “Anyone who wants a better future for the Palestinian people should join this pursuit of peace.”

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) told Jewish Insider he’s “glad they look like they’re moving toward peace.”

“I don’t think Israel is worried any longer about being popular. I think Israel was worried about its survival, and I respect that. And they’re going to do whatever it takes,” Kennedy continued. “Now, will Hamas accept it? I don’t know. I really don’t know. I hope they do. But if they don’t, I think Israel needs to continue to do what it’s been doing and wipe Hamas off the face of the earth.”

Democrats expressed hope that the deal would bring the war to a close.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) told JI, “I’m encouraged the president’s engaging directly and saying this war must end. Humanitarian relief needs to go in, hostages need to come out, there needs to be a plan going forward for Gaza,” but said he hadn’t seen the details of Trump’s announcement.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said that he was not familiar with the specifics of the plan. “If there’s a ceasefire and return of the hostages and humanitarian relief, bravo,” Blumenthal said.

Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT), one of the most vocal critics of Israel’s Gaza operations in the Senate, told JI he hadn’t reviewed the plan but “my main concern [is to] start getting food and medicine in. That has to happen immediately.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement. “I call on Hamas to accept, and Israel to faithfully implement, the proposal laid out by the United States.”

Prior to the meeting, leading Senate Democrats had urged Trump to press Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a hostage deal that ends the war, as well as to pressure Netanyahu to rule out annexation of the West Bank.

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Monday that Israel had agreed to sign onto the White House’s 20-point peace plan to end the war in Gaza, with Trump calling the development “one of the great days ever in civilization.” 

Both leaders described the deal, which would release all of the remaining Israeli hostages in exchange for an immediate end of the war, as the starting point for greater regional integration, a goal that Trump described as “eternal peace in the Middle East.” 

Senior Trump administration officials first introduced the plan last week in a meeting with Arab and Muslim leaders in New York, and Trump said he had buy-in from the Qataris, who have been a go-between in negotiations with Israel and Hamas, and that he had discussed the matter with the leaders of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. 

But the deal is not yet final: Hamas has not yet agreed to it, though Trump expressed hope that the terror group will do so. Trump said he would allow Netanyahu to continue the war with his “full backing” if Hamas does not agree to it. 

“This can be done the easy way, or it can be done the hard way. But it has to be done,” Netanyahu said at the press conference. “All these goals must be achieved because we didn’t fight this horrible fight, sacrifice the finest of our young men, for Hamas to stay in Gaza.”

The plan would require the release of all the hostages still held by Hamas back to Israel within 72 hours, and an immediate end to the war, according to a copy of the plan published by the White House. In exchange, Israel would release 250 Palestinians serving life sentences in Israeli jails, along with nearly 2,000 Gazans detained since the Oct. 7 attacks in 2023.

The first principle of the plan is that Gaza would be deradicalized, with Hamas out of power and transitional mechanisms in place to take over governance of the beleaguered territory. Amnesty would be offered to Hamas members “who commit to peaceful co-existence and to decommission their weapons” once the hostages are returned. Hamas members who wish to leave would have safe passage to do so, although the plan does not explicitly state that they will be required to leave. The plan would also surge aid to Gaza through the United Nations and other international mechanisms as soon as the hostages are released.

An international transitional body, with Trump as chair and former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair heavily involved, would oversee the redevelopment of Gaza until the Palestinian Authority has been reformed and is able to take over leadership of the Gaza Strip. The U.S. and other Arab and international partners would develop a temporary stabilization force to deploy in Gaza, and Trump would oversee the creation of an economic development plan to facilitate investments in the seaside territory. 

“I believe that today we are taking a critical step towards both ending the war in Gaza and setting the stage for dramatically advancing peace in the Middle East, and I think beyond the Middle East, with very important Muslim countries,” Netanyahu said. “We’re giving everybody a chance to have this done peacefully, something that will achieve all our war objectives without any further bloodshed.” 

Several Muslim leaders announced their support for the deal, including the prime minister of Pakistan and the Emirati foreign minister. 

As Trump and Netanyahu stood side by side, each heaping praise upon the other, they were not entirely on the same page about all aspects of the deal — in particular the role of the Palestinian Authority in the future governance of Gaza, which Netanyahu has all but written off, despite that goal listed as an objective in the White House’s plan. 

“Gaza will have a peaceful civilian administration that is run neither by Hamas nor by the Palestinian Authority,” Netanyahu said, a contrast to the plan’s language that the PA — once it is reformed, an objective that could take years — will control Gaza. 

The White House deal also recognizes “Palestinian self-determination and statehood” as “the aspiration of the Palestinian people.” Netanyahu, however, has said repeatedly that a Palestinian state is out of the question. 

Trump did not refer to the plan’s language about Palestinian statehood in his remarks, instead offering leeway to Netanyahu. “Prime Minister Netanyahu is very clear about his opposition to a Palestinian state,” Trump said. “Several countries have foolishly recognized the Palestinian state.” 

The leaders’ comments followed a three-hour meeting between Trump and Netanyahu. During the meeting, Trump orchestrated a phone call between Netanyahu and the Qatari emir, which Trump said afterward was a “a heart-to-heart conversation” in which Netanyahu apologized for Israel’s attack on Doha last month that targeted Hamas leaders and killed a Qatari security guard. The three nations agreed to launch a “formal trilateral mechanism” to “enhance mutual security, correct misperceptions and avoid future misgivings.” 

The full text of the plan says that even if Hamas rejects the plan, the scaled-up humanitarian aid operation will continue, and terror-free areas will be handed over from the Israel Defense Forces to the international stabilization force. But Trump said that Israel will have the “full backing” of the U.S. to resume fighting in Gaza if Hamas does not accept the plan. 

“If Hamas rejects the deal — which is always possible, they’re the only one left. Everyone else has accepted it. But I have a feeling that we’re going to have a positive answer. But if not, as you know, Bibi, you’d have our full backing,” said Trump.  

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter arrived at his post in January as Israel was more than a year into its war with Hamas in Gaza and facing declining American support for the Jewish state. 

The Trump administration has been much friendlier to the government in Jerusalem than its predecessor, supporting the Israeli war effort in Gaza with no limitations on arms shipments. Yet, the broader political atmosphere is more hostile to Israel than it has been in decades. 

The turn away from Israel was reflected in a recent Senate vote in which a majority of Democrats supported blocking some arms sales to Israel, as well as in the growth of the isolationist wing of the Republican Party, the rise of influential media figures who peddle antisemitism and public opinion about Israel in decline.

Leiter spoke with Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov and the executive director of the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, Asher Fredman, on the “Misgav Mideast Horizons” podcast this week about his efforts to engage members of both parties, the future of the U.S.-Israel alliance, what is next in the war in Gaza and more.

Amid these concerning political trends, Leiter said that the U.S. and Israel have started to discuss what will happen after the Obama-era 10-year Memorandum of Understanding between the countries, which currently commits $3.8 billion a year in American defense aid to Israel annually, expires in 2028. 

While Israel’s official position favors continuing aid, some in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party and others on the Israeli right have been advocating for moving from a model of aid to one of collaboration on joint projects.

“Maybe we’ll change the nature [of the MOU], where there will be greater [joint] research and development between our two countries, rather than relying on American weapons,” Leiter said. 

Leiter emphasized that the defense relationship between Israel and the U.S. benefits both countries.

“Recently, there was a podcast with [Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) in which she said, ‘Why are we giving $3.8 billion to Israel when people in the United States don’t have health care?’” he said. “What she neglected to mention is that the vast majority of the $3.8 billion is spent in the United States and actually is providing jobs — and health care — for American workers. It’s all American weapons … purchased with American aid. So it’s a win-win situation.”

Leiter also quoted Gen. George Keegan who once told journalist Wolf Blitzer that the value of Israeli intelligence is worth five CIAs.

“You know how much that would cost [to replace]? The level of cooperation we have at this point between our intelligence communities is very, very, very deep and wide. We provide a tremendous service to the United States’ interests in the Middle East,” he said.

The U.S. and Israel will have to evaluate “a paradigm shift” in the region when working on the next MOU, Leiter said.

“I think we have to start from a broader view of things in terms of the geostrategic realities that are developing in the Middle East. … The ramifications of [the strikes on Iran in] Operation Rising Lion and Midnight Hammer, but really the ramifications of the war against Iranian proxies over the past almost two years now since Oct. 7, [2023], is a changing Middle East,” Leiter said.

“We’ve seen all of the proxies degraded. We’re about to completely destroy Hamas. Hezbollah is dramatically degraded to the point where the Lebanese government is actually moving towards disarming them. We have the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. Nobody could have imagined that would have happened. And the Houthis are being degraded … There’s a new Middle East out there,” he added.

In Leiter’s view, the result of the last two years is that moderate Muslim states face fewer threats from Iran and other radical Islamists, increasing the chances of what he termed “an Abraham Accords 2.0.” 

“That enables the United States to rely more on a collective between Israel and its neighbors, and have less of an American footprint in the Middle East,” he said. 

“Therefore,” the ambassador added, “the nature of any MOU or collaborative effort is going to change.” 

Leiter spoke to JI before a day of meetings on Capitol Hill, in which he planned to meet with Democrats and Republicans. He has made sure to meet with critics of Israel in addition to friendly members of Congress.

“I will always divide my day [between the parties] and make it as much of a bipartisan effort as I possibly can,” he said. “Not only for tactical political reasons — the Democrats can take control of Congress in a year and a half and if we haven’t paid them the proper respect and attention, we’re going to pay a very serious price — but beyond the tactical political plane, I believe that Israel is a bipartisan issue and should remain so.”

Leiter said that some of Israel’s critics are reflexively critical: “It’s a very partisan atmosphere in Washington right now, which makes it very complicated. You can see this in issues that are not related to Israel … If the administration is saying one thing, the Democratic opposition believes it’s got to say something else. There’s strong support for Israel in the [Trump] administration, so that almost drives the Democratic opposition into opposing very close support for Israel.” 

The ambassador emphasized that “in the Trump administration, we’ve seen a level of collaboration between Israel and the United States that we’ve never had [before],” citing the joint strikes on Iran’s nuclear program in June. “There’s never been this kind of cooperation at this level. We’re very close on the one hand. On the other hand, there are dramatic and very intense challenges to this relationship.” 

In addition to “the woke left, which has distanced itself from Israel, because we’re perceived as … the white men that have dominated and written history,” Leiter lamented the “conspiratorial, isolationist” right.

“Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens’ orbit is not America First, it’s Israel and Jews last,” he said. “America First is fine. We don’t have an issue with that. We put Israel first, America puts America first … I think it’s obvious and elemental. With the isolationist and conspiratorial right, Israel is always wrong and the Jews are always behind everything that’s wrong.”

Still, Leiter said he has not found that anti-Israel view in the halls of the White House, State Department or Pentagon.

“There are legitimate strategic positions that the U.S. should put more focus on the far East rather than the Middle East. … I think that actually may be advantageous to Israel and the Middle East as a whole if that’s going to happen in a gradual and careful way as we move into the future,” he added.

About the ongoing war against Hamas, Leiter said, “There’s no public in the world that wants to end the war more than we [Israelis] do. No one has suffered as much as we do. Since the day Israel was founded, we haven’t experienced one day of peace. Not a day. We want to end this war and we can’t do it unless we have defeated this enemy. … The ultimate goal is going to be a complete demilitarization of Gaza,” he said.

Leiter pushed back against accusations that Israel plans to force residents out of Gaza with backing from the Trump administration.

“The president of the United States didn’t talk about forcing anybody, but talked about giving them the option … Why not allow these people the opportunity to choose? That’s all we’re suggesting.”

The ambassador noted that Israel has facilitated the exit of 40,000 people from Gaza who have visas to receive medical care in other countries, and they left through Israel, not Egypt, which would charge them tens of thousands of dollars to transit through their country.

“Why wouldn’t Egypt just open the border and let people go through?” he asked.

Leiter also spoke out against a Palestinian state, saying that very few Israelis still support the proposition.

“Even the left-of-center realize that the bandwidth for another state west of the Jordan River is untenable and unacceptable. Since Oct. 7, that bandwidth has narrowed further, and it’s about a hair’s breadth now … Everybody’s got to get used to that and stop talking about this two-state solution,” he said.

“There will be far more normalization and peaceful relations with our Palestinian neighbors once we get beyond this red herring of the two-state solution,” the ambassador added.

Leiter said that there are alternatives to a Palestinian state, including “autonomous zones … total autonomy,” while “security and overall foreign relations are going to remain in Israel’s hands.” 

He spoke about possible dramatic economic growth benefiting Palestinians in the West Bank, which could come as a result of planned infrastructure corridors crossing from the Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.

The ambassador expressed hope about an “Abraham Accords 2.0,” in which Israel normalizes relations with Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Malaysia and several Central Asian Muslim countries.

“Once that happens, the whole issue of saying everything is based on Palestinian centrality goes away,” he said.

With a dozen countries planning to recognize a Palestinian state in the coming weeks, in an effort led by France and Saudi Arabia, Leiter accused Europe of attempting “a cleansing process, because if you can condemn Israel for genocide … that means that what Europe was guilty of 80 years ago is not unique.”

In addition, the ambassador argued that European leaders are concerned about getting the votes of growing Muslim populations in their countries.

“They couldn’t care less about Palestinians. If they really cared, they’d issue some visas. I mean, France could issue 150,000 visas and give people a new opportunity at life, but that’s the last thing they want to do. They don’t want to allow in more Muslims. …It’s a tragedy that we’re paying the price for this,” he added.

Recognizing a Palestinian state is “prolonging the war,” Leiter said. “Basically what the French are doing is declaring Oct. 7 Palestine Independence Day. Brilliant, right? Let’s reward these people for slaughter and massacre.”

“It’s an outrage. It’s immoral. And we have to stay the course. We are ultimately going to be vindicated. I have no doubt about it,” he said.

Leiter’s son, Moshe, a physician and father of six, was killed in battle in Gaza on Nov. 10, 2023.

Leiter said his son was “a very committed Jew and Zionist and he knew what he was fighting for … for the right of the Jewish people to live in their homeland in peace and security.” 

“I carry him on my back every day, and it gives me the power, the energy, the ability to go forward,” he said. “You really have to make a decision when you lose someone that you love so much and you’re so close to and fills your life with meaning and purpose. He’s the reason why it’s so hard to get up in the morning, and he’s also the reason why I do, because you have to make that choice and move forward.”

IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said in remarks during a visit to a Haifa naval base on Sunday that the Israeli army has met its objectives in its war with Hamas in Gaza, “including deeply damaging Hamas,” and “as a result of the military pressure, we created the conditions for the release of the hostages.”

According to Israel’s Channel 13, Zamir also said in private conversations, “There is a deal on the table, it’s the improved [U.S. Middle East envoy Steve] Witkoff framework,” apparently referring to the deal Hamas said it agreed to last week.

Senior Israeli officials told Israel’s Channel 12 that that deal is “no longer relevant” because it includes the release of a limited number of hostages, whereas Israel wants to see a comprehensive deal with all 50 hostages released.

Zamir said Sunday that the deal is “in [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s hands” and advocated for him to accept it. Zamir claimed that “there is great danger to the lives of the hostages in taking over Gaza City,” a position he held about the operation before its approval, which reportedly led to clashes with Netanyahu.

The IDF has called up tens of thousands of reservists in preparation for its takeover of Gaza City, expected to ramp up in the next several weeks, and is moving to evacuate the residents of the central Gazan city.

Following his recent trip to Israel, Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) says he believes that the Jewish state is “as close as I’ve understood it to be to ending” the war in Gaza.

“The language around aid has changed. [Israel talks] about surging aid and they talk about ending this war quickly,” Landsman, who discussed his trip on Wednesday with Jewish Insider, said. “They talk about getting the hostages back no matter what, and whether there’s a deal or not, they’re getting them home. So, they obviously can’t speak to what that looks like or what that means, but I got the sense that this should and hopefully will be the end.”

He made a similar comment in a statement on his trip shared with JI, which stated: “The end of the war appears close, and G-d willing it ends very soon. With it, rebuilding of Gaza can begin. The first glimpses of this ‘day after’ plan can be seen, and the Arab nations that have declared the end of Hamas must play a huge role in what happens next.” His comments came as Israel weighs the most recent ceasefire proposal, and as the IDF prepares to call up tens of thousands of reservists ahead of plans to take over Gaza City in the coming months.

Regarding next steps, Landsman wrote in the statement, “This is a moment of truth for Qatar, to be sure. With senior Hamas leaders in their midst, detaining them – if negotiations continue to falter – may be necessary. This could hasten the end of the war and the release of the hostages. They must do everything in their power – now.”

Landsman told JI that he believes “everyone should be putting pressure on all parties to end the war. I think it is entirely appropriate to put pressure on the Israeli government to end this war. I also think it is necessary for people to put pressure on Qatar and Egypt to end this war, to use all of the leverage they have, particularly with the senior Hamas leaders that are in Qatar.”

“I believe that’s true to some extent, to a lesser extent, for folks in Egypt to say we’re done, you have to accept a return, a deal that ends this war and returns hostages. The pressure also needs to be placed on these 22 Arab countries, and I believe Egypt and Qatar are on that list, but the other 20 who have said, in an unprecedented move, that Hamas needs to disarm and disband. Now they’ve got to turn that into action and establish a coalition with the United States and Israel and Europe to end this war,” he continued. 

The Ohio congressman was one of 14 House Democrats who took part in a delegation to the Jewish state last week. The trip was organized by the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation, which organized a similar visit to Israel for House Republicans the week prior that overlapped for several days with the Democrats’ trip.

Landsman told JI that he viewed the trip as an opportunity to accomplish three main objectives: to be available as a resource to answer questions from Israeli leaders and build relationships with newer members of Congress like himself; to get fully briefed on the work being done to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza; and to engage with stakeholders in the broader peace process in the region. “Going sort of allows me to do all three of those things,” he said.

Landsman said that this trip highlighted the similarities between the American and Israeli people and as citizens of liberal democracies where citizens are free to air frustrations about their respective governments. 

“The frustration with the government is something that many Israelis feel. They are frustrated with this government, especially as it relates to Gaza,” Landsman said. “And I appreciate that because it’s a liberal democracy. Israelis are just as critical of this government, if not more, than folks around the world or here in the United States.”

Landsman told JI that the Israeli officials and citizens he spoke with urged him and others on the trip to continue supporting a strong U.S.-Israel relationship during moments when they took issue with some of the actions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

“They remind you that they would never want anyone to abandon them, as we would never want anyone to abandon us. It’s an important reminder that being critical of the government when you disagree is part of democracy, it’s why democracy and freedom are so important,” he said. “There’s a line. In terms of having the strength and courage to both stand up to and criticize your partners, while also having the strength and courage to not abandon them, especially a partnership like this one and in an existential moment such as this.”

The Ohio Democrat offered a similar thought in his official statement, in which he wrote: “Instead of abandonment, many of us have chosen to visit the region, to show up, and to support the Israeli government when we agree and to push back when we don’t. We know that abandonment may be politically expedient, but it is strategically wrong. It will render our country unreliable to those who we need to ensure global security and global prosperity.”

“We must always remain a reliable partner for democracy and peace. The United States of America does not abandon its allies, nor will we do so here,” the statement continued. 

Landsman told JI, “We should not abandon Ukraine and our European allies. We should not abandon, and I don’t believe we will, one of our strongest partners in peace and democracy and freedom, and that’s the state of Israel.”

“We want people to stick with us. That’s why I used the word ‘reliable’ in my statement. We need people to stick with us for our economic prosperity, for national security. If we’re not sticking with others, people will stop sticking with us, and that is very bad for the United States,” the Democratic lawmaker said. 

“This is why we worry about [President Donald] Trump or any president that starts to undermine our relationships with folks across the world. It becomes very, very costly and very dangerous to the United States. We wouldn’t want anyone to look at this government [in the U.S.] and say, ‘Well, we’re gonna back away from our commitment, our investments in America.’ That would be terrible,” he continued.

Landsman said he believed his worldview was shared by the majority of the American people.

“When I come home and have these conversations, I get a very common-sense position. It’s where I believe most people are when I talk to them. They worry about the humanitarian situation. How can you not? They want this war to end. How can you not? They get frustrated with a government that has people like [Israeli National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir and [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich. Of course, they should,” Landsman explained. 

“But they also know that Hamas can’t stay, and Israel has to figure out a way to win this war or end it so that folks can rebuild without a terrorist organization in their way. They know that Iran is the barrier to everything good in the region. They know if you start to undermine the partnership with Israel, the only people who win are folks associated with the regime and the terror networks they fund,” he added.

The unrest could be felt everywhere — in traffic jams, on the airwaves, in WhatsApp groups, even in the waiting room of a dental clinic.

Across Israel yesterday, hundreds of thousands joined a nationwide unofficial strike, led by hostage families and bereaved families, demanding an end to the war in Gaza and the immediate release of the hostages still held there. According to the Hostages Families Forum, over 1 million people participated in protests throughout the day. As the government plans to escalate its military campaign against Hamas, emotions ran high across towns, cities and online spaces, deepening a national rift.

Police clashed with demonstrators blocking roads. In Ra’anana, a truck driver was arrested after allegedly attacking a protester. In a Tel Aviv neighborhood mothers’ WhatsApp group, several members condemned local cafés for staying open, while another defended them for “not strengthening Hamas.” At a dental clinic, a man berated staff for opening their doors, shouting, “What about the hostages!?”

At the heart of the tensions is a painful divide: protesters — including the majority of the hostage families — argue that rescuing the captives must come before all else. Meanwhile, the government and its supporters, and even several hostage families, claim such demonstrations weaken Israel’s negotiating hand and embolden Hamas. Israeli President Issac Herzog, speaking at Hostages Square, said “There’s no Israeli who doesn’t want them back home. We can argue about philosophies, but truly, the people of Israel want our brothers and sisters back home.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down on his government’s stance in a public statement, warning: “Those who are calling for an end to the war today without defeating Hamas, are not only hardening Hamas’s stance and pushing off the release of our hostages, they are also ensuring that the horrors of October 7 will recur again and again … to advance the release of our hostages and to ensure that Gaza will never again constitute a threat to Israel, we must complete the work and defeat Hamas.”

Yet recent polls show that a majority of Israelis support prioritizing the hostages’ release and bringing an end to the war.

Israeli journalist and commentator Ben Caspit wrote on social media: “To join the protest strike, you don’t have to be a leftist. Nor a centrist. Nor a rightist…  You need a heart. There on the left side, between the ribs and the lungs. A beating heart that feels the need to express solidarity with our kidnapped brothers, with their families, with the terrible suffering.”

“And no, don’t believe the spin that it ‘helps Hamas.’ It doesn’t. Hamas doesn’t need strike X or demonstration Y to get to know Israeli society. Hamas knows us very well, just as we know them. They are death eaters. We seek life. That’s the whole difference.”

Meanwhile, Amit Segal — a reporter and political commentator often seen opposite Caspit on Channel 12 — offered a more sober take in his newsletter on Sunday: “While the strike will help many Israelis express their frustration and desperation to bring the hostages home, it won’t bring Israel closer to achieving the very thing they’re protesting for.”

Even if that may be, the protests reach further than home: former hostages have recounted the strength they gained from witnessing the demonstrations on the news while in captivity in Gaza. In Tel Aviv, as night fell, thousands of protesters raised their phone flashlights in Hostages Square and the surrounding streets, creating a moment of visual unity. The sea of lights stretched across the plaza and beyond — a simple gesture that carried a message of solidarity for the hostages still held in Gaza.

At the same time, the wheels of war are already turning. While Israelis grappled with grief, anger and hope in the streets, the military was preparing for its next incursion. Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF’s chief of staff, declared yesterday from the Gaza Strip: “Today we are approving the plan for the next phase of the war.”

“We will maintain the momentum of Operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ while focusing on Gaza City. We will continue to strike until the decisive defeat of Hamas, with the hostages always at the forefront of our minds,” Zamir said, adding, “Soon we will move on to the next phase” of the operation.

Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA), who serves as the House Democratic whip, the No. 2 Democratic leader in the chamber, described the war in Gaza as a “genocide” in an event this week, based on video of the event that has been shared online.

“We each have to continue to have an open heart about how we do this, how we do it effectively, and how we take action in time to make a difference, whether that is stopping the starvation and genocide and destruction of Gaza, or whether that means we are working together to stop the redistricting that is going on, taking away the vote from people in order to retain power,” Clark said in a brief clip from an event that was first reported by Axios. 

Clark spokesperson Joy Lee has said in a statement provided to multiple outlets that Clark’s “position on the war has not changed,” including that she supports a permanent ceasefire, the return of all hostages and an increase of aid to Gaza.

“It should not be controversial to say that Israeli children did not deserve to be kidnapped and murdered by Hamas, nor should it be controversial to say that Palestinian children, who bear no responsibility for Hamas’ atrocities, do not deserve to be killed by war or starvation,” Lee’s statement reads. “A secure future for Israeli and Palestinian children demands a real two-state solution and a permanent end to efforts to deny their rights to exist.”

Clark’s office did not respond to a request for comment seeking further clarity.

Lee told The Boston Globe that Clark’s comments came in response to protesters at the event. The brief clip shared online does not include the context of Clark’s remarks.

Only a small number of far-left and far-right lawmakers have described the situation in Gaza as a genocide, and none who serve in leadership roles in Congress.

Clark was speaking at an event organized by the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a lobbying group of the Quaker movement, which has been heavily critical of Israel and supported efforts in the Senate to block arms sales to Israel.

Clark’s office did not respond to a question about whether she supports efforts to block some or all weapons sales.

The group’s criticism of Israel predates the war in Gaza, and it lobbied in favor of the Iran nuclear deal. It also advocates more broadly against militarization generally, including pushing for shrinking military spending.

Clark has been endorsed by AIPAC and is featured alongside each of the other top House leaders on the group’s PAC website.

Returning from a trip to Israel, two first-term House Republicans blasted European nations and others that have recently hardened their positions toward Israel, saying that those decisions had set back efforts to free the hostages and end the war.

One of the lawmakers who visited Israel with the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation also indicated that she had not heard in meetings with Israeli leaders a concrete plan for bringing the war to an end.

Rep. Julie Fedorchak (R-ND) told Jewish Insider she had been interested during the trip to examine the increasing hostility by European countries and others toward Israel, including their decisions to recognize a Palestinian state, and their public postures blaming Israel for the humanitarian issues in Gaza.

“It is not supported by the facts on the ground. … Europe’s actions definitely set back the … negotiations for Hamas releasing the existing hostages — potentially resulting in them dying,” Fedorchak said. “It’s maddening that these countries that should know better, or should take the time to find out better, are taking these very unhelpful positions.”

She called on the European leaders and others criticizing Israel to visit the sites of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and meet with Hamas’ victims, calling it “almost unfathomable that people are blaming Israel.”

“Go talk to the families whose houses were invaded, and the parents of 15-year-olds who died being shot at in a safe room, trying to hold the door from the terrorist on the other side,” Fedorchak said, “families who had to watch their women be raped and abused. The 300 young people that were killed at the music festival.”

Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) told JI that it was critical for the group, and for supporters of Israel in general, to “continue to make clear the lie being spread about starvation” — which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted does not exist in the enclave while President Donald Trump has said there is “real starvation.”

Fine also said it was crucial to “stand up to these countries like France and the U.K. and Canada and Australia that have fully embraced Muslim terror and want to reward it.” 

He likewise argued that the European countries’ actions had extended the war. Fine said he’s not worried, however, about longer-term fallout from the shift away from Israel by some of its longtime European allies.

“I’ve always thought Israel needs to stop caring about what the world thinks and take care of itself,” he said. “There’s lots of antisemites in the world, they’re always looking for an excuse. … All of this stuff is simply an excuse to let your inner antisemitism out. That’s all any of it is.”

Fedorchak indicated that Israeli leaders had not laid out a concrete plan for how they would bring the war to an end.

“The big question of how do you end this, and how do you get out of it with the hostages alive — I didn’t ever hear a real great plan for that. I think that’s a million-dollar question,” Fedorchak said, highlighting concerns about the hostages being held in potentially booby-trapped tunnels, the risks to Israeli soldiers in the ongoing military campaign and the likelihood that further concessions to Hamas in negotiations will further embolden the terror group.

“I was frustrated that a long-term solution — or even an immediate solution for the war — is very elusive. I wish that it hadn’t gone on so long. I wish that when the hostages were first taken, the whole world would have stood with Israel and tried to get them back right away … so it wasn’t allowed to drag out so long,” she said.

Fine said that specific plans for ending the war would be sensitive for Israel to share, but that the goals remain the same, of bringing home the hostages and ensuring that terrorists do not continue to control Gaza.

“It has to get to an end point, so I am confident that it will get there,” Fine said. “I’m disappointed that I think these European countries, in their publicly backing Hamas, drag it out. If I was in Taiwan right now, I’d consider going into China and killing a bunch of people, because that seems to be the great way to get your country recognized.”

Fedorchak said she was struck by how the ongoing hostage crisis “has pretty much frozen in time that invasion in Israel, and everybody is reliving it pretty much constantly,” adding that the ongoing hostage situation is an “an ongoing, terrible human rights offense by Hamas.”

She added that the trip had highlighted the proximity of the threats that Israel faces: The lawmakers were forced to take shelter from a rocket attack on their first night in Israel. “You can’t appreciate what that’s like if you don’t go there and see it.”

The group also met with leadership from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Fine said that the meeting was an opportunity to learn more about its efforts — including that “they haven’t used any lethal force at all since they set up their sites,” he said.

He also noted that the GHF leaders told the group they had been trying to work with Hamas, “but the U.N.’s not interested in working with them, because the U.N. is an offshoot of Hamas.”

Fedorchak said that GHF leadership gave the impression that the organization was “making progress” in expanding aid deliveries and aiming to open more distribution sites. 

She said the U.S. should continue providing humanitarian aid and called on other nations to do so as well, calling it “critical” to protecting and supporting the Palestinians “that are really stuck there” as Israel continues its efforts to defeat Hamas, either through military means or a Hamas surrender.

“Hamas still has a stranglehold on the leadership and governing in Palestine or in Gaza, and they’re a terrorist organization with the [goal] of eliminating Israel,” Fedorchak said. “So that’s not going to work long term there. I don’t envision any time where Hamas can lead Gaza and provide peace and economic stability for the people there and for their neighbors to the east and north of Israel. So Hamas has to go.”

Nevertheless, Fedorchak said she came away feeling hopeful about the potential future beyond the war, saying that there’s “a lot of promise” for expanding the Abraham Accords and ultimately “hopefully providing an opening for a new pro-peace Palestinian leadership to take root in Gaza and the West Bank.”

Fine, who has traveled to Israel before and has quickly built a name for himself as a combative supporter of Israel in his short time since taking office, said he was grateful for all of the colleagues who joined the trip and showed their support for Israel.

“It was good to see that the anti-Israel voices are small and they are loud,” Fine said. “The vast majority of my colleagues, I think, are even more pro-Israel now than they were before. … I don’t think we can give too much attention to the antisemites in Congress. I think the vast majority of Republicans are more pro-Israel now than they were before, not less.”

He argued that an overlapping trip by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) — during which Johnson offered support for Israel asserting full sovereignty over the West Bank, which Fine refers to by its biblical name, Judea and Samaria — is a signal of Republicans’ continued and increased affinity for the Jewish state.

Addressing those — including some Republican lawmakers — who’ve grown frustrated with Israel’s leadership and the war in Gaza, Fine said that “their frustrations are misplaced.”

“The … people who it appears are starving in Gaza are the hostages,” he said. “The responsibility for all of this lies with the Muslim terrorists. This all ends if they release the hostages and surrender.”

Fedorchak said that the visit had given her “a greater appreciation for the value of America and our willingness to stand up for the ideals” that the U.S. shared with Israel and its allies. 

“I appreciate that the U.S. is willing to be on the front lines defending that, and the partnership with us and Israel is obviously central to Israel’s ongoing strength and existence in the Middle East,”  she said. “It’s really valuable to have an ally like Israel in the Middle East.”

Fedorchak said she was deeply impressed with Israel’s “resourcefulness,” both in developing impressive weapons and defensive systems as well as in agriculture, and with Israelis’ focus on family, patriotism and national service.

Fine noted that the group had also received a briefing about the atrocities committed against the Druze in Syria, and condemned the international community for its comparative lack of attention on that crisis. “Nobody cares when you see Druze being slaughtered in Syria … no Jews, no news,” he said.

Asked about whether the U.S. should adjust its policy toward the new Syrian government in response to the attacks against the Druze, Fine declined to weigh in specifically, while reiterating that the situation is “dire” and is being overlooked.

In addition to the large group meetings, Fine said he’d taken several one-on-one meetings at the request of Israeli leaders, including with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee Chairman Simcha Rothman and members of Israel’s foreign ministry.

He said that those meetings had also focused on Israeli security issues — ”making sure Israel is safe and secure, Jews are safe and secure and having zero tolerance for Muslim terror.”

Fine also said that he was stopped by Israelis repeatedly during the trip who recognized him and were “appreciative of the stands that I’ve taken, about wearing a kippah.”

American-Israeli venture capitalist Michael Eisenberg isn’t just watching Israel’s transformation — he’s trying to shape it. As cofounder of the prominent investment fund Aleph, early backer of companies including Lemonade and WeWork, and a longtime thought leader in the intersection of Judaism, economics and technology, Eisenberg has become an influential voice in Israel’s public discourse.

In a wide-ranging conversation on the Misgav Mideast Horizons podcast, co-hosted by Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov, Eisenberg discussed the impact of the war in Gaza on Israeli society and the tech sector, what the government must do to turn postwar recovery into long-term renewal and why he sees young Israelis as a “defining generation.” 

“It’s not just a defining generation for Israel, it’s a defining generation for the West,” Eisenberg said. “These were kids that everybody was worried about, that they were behind their screens, Instagram, TikTok, who put it all aside and got up to defend the values of Israel, the safety of Israel, the people of Israel and by extension, Western civilization, because Islamism is on the rise.”

Eisenberg also made the case for an ambitious AI-powered regional alliance between Israel and its Abraham Accords partners — and warned that Israel’s political dysfunction could squander the opportunity.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Q: When you look at the Israeli tech ecosystem over the next five years, look at Israeli society in general over the next five years, what makes you optimistic and what makes you worried?

Michael Eisenberg: Part of what makes me optimistic is the youth of Israel. Two years into this war that nobody wanted, two years into a war that saw hundreds of thousands of people called up to reserves — [I have] sons, sons-in-law who have probably done more than 1,500 days of reserve duty in Gaza or mandatory service in Gaza. We currently have two kids in the army right now. 

These kids have proven to be what I called already in November 2023 the “defining generation.” It’s not just a defining generation for Israel, it’s a defining generation for the West. These were kids that everybody was worried about, that they were behind their screens, Instagram, TikTok, who put it all aside and got up to defend the values of Israel, the safety of Israel, the people of Israel and by extension, Western civilization, because Islamism is on the rise.

And Hamas is not even an extreme version of Islamism. It is one of the variants of this disease called Islamism, which is a mutant form of Islam promulgated by the Muslim Brotherhood, and these kids stood up, risked their lives, some of them lost their lives. I lost two cousins since Oct. 7.

The most important reason to be optimistic about Israel is the young people here who have shown incredible courage, conscientiousness, responsibility, fortitude and innovation in tackling this problem. I’m a high-tech investor in my day job. The amount of innovation that this war has brought out of Israelis, like magic stuff, the AI and space lasers, etc., but also just simple innovation. Just the amount of ingenuity that has come out is stunning, and people are paying attention to it. The U.S. Department of Defense just issued [a statement that] they want technologies that have been battle-tested. There’s nowhere where technologies have been more battle-tested than Israel, maybe Ukraine second, but certainly kind of the high-tech wizardry and missiles — it’s Israel. I think that sets us up now for a lot of positives. 

What worries me is a lack of political will. And I use one example of it. We need to borrow the money to fight the war, but at the same time, politicians need to rise out of the sectarianism and to make the hard political decisions to cut the budget in places which are not growth investments or investments in security. Period. Full stop. 

Q: What needs to change?

A: Israel is not necessarily on the best path. We went into the war with a debt-to-GDP ratio in the low 60s; we can finance our welfare state for the most part. However, to the best of my knowledge, there’s nobody in the Israeli government or the Ministry of Finance who sits down and says, “OK, these shekels are for investments in future growth; these shekels are just handouts or part of the welfare state.” The only way to get our debt-to-GDP ratio back to where it needs to be, post the war — and again, we should borrow money to prosecute this war and win it as fast as possible — is to grow. In order to grow, you need investments in infrastructure. The investments in infrastructure are more limited because we spend way too much on the spending part of the ledger, which is non-investment, whether it’s supporting ultra-Orthodox yeshivas or unproductive parts of society in general.

Western society has been taken over by progressive nonsense in which you fund the fringes, instead of focusing on the core of society. The core of Israeli society serves. We can’t afford [funding the fringes] and we need to make the cuts necessary to be able to focus on the core needs of society, which is defense. We need to revamp our education system completely from the ground up. We need to make sure that our health system is taken care of, because we’re one of the best health systems on the planet, but it’s falling behind because it’s both underfunded and there aren’t enough doctors and nurses in the system. These are solvable problems, but they need shekels that are being frittered away elsewhere.

Q: Is it just an issue of priorities? At the Knesset last year, at a hearing on AI, you described Israel’s approach as amateurish and said that nobody in the Knesset knows what they’re talking about. What do you think Israel needs to do to ensure its leadership is moving forward in critical tech areas like AI and defense tech?

A: Generally, in technology, civilian innovation wins, and we’re very good at that. Nobody said, “Hey, go do defense tech.” People came out of Gaza and said, “Hey, I saw drones or missiles or AI, I can do this.” Defense tech has popped up without any government help, and that’s the way it should be. 

AI is an entirely different story. AI is infrastructure for the future nation state, like nuclear power, like nuclear weapons. This is what will define the winning nation states of the coming 100 years. And it’s infrastructure, because it needs a lot of energy, because you need a lot of human beings with a lot of degrees. We’re a small country, so we need to bring some of these people either back, because they left, or [bring them] in, because there’s not a small number of Jews or other people who would want to live in Israel that we can bring into this.

Q: You recently said the following about AI: “As Europe declines and the east and south rise, Israel and our Abrahamic partners are perfectly placed as the innovation ecosystem that will help drive their economies and drive an AI future in this region and a realigned world.” How do you think Israeli innovation and AI can change Israel’s standing in the world and change the Middle East more broadly?

A: The leadership of Israel has always been very tactical. Part of it, I think, comes from a survival mentality and instinct. But we are now a regional superpower. We need to think like a regional superpower and that requires much more strategy, but it also requires working with our neighbors. 

The UAE has spent incredible amounts of time, energy, money and professionalism, and they’ve done incredible work on AI strategy. They figured out, to their credit, that what they have in abundance is energy, and their capability to do large projects, I would argue, is almost second to none. The Emiratis are incredible at building infrastructure projects, whether it’s the new airport in Abu Dhabi, the airport in Dubai, the energy fields. It’s mind-boggling and a sight to behold. I admire them greatly. 

The Saudis have launched this initiative called HUMAIN. The Saudis, I think, are behind the Emiratis, but they have abundant energy and abundant money to be able to bring chips in, and perhaps, although I’m skeptical of it, to bring manufacturing in. 

What they all lack is talent. What do we have? We’re way worse than the Emiratis at building big projects. We have way less energy abundance, but we have real innovation talent. Number two, we have a relationship with the United States, which wants to kind of own this sphere of AI, that almost nobody has. Now we have this new energy agreement that was signed by the prime minister when he was in Washington a couple of weeks ago, and an AI agreement and very friendly people coming into the State Department. 

Q: When you look at the coalition politics, the question is, can we get there? You can be supportive of Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu, you can be critical of him, but he has a vision for the Israeli economy and for Israeli technological development. But when you look at the broader political spectrum, you don’t seem to have that kind of strategic thinking and the economic vision is often subsumed by politics. Most of Netanyahu’s partners are not free-market capitalists like he is.

A: I actually think that a not-small part of the Likud party, currently in government, is socialist. All the ultra-Orthodox parties are socialists, even though the bases of these parties are not socialists. I think Prime Minister Netanyahu is a capitalist, but below him on the list are a lot of people who unfortunately have the wrong view of economics, or forgot what socialism is, and certainly the ultra-Orthodox politicians who just want handouts without responsibility. They just want to kind of keep the people underfoot.

Q: So what do you do about it? 

A: To use a different example, because it’s less personal. You ask yourself, How is it plausible that Keir Starmer, the prime minister of the U.K., has said such a dumb thing [recognizing a Palestinian state]? I don’t think there is a dumber statement ever made by a politician. We should say it openly. He may have killed the hostages by caving to Hamas and the Palestinian narrative. [French President Emmanuel] Macron, also. These two may be responsible for the life of our hostages because of stupid things that they said. 

Why are people so stupid? And the answer is, because all politics, at the end of the day, are local. My friend Eugene Kandel, the former economic advisor for the prime minister, said the KPI [key performance indicator] of every politician is to get reelected. That’s what they want. And you look at the voting bases, under Starmer and under Macron, there are a lot of Islamists there in these countries. And so they’re pandering to the base. 

I think a lot of this in democratic politics, unfortunately, comes down to a lack of leadership and people who pander to the base, and populism has become popular again. But the laws of physics for every action is an equal and opposite reaction. I hope that there is going to be an era of leadership that follows this era of populism, because I think people are sick and tired of the amateur hour that has become much of government, technology and economic policy. They’re sick and tired of it. And they’re sick and tired of the cost of living going up here. 

When you want to be a regional superpower, you can’t run a country like this in the modern era, and we need to fix that. This younger generation is incredible. They’re going to fix it. 

Q: We’ve seen the negative impact of campaigns against Israel, not just in Europe, but particularly in the U.S., where we’ve seen a drop in public opinion towards Israel. You’ve talked a lot about narrative and storytelling and how it applies to startups, but when you look at Israel, what do you think it should be doing differently?

A: I did some work at the beginning of the war on bot networks, and how this coordinated campaign got unleashed on Oct. 8. Amazingly, there were Google Drives all over campuses in America that had posters that you could download and print. The people were ready for this. The Network Contagion Research Institute run by Joel Stein has done an incredible job recently of charting this, and there is a very, very well-honed narrative meme-making system, probably funded by Qatar in various ways, that has gotten the best of the West and Israel, too. 

You have a very complicit media. You just look at that picture of the poor kid with MS that ends up on the cover of all these pages, and you look at the inside deliberations of The New York Times where they knew the problem and they still decided to publish it. It is outrageous, by the way. You can read on my Twitter, I’m calling for the New York Times editor Joe Kahn to resign. In this case, Kahn got it right, and he still published it. The guy is complicit in spreading false narratives to a level of nobody anywhere in the world. 

We need to start playing offense and not defense. And unfortunately, I think the government and the narrative are always defensive, rather than offensive, and we wait for the crisis to happen rather than crafting the narrative ourselves. 

What is the narrative? I think the answer is, we are Israel. Israel is the freest, most innovative, most initiative-taking society in the world, and it is the most mutually responsible. You want to raise your children here, because they grow up with mutual responsibility for their society and in an emergent regional superpower. Together with our cousins in the UAE and Saudi Arabia and the southern part of the Mediterranean in Greece and Italy, we can define this region as a future model for the world. 

Q: What impact has the war had on the tech sector and the economy? It seems that things are better than anyone could have predicted.

A: Israel is the best-performing stock market in the world since October 2023. It’s pretty mind-blowing. It’s been very resilient. 

Since the war started, numerous American funds have been set up in Israel. People want to access the innovation. I’ve been working very, very hard to try to develop the finance sector here. I think the current Finance Minister [Bezalel Smotrich] has figured this out, and I think you’ll see some news in the future about a regulatory and tax overhaul to enable the emergence of the finance industry. We need a second industry other than tech. 

In tech, cyber carried us this far, but it’s not enough to carry us to the next phase. We need the AI enabled services businesses to sell globally from here — like Lemonade, which I was lucky to be the first investor in, is the fastest growing insurance company in the world. It’s an AI native business and we now operate globally, we started here. We need these businesses to grow so that we have more engines of growth other than just cyber and defense. 

Q: Now for a more personal question. You have eight kids. How do you manage running a large investment fund, writing books, chairing charitable organizations, owning a winery — and being a dad and grandfather?

A: I think the secret in life is kind of two things. Marry well, and I was very fortunate to meet my wife young, and we’ve had just an incredible relationship and partnership and raising a family together, and incredible business partners and in the nonprofit universe. And we don’t have a television — I say that half in jest, but it’s kind of true, I don’t have that many hobbies in life.

Even on the books that I’ve published, I have an incredible editor who is also a thought partner and challenges me really hard and fine tunes me quicker. So everything in life is who you partner with. And then my only two real hobbies that I have that I enjoy very much are skiing, which you can only do a small number of days a year, unfortunately, and drinking Israeli wine. I just want to write books and help Israel and the Jewish people. That’s my life. And raise our family together. 

I actually don’t believe in work-life balance. I think this is a terrible promise that psychologists make to kids, and it’s just false. What is balanced about the last two years? If I’ve promised you that your life is going to be balanced and you encounter the last two years, you will have failed, because there’s no balance. No one promised my daughter, who had three kids and now had her fourth in the middle of the war and her husband was 300-plus days in reserve duty, any balance this year. What we need to do is to tell people that there are trade-offs in life because there are 24 hours a day and seven days in a week, and we try to be as good as we can at everything, and we’re going to fail. And I think that builds resilience.

What I think Israel has in spades is optimism and resilience. Optimism and resilience. That’s the reason I’m bullish on Israeli society in this generation, that’s because they’re battle hardened. They have built resilience. It hasn’t been easy. Nothing is easy. That’s real life.

We got knocked on our butts, and we got up and gave it back, and it’s had a tremendous price. It still has a price. The hostages are still the price. There’s still people fighting in Gaza, and unfortunately, soldiers being killed and a lot of broken hearts and a lot of widows and orphans who are our responsibility collectively. But we have, unfortunately, through trauma, built resilience, and now we need to get to the post-traumatic growth phase.

Israel’s decision to take control of Gaza City is meant to prevent further prolonging the war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday. 

The prime minister’s comments come as elements of the Israeli right and nearly all of the left have railed against the decision, further destabilizing the prime minister’s hold on Israel’s leadership.

In a video statement on Saturday night, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he had “lost trust that the prime minister can and wants to lead the IDF to a decisive victory.”

At the same time, tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv to protest against the Cabinet’s decision, calling for an immediate hostage deal.

Speaking Sunday at a press conference for foreign media in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said that “Hamas still has thousands of terrorists in Gaza … Hamas is refusing to lay down its arms, so Israel has no choice but to finish the job.”

”Contrary to false claims,” the prime minister argued, “this is the best way to end the war and to end it speedily.” 

Rather than take control of Gaza City, part of the remaining 25% of Gaza that Israel does not control, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir presented to the Security Cabinet on Thursday night a strategy of surrounding those areas, while expressing concern about the safety of the 20 hostages believed to still be alive if a military takeover is attempted.

As to whether Israel’s new plan puts hostages in further danger, Netanyahu said that “the option of just doing a war of attrition from a defensive position has not proved itself. It won’t bring [the hostages] out … [It will lead to a] protracted conflict that won’t bring the war to an end.”

”I don’t want to prolong the war. I want to end the war, and I think the other option would have prolonged the war,” he added. “Prolonging the war means that many of them could be starved to death.” 

Netanyahu also emphasized Israel’s “five principles for concluding the war,” authorized by the Security Cabinet, which he said were his “day-after plan” for Gaza. They consist of disarming Hamas, returning the hostages, demilitarizing Gaza, Israeli security control of the enclave and establishing a civilian administration for Gaza led by neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.

Though Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News last week that Israel plans to take control of all of Gaza, the Security Cabinet decision announced early Friday morning fell short of that. 

The Security Cabinet voted early Friday, after a 10-hour meeting that began the previous day, for the IDF to “prepare for taking control of Gaza City while distributing humanitarian assistance to the civilian population outside the combat zones.” 

Netanyahu continued to speak of the IDF seizing all of Gaza on Sunday, presenting an image of the “remaining Hamas strongholds” of Gaza City and the “central camps and Moassi,” a second enclave. A spokesperson for the prime minister clarified to Jewish Insider after the press conference that “the decision that was authorized is about Gaza City. Later, if needed, the central camps as well.”

Netanyahu said that, as Israel did before maneuvering into Rafah over a year ago, it plans to move the population out of Gaza City, “safeguard the civilian population and let us go, at last, into the most important stronghold of Hamas.” 

Gaza City is only part of the remaining 25% of Gaza not currently controlled by the IDF. Reports indicate that the IDF said  it will take two months to move the civilian population out of the city; Netanyahu said he instructed the military to do it in less time because he wants to finish the war as soon as possible.

That two-month window leaves an opening for another ceasefire deal as Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. are reportedly working on reviving negotiations.  

The plan was supported by “a decisive majority of Security Cabinet ministers,” according to the Prime Minister’s Office. 

Smotrich accused Netanyahu of “making a U-turn” from a plan they devised together “to go all the way,” involving “dramatic moves to bring victory in Gaza, a combination of a quick military victory and an immediate diplomatic move to exact a painful price from Hamas, destroy its military and civilian capabilities, and put unprecedented pressure to free the hostages.” 

Instead, Smotrich argued, the Security Cabinet chose to support “an immoral, unreasonable folly,” that would involve “sending tens of thousands of fighters to maneuver in Gaza City while endangering their lives and paying heavy diplomatic and international prices, only to pressure Hamas to free hostages and then retreat.”

“I cannot back this decision. My conscience doesn’t allow it … No more stopping [the war] in the middle … We must make a clear, sharp move to defeat Hamas and bring the hostages home all at once,” he stated.

Despite saying that he lost trust in Netanyahu, Smotrich did not say he was leaving the coalition. Instead, he called for another Security Cabinet meeting to further discuss Israel’s next steps in Gaza.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who, like Smotrich, has pushed for more aggressive moves in the war in Gaza, told Army Radio on Sunday that Smotrich turned down his offer to present an ultimatum to Netanyahu to quit the government if it does not accept a plan to “go in, destroy, conquer.” Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have called for Israel to fully occupy Gaza and build Israeli settlements in the enclave.

Smotrich’s outspoken criticism is a signal of the growing leverage he holds within Netanyahu’s volatile government. Netanyahu currently has a minority coalition, holding just 60 out of the Knesset’s 120 seats, making his political situation tenuous. The United Torah Judaism and Noam parties left the coalition last month over disputes relating to sanctions for Haredim who do not serve in the IDF.

Tzvi Sukkot, a lawmaker from Smotrich’s Religious Zionism Party, wrote in a post on X on Sunday morning, “if we are going back to Oct. 6, 2023 and decide to give up on the war aims, it is an existential threat to the State of Israel. If that is the situation, in my humble opinion, we must go to an election.” 

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote Smotrich a letter asking for his support for a bill to disperse the Knesset, which would trigger an election.

“You admitted that the prime minister’s policy is not bringing a decisive victory in Gaza, is not bringing back our hostages and is not winning the war,” Lapid wrote. “You added that you cannot stand behind the prime minister and back him anymore. In light of this, I call you to join me in a letter to the Knesset speaker in which we can say there was a significant change in circumstances that justifies bringing up the bill to disperse the Knesset again.”

At the same time, the political opposition and the Hostages Families Forum spoke out against the more aggressive approach in Gaza approved by the Security Cabinet, pointing to Zamir’s opposition to the move.

Lapid called the decision “a disaster that will lead to many additional disasters.” 

“In total opposition to the opinion of the military and security levels, without consideration for the exhaustion and attrition of the fighting forces, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich dragged Netanyahu to a move that will take many months, will lead to the death of hostages, to many soldiers killed, will cost tens of billions of Israeli taxpayer money and will lead to diplomatic collapse. That’s just what Hamas wants,” Lapid said. 

“As we approach the tragic one-year anniversary of the murder of six hostages who were executed by their captors, the expansion of fighting only further endangers those still held in Gaza’s tunnels,” the forum stated. “Hamas continues to exploit military escalation as justification for its brutal treatment of our loved ones … Our government is leading us toward a colossal catastrophe for both the hostages and our soldiers. The Cabinet chose last night to embark on another march of recklessness, on the backs of the hostages, the soldiers, and Israeli society as a whole.”

Tens of thousands gathered for the weekly demonstrations in central Tel Aviv Saturday night, blocking the city’s central artery, the Ayalon Highway. Some of the hostages’ relatives called for a general strike on Sunday and for soldiers to refuse orders.

Shai Mozes, nephew of released hostage Gadi Mozes, said that following the Security Cabinet decision, “the mission you’ll be given is participation in killing the hostages. In this situation, there is no choice but to refuse.” 

Several hostages’ relatives expressed support for a general strike, as did Lapid. The Hi-Tech Forum, representing dozens of Israeli tech companies and hedge funds, said they would allow their employees to miss work if a strike is held.

The Histadrut, Israel’s national labor union, declined to support a strike, following a court ruling last year that they can only strike for explicitly labor-related reasons.

Netanyahu also discussed the humanitarian situation in Gaza in the press conference Sunday, saying that Israel’s “policy throughout the war has been to prevent a humanitarian crisis while Hamas’ policy is to create it.”

Israel is working to avoid a humanitarian crisis by designating safe corridors for aid distribution, increasing safe distribution points managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and continuing airdrops by Israel and other countries, he said.

”The only ones being deliberately starved in Gaza are our hostages,” Netanyahu argued, displaying a screenshot from a video Hamas released last week of hostage Evyatar David and contrasting his emaciated arm with the much thicker one of his captor.

Netanyahu also displayed photographs of children from Gaza who appeared in the foreign media alongside claims that they had been starved by Israel, and listed the congenital diseases from which they suffered that were not originally reported. He said his office is looking into whether Israel can sue The New York Times over the matter.

The prime minister compared the claims to blood libels: “We were said to be spreading vermin in Christian society; we were said to be poisoning the wells; we were said to slaughter Christian children for blood. That was followed by massive violence, pogroms, displacement, followed by the worst of all, the Holocaust.”

”The international press is falling for Hamas propaganda, hook line and sinker,” he added, standing next to the text “Open your eyes to Hamas’s lies.” 

Netanyahu also said he had ordered the IDF to allow more foreign journalists into Gaza.

However, he stated, “We will not commit suicide to get a good op-ed.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) expressed strong concern about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza in an appearance on CNN’s “The Lead” on Wednesday.

Johnson’s comments, made days after President Donald Trump said that there is “real starvation” happening in Gaza, indicate growing concern even among pro-Israel Republicans about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, at the same time that such concerns on the Democratic side have reached new heights.

“I do hope it comes to an end soon,” Johnson said about the war in Gaza, “and we bring an end to this suffering and misery, because it is quite sad and quite alarming to see.”

He said that “we’ve got a humanitarian crisis in Gaza — I mean the pictures tell 1,000 words and it’s heartbreaking.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that there is “no starvation” happening in the enclave.

The House speaker said that he wants to see an end to the conflict and peace, adding that “President Trump is using a strong hand to try to forge that, and we’re moving in the right direction.” 

He also credited Israel with opening up new channels for aid and noted that the U.S. and its partners are going to work to provide additional aid as well.

Johnson did not mention Hamas, which some supporters of Israel argue should shoulder the blame for any aid shortages and the lack of a ceasefire in Gaza.

Johnson didn’t directly address a question from host Jake Tapper about whether he’s concerned that Israel is at risk of becoming a global pariah.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) on Tuesday warned that the war in Gaza appears to be turning into a “quagmire” akin to the Iraq war, without clear objectives or any realistic end point.

The pro-Israel Democrat has grown more vocal lately about his criticisms of the Israeli government and how it has been handling the war in Gaza, as concern about the humanitarian situation in the enclave has mounted on both sides of the aisle. He has also continued to offer support for Israel and emphasize that Hamas is primarily responsible for the war in Gaza.

“I want to see Israel secure the release of hostages and end the war, because as long as the war persists, there’s a real potential — our experience with Afghanistan and Iraq tells us that wars in the Middle East can morph into quagmires that have no clear end in sight that have no clearly defined strategic objectives,” Torres said in an interview with The Bulwark.

“I feel this is a quagmire that could persist indefinitely with no clear end in sight,” he continued, a situation he said would limit the Israeli economy and expansion of the Abraham Accords. He said the Israeli government has failed to outline clear objectives for the war. “It feels like a quagmire reminiscent of the war in Iraq.”

He said that Israel has been “extraordinarily effective” in its operations against Hezbollah and Iran, “but [I] have concerns about the war in Gaza.” 

Torres said that “war becomes a process of mutual dehumanization which we’re seeing in real time. There should be space in the American heart for the humanity of both Israelis and Palestinians.”

He said that Hamas is the “central cause” and “primarily responsible for the suffering that has been unleashed since Oct. 7.” 

But he also said that the “humanitarian crisis in Gaza is simply and morally unacceptable and all parties including Israel and the United States must do their part to ease the hardship and hunger that has taken hold in the Gaza strip. To me, it is wrong to deny or downplay the crisis.”

He rejected arguments that he said he’d seen from Israeli officials that the crisis in Gaza is purely Hamas propaganda, and said that he can’t deny to constituents concerned about the issue that it is happening.

The correct response, he continued, is “not to downplay it, but it’s to tell our constituents that we are doing everything that we can to ease suffering among Palestinian civilians and children. That the war is not against the Palestinian people. It’s against Hamas.”

For European leaders who are ratcheting up pressure on Israel to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the Jewish state’s moves to pause military activity to allow a freer flow of humanitarian aid and begin airdrops of aid are “steps in the right direction,” the German foreign minister said on Sunday.

But the aid crisis is inextricably linked, observers say, to a much larger and even thornier issue — a deal to end the grinding 21-month war with Hamas and a release of the hostages. Until such a deal is struck, the pressure from Europe, and from some inside Israel, likely won’t ease. And it could worsen, with some experts warning that European sanctions on Israel aren’t out of the question.

Daniel Shek, a former Israeli ambassador to France and a member of the Hostage Families Forum’s diplomatic team, said that the aid airdrops are “a result of international pressure and not sudden altruism.”

However, Shek said, they are “like Tylenol for a cancer patient. Surgery is needed, meaning the end of the war.” 

A spokesperson for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that he is “prepared to increase the pressure if progress [on a ceasefire and humanitarian aid] is not made.”

French President Emmanuel Macron announced last week that his country would recognize a Palestinian state. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot argued that the move “proves [Hamas] wrong. It supports the side of peace against that of war,” because “Hamas has always rejected the two-state solution.” 

The terrorist group praised France’s “positive step in the right direction.” 

England and Germany declined to join France in recognizing a Palestinian state, but their leaders released a statement with Macron focusing on the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and calling for “the most basic needs of the civilian population, including access to water and food [to be] met without further delay” and for Israel “to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid.” 

Israel has argued that it is not restricting the flow of aid into Gaza, but that the U.N. refuses to cooperate with the U.S. and Israel supported Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to distribute it.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that he is “unequivocal” in his support for a Palestinian state, but that recognition must come as “part of a wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis. This is the way to ensure it is a tool of maximum utility.” 

The IDF noted that “responsibility for food distribution to the population lies with the U.N. and international aid organizations. Therefore, the U.N. and international organizations are expected to improve the effectiveness of aid distribution and to ensure that the aid does not reach Hamas.”

Israel initiated on Sunday 10-hour “pauses” in the coming days in areas of Gaza in which there are no IDF ground troops, daily until further notice, “aimed at improving the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip and to refute the false claim of deliberate starvation.” 

In addition to 28 airdrops on the first day, the IDF established corridors to allow the safe movement of U.N. convoys of food and medicine. The military also noted that “responsibility for food distribution to the population lies with the U.N. and international aid organizations. Therefore, the U.N. and international organizations are expected to improve the effectiveness of aid distribution and to ensure that the aid does not reach Hamas.”

Starmer, however, said after the airdrops were announced on Saturday that “Israel must allow aid in over land…The situation is desperate.” 

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said that “humanitarian pauses and aid deliveries into Gaza are steps in the right direction, results of many direct conversations in the last few days. Yet the situation remains unbearable: Hamas must release all hostages, a comprehensive ceasefire is badly needed.” 

Starmer reportedly plans to ask President Donald Trump to return to ceasefire talks with Hamas, during the president’s visit to Scotland on Monday. A source in his office told The Guardian over the weekend that Starmer will “discuss further with [Trump] what more can be done to secure the ceasefire urgently, bring an end to the unspeakable suffering and starvation in Gaza and free the hostages who have been held so cruelly for so long.” 

The U.S. and Israel withdrew their teams from the negotiations in Doha, Qatar, last week, after Hamas rejected a ceasefire and hostage deal by making new demands in areas that had previously been resolved. U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said that Washington was looking for “alternative options,” which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later echoed.

Germany similarly remained concerned about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, with Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul saying that “humanitarian pauses and aid deliveries into Gaza are steps in the right direction, results of many direct conversations in the last few days. Yet the situation remains unbearable: Hamas must release all hostages, a comprehensive ceasefire is badly needed.” 

Merz and Netanyahu spoke on the phone on Sunday. Following the call, Merz said he asked Netanyahu “to do everything in his power to bring about an immediate ceasefire and called on him to allow urgently needed humanitarian aid to reach the starving civilian population in Gaza without delay.” 

Israel is taking a different approach to each major European capital and its statements and actions on Israel, a Foreign Ministry source told Jewish Insider.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry summoned the French charge d’affaires for a demarche by Director-General Eden Bar-Tal on Sunday. A statement from the ministry said that France “chose to harm Israel in its most difficult hour…France directly harmed the negotiations to return the hostages and for a ceasefire and all future diplomatic negotiations.”

Soon after Macron’s announcement on Thursday, Netanyahu said that it “rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became. A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel — not to live in peace beside it. Let’s be clear: the Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel; they seek a state instead of Israel.”

If the war continues, Daniel Shek, a former Israeli ambassador to France and a member of the Hostage Families Forum’s diplomatic team, warned, “we could find ourselves under real pressure, such as sanctions, even from friendly countries that blocked [such steps] until now. Israel is isolating itself.”

Though Berlin has continued to make critical statements, the Foreign Ministry source indicated that Jerusalem still views Germany as a largely supportive country. 

The source noted that while there was significant domestic pressure over Germany’s Israel policy, it has not backed down, such as last week when Berlin declined to join a letter of 28 countries calling to end the war immediately. 

In addition, Germany did not support moves to reexamine Israel’s “association agreement” with the EU, which could result in a chill in relations between Israel and its largest trade partner. Changes in the association agreement would require consensus from all 28 EU member states, several of whom would be unlikely to support downgrading ties with Israel.

Wadephul and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar have met three times since the former entered office three months ago. In one of the meetings he said that Germany would not cut off arms sales to Israel. 

Emmanuel Navon, an international relations lecturer at Tel Aviv University and fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Security Studies, said that the aid drops would likely be enough to stop Germany from taking action against Israel.

“I find it hard to believe that Germany, who we have very close ties with, would do something like [downgrade the association agreement] unless Israel has totally cut off humanitarian aid … For German public agreement, you need aid flowing into Gaza,” he added.

Shek was skeptical that Germany would follow Macron in recognizing a Palestinian state, but said “even Germany is showing signs of impatience and urgency,” and that there are other steps that Berlin could take.

The former ambassador also said he thought that canceling the EU-Israel Association Agreement was unlikely, because Hungary and Eastern European states would not support it. However, he said that the Brussels bureaucracy could slow-walk agreements and cooperation with Jerusalem in areas that often depend on EU grants such as scientific research and culture.

If the war continues, Shek warned, “we could find ourselves under real pressure, such as sanctions, even from friendly countries that blocked [such steps] until now. Israel is isolating itself.”

That being said, Shek and Navon doubted that the latest moves from Europe actually constituted pressure on Jerusalem. 

Shek dismissed angry Israeli reactions to Macron’s “recognition of a virtual Palestinian state state that doesn’t exist … Those reactions are only aimed at the Israeli voter and have no value in international relations.” 

“We need to say Hamas is looting and the U.N. won’t distribute the aid — we don’t need to wait to be accused of starving [Gazans] to say it,” said Emmanuel Navon, an international relations lecturer at Tel Aviv University and fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Security Studies. “The problem is that we wait to be attacked and then we react. Once the accusation is out, it’s hard to correct.”

Navon noted that other G7 countries were not on board with Macron’s initiatives, even those with left-wing governments like the U.K. and Canada.

“Macron has brought relations with Israel to the low of the early to mid 1970s … when France was graded as hostile in Israel’s foreign policy,” Navon said. “It will take years to repair after [Macron].” 

Navon said that Israel needs to be more proactive in communicating what is happening in Gaza: “We need to say Hamas is looting and the U.N. won’t distribute the aid — we don’t need to wait to be accused of starving [Gazans] to say it. The problem is that we wait to be attacked and then we react. Once the accusation is out, it’s hard to correct.”

In addition, Navon said, “Netanyahu needs to get his act together and tell his ministers to shut up or take away their phones.”

He referred to remarks by Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu in a radio interview last week that “the government is racing ahead to wipe out Gaza … All of Gaza will be Jewish.” 

“The prime minister has to have better control of rogue members of his government and party who are causing us terrible damage,” Navon added.

Shek, however, said the way to improve Israel’s relations with Europe and the rest of the world is to end the war in Gaza.

The former ambassador argued that the issue is not one of Israel doing a poor job at explaining the situation to the world: “If all of these countries have reached the conclusion that the war needs to end, then Israel needs to have a discussion with them to find out how they can contribute to a better reality after the war … We need to just get into a conversation about an exit strategy … which is something that the Israeli government has refused to do from Oct. 8, 2023, to this day.” 

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sits down with President Donald Trump today, one question will be on observers’ minds: What will each walk away with?

Netanyahu appeared to come away empty-handed from his April meeting in Washington, after the U.S. imposed tariffs on Israel, among other countries. Weeks later, Trump skipped Israel on his first trip abroad, while visiting three other countries in the region. 

Few knew at the time about Netanyahu’s plans to take on Iran. Following last month’s joint U.S.-Israel military effort to degrade Iran’s nuclear program and military infrastructure, relations between the two leaders have improved to such a degree that last week Trump called twice for an end to the legal proceedings against Netanyahu. A post-strikes-on-Iran victory lap is top of the public agenda for Netanyahu’s White House visit today, while Trump’s other goals, as they relate to Israel, remain works in progress.

The White House wants to wind down the war in Gaza, as Trump has said many times in recent months. After the American bunker busters dealt Iran the final punch that Israel pushed for, the president has newly gained leverage to push Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza — a move the Netanyahu government has thus far resisted until it has achieved its goal of “total victory” against Hamas. Trump told reporters on Sunday night that “there’s a good chance we have a deal with Hamas during the week pertaining to quite a few of the hostages.”

While Israeli negotiators arrived in Doha to work on a hostage deal that Hamas claimed it accepted despite also asking for myriad changes, at home Netanyahu has indicated that he is not yet ready to declare an end to the war, even if he were to accept a temporary ceasefire.

In the Security Cabinet meeting over the weekend, Netanyahu sided with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir in an argument with IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, with the ministers to Netanyahu’s right reportedly raising their voices, about the IDF’s difficulty thus far in keeping Hamas away from food distribution zones.

“I can’t accept the idea that we cannot defeat Hamas, that it will take 30 years,” Netanyahu reportedly said. “That is wrong. It’s a matter of national willpower and implementing the plan to separate Hamas from the population and the aid. We can end the war. We have to start preparing the ground to go in with bulldozers immediately.” 

“I don’t want another committee. Just do it now,” was Netanyahu’s response when Defense Minister Israel Katz tried to mediate, suggesting that Zamir present a plan later this week.

In addition to calling for a ceasefire, the president and members of his administration have been outspoken about their desire to expand the Abraham Accords. Talks between Israel and Syria — brokered by U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, who is also the administration’s special envoy to Syria, and aimed at calming tensions along the border — have taken place in recent weeks, though an agreement on that front remains elusive and is unlikely to be announced this week. 

That’s only part of Washington’s new approach to Syria, which also includes the move earlier this month to lift sanctions on the country. It’s part of the White House’s broader strategy to gain leverage there while Damascus is in transition following the ouster of Bashar al-Assad last December.

With the degrading of a series of regional malign actors — from Hezbollah in Lebanon to Hamas in Gaza to the Assad regime in Syria to the Iranian nuclear program — Trump has a rare opportunity to reassert American power and shake the footholds that Beijing, Tehran and Moscow have built across the region. He’s equally if not more so driven by a desire to be, as he said in his inaugural address, “a peacemaker and unifier.” Bringing an end to the Israel-Hamas war and expanding the Abraham Accords would set Trump on that path.

Israel, and with it, Netanyahu, is a key cog in Trump’s broader vision for the Middle East. The stakes are high for both men, who need to work with each other to achieve both their visions and cement their legacies.

Two roads diverged for Israel’s security cabinet in a Sunday night meeting about Gaza, and since they could not travel both routes, the cabinet decided not to make a decision.

The Security Cabinet met to discuss Israel’s next steps in Gaza after 633 days of war: ceasefire or escalation. 

Some in the IDF high brass argued that the Gaza war’s objectives have been met — noting that the army had destroyed Hamas’ military infrastructure, killed nearly all of the senior Hamas commanders on its target list, dismantled tunnels, seized 60% of Gaza, blocked key smuggling routes — leaving Hamas weaker than it has been since its 2007 takeover of Gaza. They argued that now is the time to pursue an exit strategy, according to military analyst Amir Bohbot.

If there is no ceasefire, the IDF plans to continue its current operation in Gaza, calling up tens of thousands of IDF reservists and moving to conquer 80% of the territory. Officers in the cabinet meeting reportedly warned that doing so could bring about a large number of casualties, including some of the hostages. In the past week, the army has suffered near-daily losses of soldiers in Gaza. 

On Monday, the IDF called on the residents of several neighborhoods in northern Gaza to evacuate, warning that military operations in their areas would escalate and intensify.

President Donald Trump’s choice is clear: “MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!” he wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. Two days earlier, he said there could be a ceasefire within a week.

What a ceasefire would mean is unclear. The parties could agree to a temporary ceasefire, which Israelis have called the “Witkoff outline,” after Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. Such a ceasefire would last 60 days, with the release of half of the remaining 50 hostages, 21 of whom are thought to be alive, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including terrorists, and increased humanitarian aid flow into Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied a report last week that he and Trump discussed a sweeping plan to end the Gaza war and expand the Abraham Accords, but a source with knowledge of the matter told Jewish Insider on Monday that much of the details are, in fact, currently in talks, even if they may still be far from fruition. 

Among the elements under discussion are the exile of remaining Hamas leaders from Gaza, and for Israeli troops to remain along Gaza’s perimeter — the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border is still under debate — and for the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Saudi Arabia to take a central role in Gaza’s administration. In addition, there have been talks about normalization between Israel and Syria.

Netanyahu’s rush to deny the original report — which included Israeli acknowledgment of a future Palestinian state — underscores the degree to which he believes such a move would be politically toxic and could threaten to break up his governing coalition.

Of course, the U.S. and Israel can make plans, but Hamas has ideas of its own. Negotiators have on multiple occasions leaked the details of past ceasefire proposals, only for Hamas to reject the deals on the table. As Michael Milshtein, an expert on Palestinian affairs at Tel Aviv University, told Israel’s Kan Radio on Monday morning, “even after Iran blew up, Hamas is sticking to the same stance … [that] the IDF must fully withdraw” from Gaza.

More recently, Trump has found a different culprit for the lack of a ceasefire: the Israeli judiciary. For the second time in recent days, the president took to his social media network to lament that “it is terrible what they are doing in Israel to Bibi Netanyahu … How is it possible that the Prime Minister of Israel can be forced to sit in a Courtroom all day long, over NOTHING  (Cigars, Bugs Bunny Doll, etc.). It is a POLITICAL WITCH HUNT, very similar to the Witch Hunt that I was forced to endure. This travesty of ‘Justice’ will interfere with both Iran and Hamas negotiations.”

One part of Trump’s Truth Social post raised alarm bells in the Israeli commentariat, with some interpreting the president’s words as a threat: “The United States of America spends Billions of Dollar a year, far more than on any other Nation, protecting and supporting Israel. We are not going to stand for this,” he wrote. “This greatly tarnishes our Victory [in Iran].”

The judge in Netanyahu’s trial was not convinced by Trump’s first post on social media, nor by a confidential letter from Netanyahu saying that there are urgent security matters requiring the postponement of the prime minister’s planned cross-examination this week. However, when the head of the Mossad and the head of IDF intelligence showed up at the courthouse hours after Trump’s second post on Sunday, Netanyahu received the deferral that both he and Trump wanted.

Asked whether Netanyahu’s trial is holding up a possible ceasefire in Gaza, Amichai Cohen, head of the Israel Democracy Institute’s Program on National Security and the Law, told JI that “it’s common sense that if critical things are happening in the war in Gaza, there won’t be proceedings. You don’t need the [resident of the United States for that to happen; the Israeli system knows how to handle it.” 

Marc Zell, an international lawyer who is the chairman of Republicans Overseas Israel and a frequent defender of Trump in Israeli media, took issue with the interpretation that Trump is tying the issue of the hostages and the war in Gaza with to the trial, beyond the fact that “President Trump is quite understandably concerned that the prime minister is being distracted by what he considers silly political proceedings, which he understands because Trump himself was the object of a similar campaign … Trump is highly motivated to get this thing done and take advantage of what could be a sea change in the politics of the Middle East.”

Cohen and Zell were both skeptical that Trump’s entreaties would have much of an impact on Netanyahu’s case. 

Cohen said that Trump may be trying to get a plea deal for Netanyahu. However, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, whom Netanyahu’s cabinet ministers are currently trying to fire, would have to sign off on it. “I don’t think Trump would influence her,” Cohen said.

However, Trump could pressure Israeli President Isaac Herzog to pardon Netanyahu, which Cohen said was “the only place where politics could play a role. However, he added, “according to past rulings by the High Court, a pardon can only apply to someone who admitted wrong doing” — which Netanyahu has not done.

Zell called the proceedings against Netanyahu “specious,” but defended the independence of Israel’s judiciary. He told JI that Trump’s attempted intervention is “a direct affront to [Israel’s] sovereignty” and that “this is not the business of the U.S.; it’s the business of the State of Israel.”

Of Netanyahu supporters who cheered Trump’s posts, he said: “If we’re inviting a foreign state to interfere in our own proceedings, however misguided they may be … it opens the door to subsequent administrations. This is what the Biden administration did; it tried to interfere in our political processes and stop judicial reform.” 

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to terms to end the war in Gaza and advance other shared interests in a telephone call held shortly after the U.S. struck nuclear sites in Iran earlier this week, according to a new report by Israel Hayom. 

A source familiar with the conversation told the right-leaning Israeli daily that Trump and Netanyahu were joined on the call by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, where the four determined that Israel would end the war in Gaza within two weeks. 

This process would include the exiling of what remains of Hamas’ leadership from Gaza, voluntary emigration for Gazans who elect to leave the territory — though which countries would host them was not specified in the report — and the release of the 50 hostages remaining in Gaza, less than half of whom are thought to be alive. 

Under the terms of the agreement, the UAE and Egypt, along with two other Arab countries, would jointly govern the Gaza Strip after Hamas’ removal.

In addition, the Abraham Accords would be expanded to include Syria and Saudi Arabia, as well as additional Arab and Muslim states.

The plan would also see U.S. recognition of “limited” Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank, while Israel would express support for a future two-state solution premised on reforms within the Palestinian Authority. 

Shortly after the publication of the Israel Hayom report, Netanyahu released a statement saying, “We fought valiantly against Iran — and achieved a great victory. This victory opens up an opportunity for a dramatic expansion of the peace agreements. We are working hard on this.”

“Along with the release of our hostages and the defeat of Hamas, there is a window of opportunity here that must not be missed,” Netanyahu added. “Not even a single day must be wasted.”

The following morning, however, Netanyahu’s office released a new statement saying, “The conversation described in the ‘Israel Today’ report did not happen. The diplomatic proposal described in the article was not presented to Israel and Israel obviously did not agree to it.”

The feasibility of this plan remains in question. The Israeli government has been firm in its opposition to a two-state solution and public opposition to a Palestinian state grew after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks. In April, as French President Emmanuel Macron moved to recognize a Palestinian state, Netanyahu “expressed fierce opposition” to the move in a phone call with Macron and conveyed to him that “a Palestinian state established a few minutes away from Israeli cities would become an Iranian stronghold of terrorism; that the vast majority of the Israeli public opposes that categorically — and that this has been the PM’s consistent and longstanding policy,” according to a readout from the Prime Minister’s Office.

Even the potential acceptance of a future Palestinian state could put Netanyahu’s governing coalition at risk, with not only the parties led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar adamantly opposing one, but most Likud lawmakers, as well.

U.S. lawmakers told Jewish Insider last week after a trip to the region that the normalization process between Saudi Arabia and Israel had been dealt setbacks by and since Oct. 7 and that the Saudis were demanding concrete progress toward a two-state solution before moving forward with normalization. 

Egypt and Saudi Arabia in March condemned moves by the Israeli government to encourage migration from Gaza. The Arab League, meeting earlier that month, also adopted a plan for Gaza’s reconstruction put forward by Egypt where a committee of Gazan professionals would manage the Strip for a period of time until the Palestinian Authority would take over its governance.

JI’s Tamara Zieve contributed to this report.

Israel is feeling victorious after its 12-day war with Iran, culminating in the U.S. strikes on underground nuclear sites that significantly degraded and rolled back Tehran’s nuclear program. While the country is mourning 29 civilian deaths — in addition to seven soldiers killed in Gaza this week — and thousands have lost their homes in missile strikes, nearly two-thirds of Israelis, according to a new poll, think their country won the war.

But there have been some cautionary signals about the state of Iran’s nuclear program since the fighting ended, most notably a leaked Defense Intelligence Agency report from the U.S. that suggested — with reportedly low confidence — that the bombings only set back Iran’s nuclear program by a few months. President Donald Trump, at the NATO summit in the Netherlands on Wednesday, called the DIA intelligence report “fake news” and cited a more favorable Israeli intelligence report as being more reliable. CIA Director John Ratcliffe said Thursday that “a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran’s Nuclear Program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes. This includes new intelligence from a historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years.”

Further dampening the mood was Trump angrily and publicly pressuring Israel not to aggressively respond to a ceasefire violation that came within hours of a volley of missiles that killed several Israelis right before the ceasefire went into effect.

But as Israeli officials and national security experts have taken the time to assess the geopolitical landscape, the overall picture is one of significant military success. 

Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF chief of staff said that “based on the assessments of senior officers in IDF Intelligence, the damage to [Iran’s] nuclear program is … systemic … severe, broad and deep, and pushed back by years.”  

Similarly, in a statement shared by both Israel’s government and the White House, the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission said that “the devastating U.S. strike on Fordow destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable. We assess that the American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, combined with Israeli strikes … have set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years.”

The Trump administration and Israeli officials have an interest in presenting the mission in Iran as successful, which may lead some to trust the intelligence leaks over their statements. However, their assessment of the DIA report as “flat-out wrong,” as the White House put it, is backed up by several experts surveyed by Jewish Insider – though most cautioned that it’s unlikely anyone knows the full extent of the damage yet.

David Albright, president and founder of the Institute for Science and International Security, published an extensive report on the damage, stating that “Israel’s and U.S. attacks have effectively destroyed Iran’s centrifuge enrichment program. It will be a long time before Iran comes anywhere near the capability it had before the attack,” though there are “non-destroyed parts … [that] can be used in the future to produce weapon-grade uranium.” 

Albright cited evidence relating to the sites bombed by the U.S. indicating that “the elimination of, or severe damage to, the majority of the centrifuges at the Natanz site, significant damage to the Fordow underground site, destruction and damage to several facilities at the Isfahan Nuclear Complex, including one used in the conversion of enriched uranium to uranium metal and another that converts natural uranium into uranium hexafluoride.” 

Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JI that the DIA report was assessed as a “low-confidence” analysis and is based only on satellite imagery. “That’s part of the puzzle, but it’s not enough to go on. It gives some sense of what happened above ground, but not a sense of what happened below ground, and that’s the real question,” said Dubowitz.

Even using the satellite imagery, Danny Citrinowicz, an Iran expert at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, told JI that “based on the pictures, it looks a lot worse than the DIA said.” Like the DIA, Citrinowicz was skeptical of Trump’s claims of “obliteration” of the nuclear facilities at Fordow, but he said it appears significantly damaged. “It’s a matter of time. We need to wait patiently,” he said, adding that even the Iranians do not appear to know the extent of the damage yet.

To have a better sense of the damage, “we would need the International Atomic Energy Agency to go there, or an Israeli intelligence assessment on the ground or signal intelligence,” Dubowitz said.

Gerald Steinberg, founder and president of NGO Monitor and a nuclear arms control expert, argued to JI that “estimates of the time it might take Iran to repair enough of the very fragile components are even more speculative” than current damage assessments. 

Still, some of the results are already clear. Steinberg explained that “the banks of rapidly spinning centrifuges used to convert natural uranium into enriched material used to create weapons are highly sensitive to shockwaves caused by earthquakes and nearby high-energy bombs.”

Dubowitz pointed out that centrifuges are so sensitive that about 1,000 were destroyed by an Israeli cyberattack, making them spin too fast. “It’s hard to believe many centrifuges survived a massive crack in a mountain.” 

IDF Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, head of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and the former head of the research division of the Israel Defense Forces’ Intelligence Directorate, noted to JI that while Iran may be able to rebuild parts of its nuclear program from whatever remains of it, the Isfahan conversion facility was purchased from China, and Iran does not know how to build one itself. He posited that China would be unlikely to construct a new one for the Islamic Republic after the IAEA said it had a nuclear weapons program in violation of the Nonproliferation Treaty.

Steinberg said that, in light of the lack of solid information a few days after the U.S. strikes on Iran, he views articles about the DIA assessment citing “anonymous officials who may or may not have read the actual report” in outlets that are highly critical of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “as more political spin than strategic analyses.”

Dubowitz similarly said that “one can speculate that it was clearly done to damage the president … The leak suggested a political motivation. Welcome to Washington, D.C.!”

As to possible spin from the other direction, cheering on the strikes, Citrinowicz accused the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission of putting out a statement “to support Trump. They’re trying to stabilize the narrative that [the nuclear facilities are] obliterated.”

Dubowitz, however, said that the IAEC is “very careful, professional and serious. There is no way they are putting out a report intended to spin anything or help the prime minister sell something that is not true.” 

Looking to the future, Israel “needs to remain vigilant,” Kuperwasser said. Israel “needs to eliminate any new kind of air defense Iran will try to build, in order to maintain freedom of action in the air [above Iran].”

“Israel needs quality intelligence about the details of what Iran is planning and how it may try to advance to break out and build nuclear weapons. We need to advocate that the Americans enter an agreement so that [Iran] cannot enrich uranium or have highly enriched uranium stockpiles, with close ‘anywhere, anytime’ supervision by American inspectors. Israel should make clear what needs to be done to ensure Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon in the future,” Kuperwasser added.

In addition to the lack of clarity about what remains of Iran’s nuclear program, Kuperwasser said there is an “intelligence gap” about the location of Iran’s remaining missile launchers. “We shot many down, up to the very last minute, but we must admit that there are many we did not shoot.” 

Still, Kuperwasser said, “There’s nothing to do now. The nuclear sites are done. If we knew where more launchers were located, we would have shot them.”

Former National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien said that the U.S. cannot allow Iran to rebuild its ballistic missile program. “If they get further along than they were, they could attack Europe or the United States … I think it’s part and parcel of the Iranian nuclear program,” he explained, because ballistic missiles would be used to launch the nuclear weapon. 

Speaking on the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy’s new “Mideast Horizons”  podcast, O’Brien painted a broader picture of the 12-day Israel-Iran war than the specifics of what remains of Iran’s nuclear facilities. (The writer is a senior fellow at the Misgav Institute and co-hosts its podcast.)

“This radical Shia regime in Iran has been a cloud and a pall over the region for 40 years, and the nuclear issue was very dangerous, because if Iran had developed a nuclear weapon, they said that Israel is a one-bomb state … They could [have] eliminate[d] Israel,” he said.

“But it was also a threat to the Gulf monarchies,” O’Brien added. “If Iran had gotten a nuclear weapon, there’s no doubt in my mind that Saudi Arabia would have immediately gone nuclear … and the UAE would have probably developed nuclear weapons very, very quickly. There’s no way the Turks … would have stayed conventional. And you got Egypt … So we would have had a nuclear arms race in the most dangerous part of the world.”

Kuperwasser argued that one significant achievement that has emerged from the war is “breaking down barriers” in demonstrating that the U.S. and Israel are willing and able to successfully attack if the threat from the Islamic Republic becomes acute.

Israel “attacked and had aerial superiority in Iran for nearly two weeks and could have continued for as long as [it] wanted, had international legitimacy and not just American support, but involvement,” he said. “The change in mindset is more important than the physical damage. Iran can build a new Fordow in three or four years; they were already working on more underground facilities, but what is the point if they know that the U.S. has an unlimited number of bombs that they can drop anywhere and are willing to use them?” 

Kuperwasser added a caveat: “As long as we have President Trump. After that, I don’t know. But we are at the beginning of his term, and that is an important asset [for Israel].” 

O’Brien said that Iran is unlikely to maintain a comprehensive ceasefire, even if it isn’t shooting directly at Israel. 

“The Iranians are always in the Axis of Resistance, with Hamas, Hezbollah, Kataib Hezbollah [in Iraq],” he said. “They’re always very reticent to live up to their word and to agree to a ceasefire because they think they can get an advantage in pressing their violence against Israel and against the United States.”

Still, O’Brien was hopeful that the ceasefire “will stay and a lot of the death and destruction that we’ve seen in Tel Aviv, but also in Tehran, will end.”

Vice President JD Vance emphasized  that the United States is “not at war with Iran” but instead “at war with Iran’s nuclear program,” in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” Sunday.

Vance also denied that the U.S. is seeking regime change in Iran but is instead seeking peace with a non-nuclear Iran. He said it’s up to Israel whether it wants to take its own action to kill Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“Our expectation is we’re going to learn a lot about what the Iranians want to do, how they want to proceed over the next 24 hours,” the vice president said. “The president has said he wants, now, to engage in a diplomatic process. But if the Iranians are not going to play ball here, they didn’t leave as many options as it pertains to last night, and they won’t leave as many options in the future.”

He said that if Iran continues its nuclear program, continues to fund international terrorism and attacks U.S. forces, “it will be met with overwhelming force,” but it has the opportunity to rejoin the international community if it changes course.

“What would make sense is for them to come to the negotiating table, to actually give up their nuclear weapons program over the long term,” he reiterated. “And, again, if they’re willing to do that, they’re going to find a willing partner in the United States of America.”

He said the U.S. only took action after it became clear Iran was “stonewalling” in talks and was not serious about negotiations, instead using them as a tactic to build out their nuclear program. “Diplomacy never was given a real chance by the Iranians,” Vance said.

He said that Iran had “stopped negotiating in good faith” and that was “the real catalyst” for the U.S. strikes. Vance said the administration came to the conclusion that talks were stagnant in mid-May.

Vance added that the U.S. had a “limited window” in which to strike Fordow, and that such an operation may not have been feasible in six months.

Asked about the possibility of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the international oil trade, Vance said that such a decision would be “suicidal” for Iran. The Iranian parliament voted Sunday to close the waterway, but that decision will have to be approved by others in the regime.

“Their entire economy runs through the Strait of Hormuz. If they want to destroy their own economy and cause disruptions in the world, I think that would be their decision,” Vance said. “But why would they do that? I don’t think it makes any sense.”

Vance, who has been aligned with the “restrainer” foreign policy camp within the GOP wary of American military interventions, defended Trump’s actions from those critical that the strikes could lead the U.S. to get enmeshed in a protracted conflict in the Middle East once again. 

”The difference is that back then, we had dumb presidents, and now we have a president who actually knows how to accomplish America’s national security objectives. So this is not going to be some long, drawn-out thing,” Vance said.

He said the U.S. has “no interest in boots on the ground.”

Vance emphasized on ABC News’ “This Week” that allowing Iran to achieve a nuclear weapon would not have generated peace in the Middle East.

“We can achieve peace much more fully than if we sort of sit on our hands and hope that somehow, if the Iranians get a nuclear weapon, they’re going to be more peaceful,” the vice president said. “That is a stupid approach, and the president rejected it.”

Vance asserted on “Meet the Press” that the raid had “substantially delayed” the regime’s ability to build nuclear weapons by “many, many years.”

“I’m not going to get into sensitive intelligence about what we’ve seen on the ground there in Iran, but we’ve seen a lot, and I feel very confident that we’ve substantially delayed their development of a nuclear weapon, and that was the goal of this attack,” Vance said. The vice president’s comments match an initial assessment provided by Pentagon leaders Sunday morning.

Vance added on “This Week” that the U.S. will have to “work in the coming weeks to ensure” that Iran’s stockpiles of highly enriched uranium are addressed.

“One of the things that we’re going to have conversations with the Iranians about. But what we know is they no longer have the capacity to turn that stockpile of highly enriched uranium to weapons grade uranium, and that was really the goal here,” Vance said, emphasizing that Iran’s enrichment capacity was the primary U.S. target.

“We’re now going to have a serious conversation about how to get rid of Iran’s nuclear weapons program permanently, meaning they have to choose not to have a nuclear weapons program, and they have to give this thing up,” Vance continued.

With congressional Democrats, and a small group of Republicans, denouncing the strikes as lacking the proper congressional authorization, Vance argued on “Meet the Press” that the president has the authority to “act to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”

“The idea that this was outside of presidential authority, I think any real serious legal person would tell you that’s not true,” Vance said.

Asked about previous U.S. intelligence assessments that Iran was not actively building a nuclear weapon, Vance said, “There’s of course an open question about whether they were weeks away, whether they were months away. But they were way too close to a nuclear weapon for the comfort of the president of the United States, which is why he took this action.”

He said that the final decision had been made based on American, not Israeli, intelligence, and that U.S. intelligence concluded Iran was not interested in serious negotiations.

Iranian ballistic missiles struck Soroka Hospital in Beersheba in southern Israel and sites in the Tel Aviv area on Thursday morning, wounding 89, including three seriously.

A missile struck the hospital’s old surgical building, severely damaging it and causing what a Soroka spokesperson described as “extensive damage in various areas” of the hospital complex. The surgical building had been recently evacuated in light of the war, and patients and staff had been moved to areas with reinforced walls. Injuries from the strike were light, hospital representatives said.

Soroka is the largest hospital in the Negev, such that the strike left a large swath of Israel without a functioning major medical center. Other hospitals in the area, including Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon and Assuta Medical Center in Ashdod, prepared to take in patients from buildings that were damaged. Magen David Adom provided four intensive care buses, able to transport a total of 23 ICU patients and 50 lightly injured casualties.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar wrote that “The Iranian regime fired a ballistic missile at a hospital. The Iranian Regime deliberately targets civilians. The Iranian regime is committing war crimes. The Iranian regime has no red lines.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on X that “Iran’s terrorist dictators shot missiles at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba and the civilian population in the center of the country. We will make the dictators in Tehran pay the full price.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that the price would be to destabilize the Islamic Republic’s regime.

“The prime minister and I instructed the IDF to increase the force of the attacks against strategic targets in Iran and against governmental targets in Tehran to remove the threats to the State of Israel and undermine the Ayatollahs’ regime,” he stated.

Iranian news agency IRNA claimed that the target of the strike was an IDF intelligence outpost in Beersheba’s HiTech Park, which is over a mile away from the hospital. A television channel tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said that the missile was aimed at a “military hospital” in response to strikes on “civilian hospitals” in Gaza.

In the same 30-missile barrage, Iranian missiles struck a school in Holon. No children were present, because schools have been closed across Israel since Friday, but three elderly residents of adjacent buildings were wounded in serious condition, in addition to 62 others with minor to moderate injuries.

Another missile struck near the Ramat Gan Diamond Exchange, abutting Tel Aviv, causing minor injuries to 21 people and damage to 20 buildings in the neighborhood, which includes some of Israel’s tallest buildings.

Shrapnel struck Sheba Medical Center, Israel’s biggest hospital, also in Ramat Gan.

Overnight, the IDF intercepted several drones launched by Iran at Israel towards central and northern Israel. 

Jordanian authorities reported that an Iranian drone fell in a shopping center north of Amman, damaging a car and a bus station. Syrian media reported that an Iranian drone was shot down over the country.

The IDF struck an inactive nuclear reactor near Arak in Iran early Thursday after sending warnings to civilians in the area. The IDF Spokesperson’s Office said the strike included “the structure of the reactor’s core seal, which is a key component in plutonium production.”

“The strike targeted the component intended for plutonium production, in order to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said.

The IDF also gave details of strikes on the active nuclear site in Natanz, which “contained components and specialized equipment used to advance nuclear weapons development and projects designed to accelerate the regime’s nuclear program.” 

In addition, 40 IAF fighter jets struck dozens of military targets in Tehran and other parts of the country, including factories manufacturing ballistic missile and air-defense components, as well as air-defense batteries, surface-to-surface missile storage sites, radar systems and other targets.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir sent a letter of encouragement to IDF soldiers and commanders on Thursday, saying that they are “writing a new chapter in history for the State of Israel and the entire Middle East.”

”Thanks to a decisive and impressive surprise opening strike, we have achieved tremendous goals: We eliminated the regime’s command echelons, delivered a deep blow to the capabilities used for the Iranian nuclear program, identified and struck missile launchers, and we are continuing and increasing the strength of our operations as necessary,” Zamir wrote.

Iranian news reported that the country’s military shot down a second Israeli Hermes Drome. The IDF confirmed that Iran downed the first UAV a day earlier.

Israel’s Home Front Command loosened restrictions on Israelis on Wednesdays, allowing people to return to workplaces with safe rooms and for up to 30 people to attend synagogue at a time. Schools and kindergartens remained closed.

A poll published by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 70% of Israelis support the campaign launched against Iran last week, while 10% support the campaign but think the timing is wrong and 13.5% oppose it. Among Israeli Jews, 82% support the strikes, whereas only 11% of Israeli Arabs do, according to the poll. Jewish Israelis across the political spectrum support the operation: 57% of those who self-identify as left-wing, 75% of centrists and 90% on the right.

Though in past polls, most Jewish Israelis did not think Israel should strike Iran without help from the U.S., this week 69% thought it was the right decision. In addition, 68% of Jewish Israelis thought that Netanyahu’s motivation behind launching the operation against Iran was security-related, while 68% of Arab Israelis thought it was political.

The poll was conducted this Sunday-Tuesday among 594 Israelis, with a 3.61% margin of error.

Last Thursday, Sam Heller went to sleep at a Tel Aviv hotel, thinking that any potential military action between Israel and Iran wouldn’t start until after his flight back to the U.S., scheduled for Saturday night. 

He was wrong.

When Home Front Command alerts woke Heller at 3 a.m. on Friday, informing the nation that Israel had launched a preemptive attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, he quickly booked the first flight out to Paris from Ben Gurion Airport.

“I went straight to the airport, and they locked the doors to Ben-Gurion, and they stopped letting people in,” Heller told Jewish Insider on Tuesday, safely back home in Cleveland. “They’re like, ‘We’re closing our airspace indefinitely. Your flight’s been canceled. All flights are canceled. You can’t get out.’”

Like some 38,000 other foreign visitors stranded in Israel after the country’s preemptive strikes on Iran prompted days of Iranian ballistic missile attacks on Israel, Heller began to try to think of creative ways to leave the country. First he called an Israeli shipping company and asked if he could travel as a stowaway on a cargo ship heading to Cyprus. They told him yes, at a cost of 87,000 Euros for 12 people. He said no.

Then Heller, who was visiting Israel as the last leg of a monthlong trip after graduating from the University of Michigan in May, called a sailing company from which he had rented a boat two years ago. They told him the only boat suitable for travel to Cyprus was out of commission. Another no. Next, a phone call to a company that offers helicopter tours of Israel, thinking helicopters might not be included in the ban on flying. Nope. 

Finally, he tracked down a company that offers private security details in the Middle East. There, he identified a circuitous route out of Israel that took him 36 hours: departing Israel through the Taba border crossing to Egypt, being driven three-and-a-half hours to Sharm el-Sheikh and taking a flight from the Sinai resort town to Istanbul. He left Israel Saturday night after Shabbat and landed in Cleveland at 11 p.m. the next day. That’s a relatively fast trip compared to others who have made it out.

In the days since the Iran-Israel war started, a cottage industry has emerged to help ferry people from Israel to other destinations around the globe. 

Israeli airspace was closed for five days and the U.S. Embassy said it was unable to assist Americans seeking to evacuate. After the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, several State Department-led charter flights brought Americans to Athens — but charter flights were not an option following Israel’s attack on Iran and the ensuing war between the two countries. A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on Tuesday.

El Al canceled all flights out of the country through at least June 23, and foreign carriers pulled out of Israel for longer. Israeli carriers El Al, Arkia and Israir announced on Tuesday that they received permission from the Israeli government to organize repatriation flights to bring back Israelis stranded abroad. The first two flights from Larnaca, Cyprus, landed at Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday morning. 

The Israeli Tourism Ministry launched an effort on Tuesday to facilitate the departure of tourists from the country, distributing a digital registration form for departure flights from the country. 

But until those flights begin, in WhatsApp threads, Facebook groups and private messages, Americans stuck in Israel are passing along any information they can find to try to help get themselves and their loved ones home. The details are hard to verify. The costs range from expensive to astronomical. 

One graphic shared widely on WhatsApp advertises an emergency evacuation flight from Israel to New York, promising a Wednesday afternoon departure to Eilat and a bus transfer to Sharm el-Sheikh, followed by a charter flight to Milan and then a connection to JFK — “lavish meals included” and “security escorted” — for $2,200 a person. According to the travel company’s website, though, it was already sold out by the time the graphic circulated. Another message advertised a chartered flight from Aqaba, Jordan — near Eilat — to Paris, for $3,000 a person. Abraham Tours, a travel company best known for its hostels in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, advertised a cross-border transfer to Amman for $438. 

Adir Fischer is the vice president of marketing at Magnus Safety, a global search-and-rescue company based in Israel that is arranging boats to take people between Haifa and Larnaca, Cyprus. He can fit about 25 people on a tugboat for a 17-hour journey, costing between 1,000 and 2,000 Euros a person. 

“If you have three kids and a husband, it’s around 7,000 Euros a trip. Not everyone has it liquid, and it’s prepaid,” Fischer told JI on Tuesday. That’s before adding in the cost of flights from Cyprus back to the U.S. Still, he has turned away over 100 people because there isn’t enough room on the boats. 

One American woman who lives in Israel plans to depart on Wednesday on a small boat privately arranged by her husband’s company. They will be traveling with their six-month-old baby and two friends, at a cost of $15,000 for the five people. 

“Either I’m brave, crazy or an idiot. I’m not quite sure yet. But we really want to get out,” she said, requesting anonymity to speak about sensitive travel details. 

Early Sunday morning, Shira Raviv Schwartz woke up to a red alert. She was in Israel visiting her cousin, a trip she takes most summers. Soon after, her apartment building in Tel Aviv shook violently. In the morning, Schwartz saw that the next block had sustained a direct hit from an Iranian ballistic missile. She decided she needed to leave with her husband, their young adult son and her 84-year-old father-in-law. 

“I can’t take another night anxious in the safe room,” Schwartz said from Amman, where the family awaits a flight to Cairo, then another to Athens and finally a flight home to Chicago. 

Large tour groups have been luckier than individuals or families, who have to sort through the options themselves. Birthright Israel arranged for a private luxury cruise ship to bring 1,500 American young adults to Cyprus, where they boarded four planes back to the U.S. chartered by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

Jonathan Schanzer, who was leading a delegation hosted by his think tank, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, worked with the organization’s staff to get the group to Amman via the Allenby Bridge, the only border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan. (This is not an option for Israelis, who are not permitted to pass there.) He considered whether driving to Allenby amid the threat of incoming Iranian missiles was too dangerous but decided to risk it.

“Every security specialist warned me that the time in the war away from a shelter was the dangerous period, and I understood that,” Schanzer told JI. “But we were running out of programming for our participants and they were all sleep-deprived, as was I, from the incessant sirens every night. They didn’t sign up for this.” 

Jerusalem travel agent Mark Feldman said the key is not to tell clients what to do, but to give them options.

“Let him or her make the choice. I would never want to be responsible for somebody taking a 24-hour boat to Cyprus, throwing up the whole way, and emailing me saying it was the worst time of their life,” Feldman, the CEO of Ziontours, told JI. 

His business is at capacity simply trying to get existing clients into and out of Israel. His advice to those without a connection to a travel agent is to stick to trusted sources and avoid the “incredible amount of rumor-mongering.” Mostly, he is advising people to be patient, particularly those who do not have the appetite for a dayslong odyssey through multiple countries. 

But those who are waiting until the airspace reopens are not going to have an easy time leaving, Feldman warned. 

“Hard as it is just calming people down and relaxing them, the problem will come when the airport is open, and the thousands of people that are stuck here won’t have flights to get out,” said Feldman. If the airspace opens on June 23, the flights departing that day will be the ones that were initially scheduled for June 23 — meaning anyone with a June 23 ticket will have a confirmed seat. Everyone who has been stuck in Israel for days will be competing with each other for the empty seats.

“Many people assume, ‘Because I was bumped, I get first priority,’” said Feldman. “You don’t.”

A decision by President Donald Trump whether or not to join Israel’s strikes against Iran could make the difference between the full destruction of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and a more drawn-out war with a less conclusive end, Danny Citrinowicz, a senior researcher in the Iran and the Shi’ite Axis Program at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, told Jewish Insider on Tuesday.

Citrinowicz, the former head of the Iran branch in the Research and Analysis Division (RAD) in Israeli defense intelligence, spoke with JI from Australia, where he is one of more than 100,000 Israelis stranded abroad as the country’s airspace remains closed.

He argued that Israel’s strikes on Iran have gone beyond the war aims authorized by its Security Cabinet — to weaken Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs — and indicate a push toward destroying Iran’s nuclear weapons program and forcing regime change. However, he warned, Israel would be unlikely to achieve either without help from the U.S.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Jewish Insider: How would you describe where things stand on Day Five of the war between Israel and Iran?

Danny Citrinowicz: Trump is the variable. He is signaling that the Americans are in one minute, and then the White House says they don’t want to get involved the next. It’s clear that [Israel is] not only aiming at weakening the nuclear and missile programs. I think [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s plans, as he said on Iran International yesterday [that Israel will help “free” Iran], are much wider … There is a genuine attempt by Netanyahu to convince Trump to bring down the regime and change the entire Middle East.

JI: What progress has Israel made toward reaching its stated war aims?

DC: We maximized our achievements when it comes to the nuclear program. We struck the [nuclear] scientists. [The nuclear enrichment site] Natanz is an extraordinary achievement; it collapsed.

We had significant achievements against the missile program. It’s not clear if there have been fewer missile launches [from Iran] because of our strikes or because they are trying to be economical with their missiles. It’s significant that we took out a third of their missile launchers.

The strike on the [Iranian state] TV station is very strange because it is not connected to either war aim. 

My view is that Netanyahu wants to keep going and for there to be a historic event, but he needs the Americans. The Americans are the variable. If they enter, things will be totally different. If not, Israel will continue doing what it has been doing.

JI: How is the Iranian regime responding to the latest developments?

DC: The Iranians have a very difficult dilemma. Decision-making is difficult because they lost so many senior officers. The assassination [of Iran’s Chief of War Gen. Staff Ali Shadmani] last night was very serious for them.

For Iran’s leaders, giving up on the nuclear program is giving up on the revolution. But if they continue fighting, they may also lose the revolution. They have a different view of the situation than we do, which ensures that they will continue fighting for the foreseeable future.

That’s why the important variable is whether Trump will decide to attack [the underground nuclear facility] in Fordow. If he says no, then the war will continue as it has been, with varying momentum as the Iranians try to challenge Israel.

I don’t see this ending soon if the Americans don’t enter [the war]. If they don’t, we will be in this for several weeks, at least…

There is an obstacle for Israel in Fordow [that it does not have the requisite bombs or bomber planes to destroy the facility under a mountain]. We could be planning something, but for now, I’m not optimistic.

JI: If the U.S. does not attack Fordow, what targets remain for Israel to attain its stated war goals?

DC: I don’t think we can achieve more than we already did … We are destroying missiles and launchers. We killed senior officials. There isn’t something left to achieve [in] the war aims that stands out. It’s just deepening the achievement.

My concern is that we’re going beyond that.

JI: Do you mean regime change as well?

DC: I think we’re aiming for it, but Israelis cannot do it alone. With the Americans, maybe. Replacing a regime through military means is hard, and you don’t always end up with something better. There’s a better chance with the Americans. I’ll be very surprised if it happens with Israel alone.

JI: Do you think Israel could send ground troops to demolish Fordow? 

DC: Some have written about it, because they understand that attacking it from the air will be very hard. Either the Americans will help from the air, or something will happen that we don’t know about. 

JI: What if Fordow isn’t destroyed?

DC: If this ends with Fordow intact, it’s a loss, because they can still enrich to 90%. We knew this from the beginning, and it’s still true. Either the Americans help Israel, or we need to pull a rabbit out of our hats.

It’s not clear to me that we went into this campaign with Trump and Netanyahu fooling everyone, or if things are as they appear. If nothing is being hidden, then Israel struck Iran’s nuclear program knowing it cannot destroy it … They took a bet.

This is either part of a grand plan, or it’s an unfolding event.

JI: Are negotiations for Iran to stop uranium enrichment still an option?

DC: The Iranians really want to stop the war with talks, but they will have to give up on a part of the revolution. They will come out very weak … If Iran accepts, it will not be the same Iran. If they don’t, the war will continue.

Still, [U.S. Middle East envoy Steve] Witkoff planned to talk to [Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas] Araghchi, so it’s possible. It depends on Iran. If Iran says “we give up, take Fordow, we no longer intend to develop a nuclear weapon,” Trump can say he’s a peacetime president and “no more bloodshed.” But I don’t see it happening.

JI: If Israel has to continue going at it alone, how long do you think this can continue?

DC: I think it’s a contest of patience between Israel and Iran … I think that we can hold on for a few weeks. Israel’s goal in these weeks is to bring the U.S. into the campaign, and Iran’s goal is for the U.S. not to enter. 

It’s not a simple situation for Israelis, economically, militarily or societally … Israelis are also worn out. It takes hours to fly to Natanz — it’s not like Gaza, it costs a lot of money. The airport is closed. People aren’t going to work. And of course there’s the loss of life.

JI: And how is the Iranian regime faring in the contest of patience?

DC: For them, it depends on one thing. The reach of their military is measured only in their ability to launch missiles at Israel. They have relied on this for their entire existence. That’s the whole story.

There is concern in the regime about pressures from Iranian society, but I don’t see a serious challenge to the regime right now. There have not been any demonstrations. That could change.

JI: How do you view the fact that Iran’s proxies like Hezbollah haven’t joined in the fight and the Houthis haven’t escalated?

DC: One of the reasons that Israel went to war now is because it knew that Hezbollah would not join or its capabilities would be very limited. It was not just because of the nuclear and missile programs. It was the collapse of the axis that created a strategic opportunity Netanyahu didn’t want to give up.

JI: The timing was not, as Trump and Netanyahu have said, because Iran was very close to getting a bomb? Israeli officials have said Iran began the weaponization process.

DC: U.S. intelligence says otherwise. I don’t know why Trump is saying it…

There were significant developments [in the nuclear program], but there was an unprecedented strategic opportunity.

President Donald Trump denied on Tuesday that he was attempting to facilitate “peace talks” with Iran as he returned to Washington to monitor the ongoing war between Israel and Iran.

Upon landing in the U.S. early Tuesday morning after prematurely leaving a meeting of G7 leaders in Canada — a move that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt attributed to “what’s going on in the Middle East,” — Trump posted on Truth Social that he had “not reached out to Iran for ‘Peace Talks’ in any way, shape, or form. This is just more HIGHLY FABRICATED, FAKE NEWS! If they want to talk, they know how to reach me. They should have taken the deal that was on the table – Would have saved a lot of lives!!!”

On Sunday, however, Trump had written on Truth Social that “Iran and Israel should make a deal, and will make a deal” and “we will have PEACE, soon, between Israel and Iran! Many calls and meetings now taking place.”

While still aboard Air Force One, the president told reporters that he wanted “a real end” to Iran’s nuclear program and he would be monitoring developments between Israel and Iran from the White House Situation Room. 

He suggested that Israel was unlikely to slow its strikes on Iranian targets in the coming days, saying that, “You’re going to find out over the next two days. You’re going to find out. Nobody’s slowed up so far.” 

But the president stopped short of addressing whether the U.S. would join Israel’s strikes, saying he hopes the Iranian nuclear weapons program “is wiped out long before that.”

French President Emmanuel Macron suggested to reporters on Monday that Trump had departed the G7 earlier to negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, saying that “the U.S. assured they will find a ceasefire and, since they can pressure Israel, things may change.”

Trump slammed Macron and denied his claims, posting on Truth Social, “Publicity seeking President Emmanuel Macron, of France, mistakenly said that I left the G7 Summit, in Canada, to go back to D.C. to work on a ‘cease fire’ between Israel and Iran. Wrong! He has no idea why I am now on my way to Washington, but it certainly has nothing to do with a Cease Fire.” Trump said he had departed for something “much bigger than that.”

While at the G7, Trump took an aggravated tone with Iran’s failure to come to an agreement, writing on Truth Social that “Iran should have signed the ‘deal’ I told them to sign. What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” 

Israel had issued a warning earlier that day to residents of Tehran to evacuate ahead of impending strikes on military infrastructure in the capital city. Israeli media reported that the U.S. had joined Israel in attacking Iran, which was denied by White House spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer. “American forces are maintaining their defensive posture, and that has not changed. We will defend American interests,” he said. Trump later told reporters that his call to evacuate was because he wants “people to be safe.”

On Monday night, Axios reported that Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is seeking a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to reach a nuclear deal and end the military action between Israel and Iran. Trump reportedly said at the G7 that the U.S. and Iran “are talking on the phone, but it is better to talk in person.”

A senior U.S. official told Axios that Trump sees Israel’s assumed reliance on the U.S.’ bunker-buster bombs to effectively target Iran’s nuclear facilities as a point of leverage to force Iran into a deal, lest the U.S. supply Israel the assistance it is seeking.  

Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the country’s parliament is preparing a bill to potentially pull Iran out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The U.N.’s nuclear agency had recently ruled that Iran was violating its obligations under the treaty — which allows a country to utilize civilian nuclear power in exchange for a guarantee it will not pursue nuclear weaponization — for the first time in almost 20 years. 

CNN contributor Scott Jennings traveled to Israel last week to bear witness to the atrocities Hamas committed during the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks. But in the wake of Israel launching its military operation to take out Iran’s nuclear facilities and prevent the regime from acquiring a nuclear weapon, Jennings is witnessing more than he expected to on his first trip to the Jewish state.  

“Not only did I get to fulfill my mission of understanding deeply the horrors of Oct. 7, but being here watching the war unfold against Iran, I feel like I am here at the beginning of the war to defend Western civilization,” Jennings, who is traveling with the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation, told Jewish Insider from his hotel in Tiberias on Friday. “I think this has to end with a complete annihilation of Iran’s ability to make a nuclear weapon,” he said, calling on the U.S. to do “whatever we have to do to achieve that in concert with our special partner, Israel.” 

“I had gotten up at about 3 a.m. [Friday morning] to do a CNN appearance on the politics of the day. That’s when our phones went off with the emergency alert,” Jennings recalled. “I went out on the hotel balcony and for the next couple of hours watched the sky and saw lots of jets flying over. It was really the front end of the war watching the Israeli Air Force heading off towards bombing Iran.” 

Slated to head back to the U.S. on Saturday but now stuck in Israel while the country’s airspace remains closed, Jennings is making the most of his extended trip. On Sunday, he met with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. 

Earlier in the week, the group visited Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Kibbutz Nir Oz, a community where approximately one-quarter of the 400 residents were killed or taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, as well as the site of the Nova Music Festival massacre, where 378 people were killed. They also met with the mother of Alon Ohel, who was kidnapped from the festival and remains held captive in Gaza. 

Jennings, who served as special assistant to the president and deputy director of political affairs in the George W. Bush administration, said that his message to Americans amid Israel’s war with Iran is the “need to understand what’s going on here is nothing short of the fight for Western civilization.”

“Israel is the one fighting it and they’re fighting it in their own backyard,” he told JI. “But these people who hate Israel also chant ‘death to America.’ To allow Iran to continue to develop terror proxies and nuclear weapons, it’s just not a possibility for the West. Israel’s taking care of that and we should be fully supportive of that.” 

Jennings expressed “continuing rolling disappointment” with Senate Democrats, who have voiced divided responses on Israel’s strikes on Iran. 

“This idea that everything must be turned into some sort of anti-[President Donald] Trump narrative is ridiculous,” the conservative commentator said. “I’ve been thoroughly unimpressed. There are a few Democrats who stepped forward and said the right thing,” he continued, mentioning Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who on Friday criticized his Democratic colleagues in Congress who have spoken out against Israel’s attack on Iran, calling it “astonishing” to see members of his party treat Israel’s actions as escalatory. 

“Looking at this situation — literally looking at it, watching missiles fly over my head,” Jennings continued, “we should be thankful that Israel is willing to take bold, decisive steps to defeat the enemy of the West. We should also be thankful that President Trump participated in this.” 

“President Trump has clearly said his policy is that Iran cannot get a nuclear weapon,” Jennings said. “I think President Trump has played this smart so far and if it all ends with a neutered Iran thanks to Israel and the U.S. working together, that’s a great outcome,” he said. 

Trump has continued to reject assertions that the U.S. is involved in Israel’s strikes on Iran. “We’re not involved in it. It’s possible we could get involved. But we are not at this moment involved,” the president said on Sunday. 

By Monday afternoon, Iran had fired around 350 missiles and several drones at Israel, killing 24 Israelis and injuring almost 600 others.

But amid the chaos and fear, Jennings said he’s observed that Israelis are overwhelmingly united — even across the political spectrum. 

“Talking to people, you get a sense of resolve,” he told JI. “They have differences of opinion on certain things but everybody seems to agree — you can’t live with Hamas next door. Everybody seems to agree that Iran is the head of the octopus here. From north to south, what you get a feeling for is this incredible resolve and clarity of purpose when it comes to defeating the enemies of Israel. This is not happening in a faraway land. What happened to them happened in their homes, in their [kibbutzim], at a music festival. It’s up close and personal. You get a feeling that they’re still living with that trauma.”  

“You get a real feeling for the camaraderie and sense of purpose,” Jennings said, calling the trip “a real eye-opening experience.”

“I wasn’t sure what to expect,” he continued. “I get the feeling everyone is resolved to endure whatever sacrifices they have to in order to put an end to this existential threat once and for all.” 

Talk show host Tucker Carlson broke with President Donald Trump on Iran on Friday, writing in a scathing commentary in his daily newsletter that the United States should “drop Israel” and “let them fight their own wars.”

“If Israel wants to wage this war, it has every right to do so. It is a sovereign country, and it can do as it pleases,” Carlson wrote of Israel’s preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. “But not with America’s backing.”

Trump, for his part, has endorsed Israel’s attacks, which he called “very successful,” and underscored in an interview with Fox News on Thursday night that the U.S. would defend Israel if Iran retaliates. He also warned that the situation “will only get worse” if Iran does not agree to a nuclear deal “before there is nothing left.”

In recent days, Carlson has argued that fears of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon in the near future are unfounded and said that a war with the Islamic Republic would not only result in “thousands” of American casualties in the Middle East but “amount to a profound betrayal of” Trump’s base and effectively “end his presidency.”

Carlson reiterated that claim in his newsletter, accusing Trump of “being complicit in the act of war” through “years of funding and sending weapons to Israel.”

Direct U.S. involvement in a war with Iran, he said, “would be a middle finger in the faces of the millions of voters who cast their ballots in hopes of creating a government that would finally put the United States first.”

“What happens next will define Donald Trump’s presidency,” he concluded.

Israel will not accept a Hamas-proposed five-year ceasefire and hostage-release deal, because it does not require the terrorist organization to disarm, a senior Israeli official said in a briefing to journalists on Monday.

A Hamas official said on Saturday the group would release at one time all of the remaining hostages in Gaza — 59 total, including at least 21 living — in exchange for a five-year ceasefire.

Hamas would not, however, agree to disarming and would only enter an agreement to end the current war in Gaza, rejecting a 45-day ceasefire and hostage deal proposal proffered by Israel earlier this month.

The Israeli official said that the five-year proposal has been “going around some Arab states.” 

“There is no chance we will agree to a ceasefire with Hamas that will only allow it to rearm, recover and continue its war against Israel,” he said. 

Regarding a recent report that Qatar encouraged Hamas to harden its stance in the negotiations, the official said that “the Qataris had a negative influence in the current negotiations.” 

The official said that the reason Israel has been fighting at a lower intensity in Gaza since the last ceasefire ended on March 18 was to give hostage negotiations a chance.

”We want to exhaust the effort to return the hostages and that influences our patterns of action,” he said.

However, the official added, “our patience is not endless,” indicating that the war could increase in its intensity in the coming weeks.

With regard to President Donald Trump’s proposal for Gazans to emigrate, the official said that there are Western countries, including Canada, that told Israel they want to help their citizens or relatives of citizens get out of Gaza.

“People who want to leave should be able to, freely, and there are countries that want to absorb them,” the official stated. 

Israel is still not allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza. The official said that the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, a combined IDF-civilian unit that deals with aid, among other matters in the West Bank and Gaza, “is constantly monitoring, and if there is not enough food, the information will be given to decision-makers.”

“We have no obligation to feed the war machines of the enemy’s economy,” the official added. “The trucks strengthened Hamas’ economy … It was their main source of income. It led us to think about how to prevent this phenomenon.”

Palestinians have a responsibility to rise up against Hamas and to call to free the hostages and end the war in Gaza, Muhammad, a law student from Gaza City, told Jewish Insider this week. 

Muhammad, whose last name was withheld for fear of retribution, took part in demonstrations against Hamas in the last week in central Gaza, where he has lived for most of the time since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. He spoke to JI in a conversation facilitated by the New York-based Center for Peace Communications, a peacebuilding organization founded by author and Middle East analyst Joseph Braude that strives to build public support for reconciliation.

Muhammad and his parents and siblings left Gaza City, in northern Gaza, in October, following IDF instructions. They have been displaced and living in a school ever since, except for four months in which they were instructed to leave and stay in Rafah, in southern Gaza.

Muhammad said that, while Hamas has portrayed the demonstrations as planned and funded from outside of Gaza, including by the Palestinian Authority, he sees them as grassroots with participants from different parts of the population. 

The common slogans on banners and chanted by protesters are against both Hamas and the PA, which many Palestinians view as corrupt, he said.

“People are fed up with Hamas’ attempt to use their bodies, their lives, as a tool to make political and even financial gains from this war,” he said. “These protests were very openly and obviously asking Hamas to step down, get out of the political and military picture in Gaza.”

The demonstrators want the war to end instead of suffering the consequences of the Oct. 7 attack, which Muhammad called “Hamas’ plan cooked up with Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood.” 

“Even though it’s very risky to protest Hamas’ rule in Gaza, this is a duty and responsibility on a humanitarian and moral level for educated Gazans,” Muhammad told JI through a translator provided by Center for Peace Communications on Tuesday. “Hamas went too far in oppressing the people while not negotiating [to end the war] with good intentions. All they are doing is looking for political gains for Hamas and not humanitarian gains for Gazans … We educated people have the responsibility to inspire others to say, after 18 years of Hamas rule, ‘enough.’” 

Asked why he specified that educated people should take the lead, Muhammad said that he believed that sector of society has the capacity to do so under a Hamas dictatorship in which they are inundated by propaganda.

“Anyone with the knowledge and education, who reads and learns about politics, even religion, has the responsibility to open the eyes of the public who are sometimes moved by Hamas propaganda … I believe we have a responsibility because we know how to put the words together to describe the plight of the Gazans and talk to the media and the public, to try to bring peace and a better destiny for our people,” he said.

While Hamas has inflicted violence on the protesters, Muhammad said, “the people didn’t give up” and attacked Hamas police in return. He described an incident in which Hamas police killed a man in line to buy food for his family, and the family killed the police officer. “This is a new thing that did not happen in 18 years of Hamas rule,” Muhammad noted.

Asked about the hostages, of which 59 remain in captivity in Gaza, Muhammad said that ever since Israel tied humanitarian aid to their release, “people in Gaza who have nothing to do with politics are all asking that the hostages be able to go home in peace back to Israel.” 

“If the people themselves knew where the hostages were, they would bring them back because the entire issue is backfiring on Gazans. It didn’t help us at any point,” he said.

However, Muhammad emphasized that releasing the hostages is not enough, and Hamas must be removed from power in Gaza.

“If the war would end now but Hamas would stay in Gaza, we will see another Oct. 7 because Hamas would do it again and again,” he warned. “We are asking Hamas to send back all the hostages and get out of Gaza, because those are the Israeli demands to end the war.” 

On Oct. 7, Muhammad said that allegations that all Gazans supported Oct. 7 are false, and that “a lot of us were terrified when we saw Oct. 7 happening. The majority of us are disgusted by Hamas and are not on the side of Hamas’ terrorism.”

Muhammad said that protesters against Hamas are seeking a leader who can bring peace to Gaza, and he has heard talk about supporting former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, a relatively moderate Palestinian figure who is currently a lecturer at Princeton University, and Mohammed Dahlan, an advisor to the president of the UAE who has been in exile from Gaza since attempting a coup against Hamas.

Muhammad said that “Palestinians should never try to get political gains or rights through military struggle. I don’t want to see another Oct. 7. Palestinians want to live in Gaza or the West Bank without weapons. People hate Fatah [the dominant party in the PA], Hamas and the PA.”

He expressed hope that Gaza will be able to emulate “examples of great collaboration and relations between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank that contribute to building productive relations on many levels, cultural and economic, and were able to achieve positive things. There is an opportunity for peace.” 

Muhammad called on “the Israeli right wing and the Palestinian right wing to step back and give a chance to others who are more moderate to work on peace, because it is possible.”

At the same time, Muhammad said that, given the opportunity, he would like to leave Gaza. 

Of President Donald Trump’s call to evacuate all Palestinians from Gaza, Muhammad said, “I want it to not just be an idea but a real plan that is implemented … I would be one of the very first people to leave Gaza because this is my choice.” 

Muhammad said that “Egypt has a responsibility to open the borders, just like any country would do for its neighbors suffering from a catastrophe, whether war or another kind. [The border] should be open for civilians so they can leave.”

He also said Egypt should give Palestinians the rights of refugees and basic needs while they are in transit.

“We understand Egypt is saying they are closing the borders because they think the Oslo Accords will not be implemented and the Palestinian issue will be forgotten if Gaza is emptied, but this is not a justified reason for the people presently in Gaza to be literally imprisoned. People like me who had nothing to do with Oct. 7 are being subjected to shelling and hunger, because Egypt wants to keep us with Hamas in Gaza,” he said.

Muhammad called on the U.S. and Arab countries to pressure Egypt to open its border to Gazans.

“My message for President Trump is that we have big hopes that he will work on a peaceful political solution that will push Hamas not only out of Gaza but the entire Palestinian picture, and he will work on real peace between Palestinians and Israelis,” he said.

With ground troops and tanks returning to Gaza, Israel is hoping military pressure will force Hamas to free more hostages, while preparing to oust the Palestinian terror group from power, even if it requires a lengthy war, insiders and experts said. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed some of his thinking to new recruits to the IDF Armored Corps on Sunday, telling them that Israel is “winning because we understand that, to defeat our enemies, those who are closing in on us, we must break through with crushing force … The tremendous crushing force is the tank corps.”

The prime minister vowed that Israel “will complete … victory as soon as possible.” 

A source in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, who was briefed after the fighting restarted, told Jewish Insider that while it may take many months to fully remove Hamas from power in Gaza, Netanyahu is likely to agree to a ceasefire as soon as the terrorist group is willing to release a “reasonable” number of the remaining 59 hostages taken on Oct. 7, 2023, of which as many as 24 are believed to be alive. 

The source, who supports the government’s aim of ousting Hamas from power, expressed concern that Netanyahu would not continue the war to the total defeat of Hamas.

Michael Makovsky, president and CEO of the hawkish Jewish Institute for National Security of America, who met with senior officials and military figures in Israel last week, told JI that Israel is trying to put pressure on Hamas to release hostages.

“They’ll see in the next couple of weeks,” Makovsky said. “If they can get more live hostages, as many as they can, then there can be a ceasefire for a while.”

At the same time, he said he was not optimistic that all the hostages would be released: “I don’t know why Hamas would do that.” 

While most Israelis support removing Hamas from power in Gaza, polls show that the prospect of a months-long war with no end in sight and without the remaining hostages released faces political headwinds from a war-weary Israeli public. The plan would require mobilizing a fatigued group of reservists, and would place additional challenges on the Israeli homefront.

Makovsky pointed out that continuing the war would be “tougher on the people” of Israel, and attributed the “fatigue” among reservists to mistakes made early in the war, which “went longer than it should have — for some legitimate reasons and some not — and this is one of the results, that people are tired.”

The Israeli public is divided. According to a poll conducted last month by the Israel Democracy Institute, 33% of Jewish Israeli support ending the war and seeking diplomatic arrangements, while 28% supported resuming full-scale war in Gaza. Netanyahu has faced protests from hostage families seeking an end to the war, and has faced opposition over his efforts to fire the head of the Shin Bet, who supports further diplomatic negotiations.

Makovsky said that despite the demonstrations in Tel Aviv against resuming the war, he saw a consensus among all military figures that “at some point, they’re going to have to go back in” to Gaza to defeat Hamas.

“They know they have to finish off Hamas as much as possible; that’s just a fact,” he said.

Retired IDF Maj.-Gen. Yaakov Amidror, a former Israeli national security advisor under Netanyahu and a distinguished fellow at JINSA, said that the new phase of the war and the final defeat of Hamas may take as long as a year.

Following heavy airstrikes in the first 24 hours last week, ground forces entered three areas — the Netzarim Corridor bisecting northern and southern Gaza, northwestern Gaza on the shore and the Shaboura area of Rafah, in southern Gaza. Israel has killed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad figures, including senior political figures in Hamas.

“If that doesn’t bring Hamas into negotiations [to release the hostages] in good faith, you’ll see more ground forces going in,” Amidror said in a JINSA webinar. “The purpose at the end is to eliminate Hamas totally … That will take a year.”

It will take a “slow process” for the IDF to eliminate Hamas as a leading force in Gaza, involving large numbers of ground troops, Amidror said.

“We don’t need to rush. We have all the time, and we need to do it cautiously,” he said.

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended last week after lasting for two months. For the first six weeks, hostages were released each week in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, including mass murderers, and Israel’s withdrawal from parts — but not all — of Gaza. 

At that point, negotiations were meant to continue for the second phase of the deal, which was expected to bring about the release of the rest of the hostages along with an Israeli withdrawal from much of Gaza, with Hamas relinquishing control of the enclave. Israel sought to extend the first phase of the deal, instead of negotiating the second phase, in which Hamas reportedly sought to effectively remain in power along with Israel’s withdrawal from all of Gaza. 

U.S. negotiators subsequently suggested two interim deals with an aim to maintain a ceasefire through Ramadan and Passover, which ends in mid-April, but Hamas did not agree to the terms, insisting on continuing to the second phase of the original agreement.

Amidror said that “the idea was not a ceasefire. It was to release more hostages. What we wanted to achieve was an agreement about the period during which Hamas would release the hostages, and what we learned … is that is not Hamas’ intention. They want to achieve a total withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza without any plan for the future. The meaning of that is to allow Hamas to rebuild itself in Gaza.” 

Once that became clear, Israel relaunched the fighting in Gaza to extricate itself from the “absurd situation in which we are limiting our efforts inside Gaza and at the same time not getting any hostages out.” 

Now, Israel’s task is “to smash Hamas to a level at which they are no longer relevant inside the Gaza Strip,” Amidror said.

“To those who say ‘the IDF didn’t succeed, Hamas is still strong,’ yes, Hamas is still strong in the Gaza Strip,” Amidror explained. “They recruited young people with Kalashnikovs and RPGs and are the strongest force in Gaza … but Hamas is not relevant as an organization that can attack Israel. In the first days [of the renewed war] they only shot three or four missiles at Israel … They cannot provide new weapons systems to the people they recruited, because they cannot smuggle [arms] in from the Sinai.” 

Amidror asserted that ground troops are necessary for Israel to win the war.

“This will not be a war that will be determined by intelligence,” he said. “We will have to go and fight in the Gaza Strip to find [Hamas terrorists] and kill them. It won’t end with intelligence and precise air raids. It will be a very hard, ground forces kind of urban war.”

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians and is not trusted as a reliable source by Israel, says 50,000 people have been killed since the beginning of the war. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 terrorists and more than 400 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting.

The new IDF chief of staff, Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, had a “much more aggressive orientation in Gaza” when he was the head of the IDF’s southern command, and as such, Makovsky said he’s “not surprised they’ve gone in decisively this time.”

Similar to earlier phases of the war, Israel is moving towards having Gazan civilians stay in humanitarian zones where they will have access to food and medical aid, overseen by Israel to prevent Hamas control, the Knesset source said.

“Control of aid has been empowering Hamas,” Makovsky said. “Israel has to disconnect the two.”

In that vein, Israel has dropped leaflets in Gaza and published warnings on social media. 

Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Friday that the IDF would continue to capture territory in Gaza, evacuating the population, as long as Hamas continues to hold the hostages.

Makovsky said that “creating bigger, deeper buffer zones than the 1 kilometer they initially carved out … makes sense from an Israeli perspective.”

The Knesset source focused on the combination of splitting Gaza between its north and south with Israel blocking humanitarian aid, describing it as a “siege strategy” that is meant to lead to Hamas “begging on all fours for a ceasefire.” 

The source noted that Israel was not previously able to try such a strategy because the Biden administration insisted on large quantities of humanitarian aid flowing into Gaza, but that the Trump administration supports Israel’s renewed fighting in Gaza.

However, Makovsky argued that early in the war, “the IDF was a bit cautious. They didn’t go into Rafah right away, they went point to point. They didn’t [have a] plan and they had to develop one. That’s not on Biden. It became more about Biden in January” — when the administration threatened to block arms to Israel if it went into Gaza. “I think the IDF and the war cabinet, for that matter, deserve some responsibility for that.”