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In-Depth Issues:
Iranian Missile Warhead Falls near Temple Mount and al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem - Jeremy Sharon ( Times of Israel)
On Saturday, the warhead of an Iranian missile hit Sultan's Pool, an outdoor events venue a few dozen meters from the Old City of Jerusalem and several hundred meters from the Temple Mount and al-Aqsa Mosque.
Police commander Dvir Tamir said Sunday:
"Yesterday, we received further proof that from the enemy's perspective, all targets are legitimate, and if that warhead had deviated by a few hundred meters, it is very possible that a very serious hit would have occurred, especially if one of the holy places had been hit while it was full of worshipers and visitors."
Israeli Official: "There Was an Operational Necessity to Take Action Now" - Ariel Kahana ( Israel Hayom)
Senior Israeli officials noted that even if the Islamic Republic remains intact, dealing a harsh blow to its missile and weapons infrastructure is a vital objective for Israeli security.
"There was an operational necessity to take action now because of what they built over the past six months, driven by their irrational belief that Israel must be destroyed," an Israeli official said.
Iran's conduct was with an "extent of armament that no responsible country can allow its enemy to build."
"Therefore, even if the regime does not fall - there is supreme justification for the operation."
Israeli President: "If Someone Rises to Kill You, Rise to Kill Him First" - Lazar Berman ( Times of Israel)
Speaking at the site of an Iranian missile attack in Tel Aviv on Sunday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog thanked U.S. President Donald Trump "for his courage" and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "for the correct decision" in launching the strikes on Iran.
"We are united at this moment to defeat the enemy and bring about change," he said.
Israel is at war, "and in war, you must first take care of the home front and protect it, and second, attack and act with full force to defeat the enemy."
"If someone rises to kill you, rise to kill him first," he said, quoting the Talmud.
"It is our duty to be strong, resilient, and steadfast. We will get through this and move forward, and our children and grandchildren will one day be grateful for these moments."
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett said, "I've never been prouder to be an Israeli and we will never apologize for what we are doing. I give my full backing to the government and its leader."
"There is no left and no right. The entire people of Israel stand behind the [air force] pilots."
IDF: Over 2,000 Bombs Dropped on Iran in 30 Hours - Emanuel Fabian ( Times of Israel)
Israeli Air Force fighter jets have dropped over 2,000 bombs in strikes against hundreds of Iranian regime targets and military sites since Saturday morning, the Israel Defense Forces said Sunday.
IAF jets achieved aerial superiority within 24 hours, as numerous Iranian air defense systems were taken out in western Iran.
As a result, the jets were able to use bombs dropped directly over their targets, rather than long-range missiles.
Israel targeted ballistic missile launchers, air defense systems, and headquarters across Iran, seemingly undisturbed by Iranian defenses.
The IDF said it destroyed dozens of Iranian regime command centers, including the headquarters of Iran's internal security forces, as well as centers belonging to Revolutionary Guards intelligence, air force, and internal security units.
When Will Iranian Security Forces Act to Save Themselves?
( Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs)
"The Iranians are now at their lowest point since the end of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988," Oded Ailam, a former senior official in the Mossad and a researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, said in an interview on Sunday.
Iran's current strategy is a desperate attempt to exert massive pressure on the Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait by targeting symbols of status and tourism, such as shutting down the world's busiest airports in Dubai.
"The strikes against the Gulf states are extremely severe."
Regarding the future of the regime, Ailam said, "The question is whether an internal coup will occur within the army, which numbers 560,000 personnel, or even within the Revolutionary Guards."
The Americans are likely already maintaining clandestine channels with insiders who feel the ship is sinking.
"The question is when people will say to themselves, this story is over and we need to save ourselves."
Iranians at Home and Abroad Celebrate the Death of Khamenei - Ben Kroll ( Ha'aretz)
News that Iranian state media confirmed the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sparked scenes of jubilation across parts of Iran and within the Iranian diaspora.
Footage showed hundreds of men and women gathering in the streets near Isfahan, honking car horns and chanting "Javid Shah" - "Long live the Shah" - Iran's pre-revolutionary monarchy.
Other videos showed protesters toppling and setting fire to a statue depicting Khamenei, while crowds cheered.
A former reporter in Iran who now lives in Britain said, "If you come to the UK, you'll see the protests are packed, with thousands of people dancing."
In London's Golders Green neighborhood, known for its large Jewish community, Iranians and other residents gathered, waving Israeli flags together with pre-revolutionary Iranian flags.
In Amsterdam and Berlin, protesters against the Iranian regime marched in support of Israel and the U.S.
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- Iran Kills Three U.S. Service Members in Kuwait - Helene Cooper
Iran struck a base housing American troops in Kuwait, killing three U.S. service members and seriously wounding five others.
Since Saturday, U.S. planes have carried out hundreds of strikes in Iran. B-2 stealth bombers, armed with 2,000-pound bombs, struck Iran's hardened ballistic missile facilities, U.S. Central Command said. It said U.S. strikes have hit the Joint Headquarters of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, its Aerospace Forces Headquarters, Iranian air defense systems, ballistic missile sites, submarines, and anti-ship missile sites.
The Israeli military said on Sunday its airstrikes had destroyed about 200 ballistic missile launchers. (New York Times)
- Iran Has Fired 390 Missiles and 830 Drones at Gulf States - Pranav Baskar
Iran has launched at least 390 missiles and 830 drone attacks at Gulf states over the past two days. The majority of the Iranian attacks were intercepted. U.S. Central Command said Sunday that Iran had attacked more than a dozen locations in the region, including civilian centers like airports, hotels and residential areas.
The UAE said Sunday that Iran fired 165 ballistic missiles and 541 drones on the country. Bahrain said the country's air defense systems had shot down 45 Iranian missiles and nine drones. Qatar said 66 missiles had been fired by Iran and 16 people were injured. Kuwait said the country intercepted 97 missiles and 283 drones. At least one person was killed and more than 30 were injured.
(New York Times)
See also By Striking Its Neighbors, Iran Has Deepened the Gulf's Resolve to Fight Back - Yaroslav Trofimov
The Iranian regime has struck at least nine countries across the Middle East. The apparent calculation was that, by targeting rich Persian Gulf monarchies, Tehran could force Washington and Israel into a rapid de-escalation. So far, this calculus seems to have backfired. Gulf states are concluding that the Iranian peril must be confronted.
Rather than seeking an offramp, the prevailing mood in the Gulf - at least for now - is that the Iranian regime can't be allowed to get away with this unprecedented onslaught on its neighbors.
"Iran is coming to the countries and people of the Gulf and saying: 'You know, I am actually your number-one threat.' This has long-term implications, regardless of whoever is actually in power in Iran," said Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president. "Targeting Gulf states is completely irrational, and very shortsighted."
Iran has struck all six of the oil-rich Gulf Arab states, including Oman, which had mediated nuclear talks between Tehran and the Trump administration. It also hit Jordan, Iraq and Israel. At first, all the Gulf states publicly opposed the U.S.-Israeli assault on the Iranian regime. But the mood changed quickly once the brunt of the Iranian response targeted cities such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE, Doha in Qatar, and Manama in Bahrain, inflicting widespread damage to infrastructure and civilian casualties.
"Many people in the Gulf woke up Saturday pissed off at the United States and Israel, and went to sleep pissed off at Iran," said William Wechsler, director of Middle East programs at the Atlantic Council in Washington. (Wall Street Journal)
- British RAF Base in Cyprus Hit by Drone Strike - Abbir Dib
The RAF Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus was hit by an Iranian drone strike Monday night. There were no casualties but the airfield sustained minor damage. More than 4,000 serving personnel and their families are based there. (Telegraph-UK)
See also UK to Allow U.S. to Use British Bases for Defensive Strikes Against Iran - Rowena Mason
The UK has agreed to let the U.S. use British military bases to attack Iranian missile sites, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Sunday. Revealing that 200,000 British people are in Middle Eastern countries being targeted by Iran, Starmer said: "The only way to stop the threat is to destroy the missiles at source in their storage depots or the launchers which are used to fire the missiles. The U.S. has requested permission to use British bases for that specific and limited defensive purpose."
"We have taken the decision to accept this request - to prevent Iran firing missiles across the region...killing innocent civilians...putting British lives at risk...and hitting countries that have not been involved."
He added that British jets had "already successfully intercepted Iranian strikes." (Guardian-UK)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- Israel Hits Senior Hizbullah Figures after Rockets Fired toward Haifa - Yair Kraus
After Hizbullah fired several rockets from southern Lebanon toward the Haifa area, the IDF struck "senior Hizbullah terrorists" in the Dahieh suburb of Beirut and a "central Hizbullah terrorist" in southern Lebanon early Monday. One rocket was intercepted and the others fell in open areas, with no injuries or damage reported. (Ynet News)
- Iranian Missile Kills Nine at Synagogue Bomb Shelter in Beit Shemesh - Josh Breiner
Nine people were killed on Sunday after an Iranian missile hit a public bomb shelter beneath a synagogue in Beit Shemesh. Sixty people were injured in the strike, including two in serious condition. (Ha'aretz)
See also Deadly Iranian Strike on Beit Shemesh - Sam Sokol
Beit Shemesh resident Yarin said, "We were in the safe room and suddenly we heard a massive blast and saw shrapnel inside the house. All the walls shattered, glass, all the drywall, the front door came apart."
At the site of the strike, glass crunched underfoot and large chunks of concrete and twisted scraps of metal blocked the sidewalks. The windshields of cars parked along the street were either shattered or completely missing. Houses were increasingly damaged nearer the epicenter of the blast, with many missing large chunks of their roofs.
Magen David Adom medic Eli Eisenbach said, "Several buildings suffered direct hits. Additionally, all the nearby streets have blast and shrapnel damage." (Times of Israel)
- Five Wounded by Iranian Missile Strike on Highway near Jerusalem
Magen David Adom reported Sunday night, "We observed a [missile] fall near a vehicle that sustained extensive damage. We provided initial medical treatment to a 45-year-old man in moderate condition, along with several others who were injured but in light condition." (Jerusalem Post)
- 11 Israelis Wounded as Iran Missile Hits Beersheba Buildings - Shir Perets
11 Israelis were wounded, one seriously, after an Iranian missile hit in the Beersheba area on Monday, destroying several homes.
(Jerusalem Post)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
The Iran War
- Supporting a Free Iran Is a Strategic Necessity - Michael R. Pompeo
The joint U.S.-Israeli military operation against the Iranian regime is just and imperative. After drawing clear red lines over the continued mass execution of Iranian civilians, the pursuit of nuclear weapons, and continued support for global terrorism, President Donald Trump has made the judicious decision that the ayatollah could no longer be permitted to act with impunity.
This action is an important step toward removing the threat posed by this evil regime, and a natural follow-up to the joint U.S.-Israeli mission to degrade Iran's nuclear program in June 2025. America will never be safe as long as this fundamentalist, anti-American dictatorship remains in power.
We have nearly five decades of experience to confirm that the Islamic Republic is an entirely irredeemable governing entity. Terrorism, oppression and vicious hatred of America, Israel and the West are part of its DNA; and its fundamentalist, millenarian vision is incompatible with peaceful coexistence with the civilized world.
From Day 1, the Islamic Republic's position on America has been clear: They hate us and would like to see us obliterated.
We've taken the first step toward a future in which this uniquely destructive and truly evil dictatorship can no longer hold the world hostage. Supporting a free Iran isn't just the right thing to do; it is a strategic necessity that will make the world a far safer and more prosperous place.
The writer is a former U.S. secretary of state and director of the Central Intelligence Agency. (Fox News)
- Trump and Netanyahu Are Doing the Free World a Favor - Bret Stephens
There was a time when free nations, having endured years of provocations and attacks from tyrants, banded together to administer justice and supply hope.
It's a mistake to say that Trump got America into war on Saturday. What he did was respond to a war that Iran has been waging against the U.S. since 1979 when it seized our embassy, murdered (via proxy) hundreds of our service members in Beirut in 1983, and supplied the roadside bombs that killed or maimed over 1,000 of our troops during the war in Iraq. One reason Iran behaved as it did is because it drew the lesson that it would pay no great price. No more.
Tehran began reconstituting its nuclear capabilities while rapidly rebuilding the missile force that is now terrorizing civilians in Tel Aviv, Dubai, Manama and Riyadh, and targeting U.S. military assets in the region. Would the U.S., the Arab world, or Israel have been safer if we had waited a year or two for Iran to build several thousand more missiles? Moreover, it is impossible to imagine anything like Mideast peace without the end of this regime.
The U.S. and Israel have taken considerable military and political risks to do the right thing. They have rid the world of an odious tyrant, and of several layers of his equally odious deputies. Millions of ordinary people around the world will notice that the U.S. still stands for freedom. On Saturday, Trump and Netanyahu did the Free World a courageous and historic favor. (New York Times)
- Iran's War on the United States Did Not Start Yesterday - Maj. (ret.) John Spencer
Iran started a war against the U.S. in 1979. It has never stopped. The Islamic Republic defined itself in opposition to the U.S. and built its foreign policy around confrontation with America and its allies. During the Iraq War, Iranian-backed militias killed 603 U.S. service members. I know this personally. My soldiers and I faced their weapons. This was part of a deliberate strategy by Tehran to attack American forces. The campaign never ended.
In January 2020, Iran fired ballistic missiles at U.S. bases in Iraq. More than 100 American service members were later diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries. Between October 2023 and early 2024, Iranian-backed militias conducted more than 170 attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.
At the same time, Iran has enriched uranium to levels far beyond civilian energy requirements. It has developed longer-range missile systems with capabilities that are not defensive in nature.
Diplomacy has been attempted repeatedly over decades. While talks proceeded, Iran continued to fund Hizbullah, Hamas, Shia militias in Iraq, and the Houthis. It continued to refine missiles. It continued enrichment. It continued attacks on Americans. At some point, a pattern must be acknowledged for what it is.
The question today is not whether Iran's war on the U.S. exists. It is whether the U.S. ends it.
History suggests that when America fails to respond decisively to sustained aggression, the aggression grows.
Americans have been targeted for 47 years. Enough.
The writer is chair of urban warfare studies at West Point's Modern War Institute.
(Substack)
- The U.S. and Israel Are Busy Saving the World from Iran - Dan Illouz
For years, gutless bureaucrats in Europe and at the UN have been begging Iran's ayatollahs to play nice. On Saturday, the U.S. and Israel finally ended that pathetic charade. We didn't drop a few warning bombs on empty sand dunes.
We went straight for the head of the snake.
And how did the "enlightened" international community react to us taking out the world's biggest bullies? They threw a tantrum. Within hours, European leaders were demanding we stop the fighting and go back to the negotiating table. They are perfectly happy to let Iran build a nuclear bomb, as long as it buys them a little temporary quiet.
The Jewish people learned the hardest lesson in human history: When a dictator promises to wipe you off the map, you don't invite him to a summit. You stop him cold. Today, Israel is not the helpless, stateless Jewish population of the 1940s. We aren't waiting around for the UN to rescue us.
We are incredibly grateful that President Donald Trump and the American military stood shoulder to shoulder with us to do the dirty work the rest of the world was too scared to do. By crippling Iran's terror machine, Israel and America aren't just protecting Jerusalem; we are protecting New York, London, and the rest of the Free World.
The writer is a Member of the Israeli Knesset (Likud). (New York Post)
- A Tyrant Falls in Iran - Editorial
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei governed Iran with the vigilance and brutality of an autocrat convinced that his own people and the world's superpower sought to unseat him - and in the end, they did. His reign has come to a close, cementing a lost half-century for his nation. Let us be clear: No one should mourn the death of a dictator who spent decades inflicting misery and bloodshed.
Ascending to power in 1989, Ayatollah Khamenei organized his existence around an obsession with the West. As a ruler, he squelched dissent and expanded the intelligence apparatus of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to repress his own people. He impoverished his citizens to bankroll foreign interventions and a nuclear program that brought Iran only isolation. When faced with citizens' protests, he answered with force, including the slaughter of thousands earlier this year.
(New York Times)
Iran and the West
- The Collapse of Europe's Containment Policy in the Face of Iranian Terror - Ella Rosenberg
For years, Europe chose to look the other way as the tentacles of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) entrenched themselves across the continent. The recent Iranian attack in Cyprus is a wake-up call to the EU, which has discovered that the Middle East penetrates the heart of the shared European space.
Lax enforcement of sanctions has allowed advanced European technology to find its way directly into Tehran's drone and missile industries. Electronic components, engines, and navigation systems manufactured in Germany, France, and Italy have been used to build weapons that sow destruction in Ukraine and now threaten targets within the EU itself.
Iran is still viewed in the corridors of Brussels as a problem that can be managed through dialogue and containment. When Iran exports terror into European cities, assassinates regime opponents on German and Dutch soil, and supplies the weaponry that kills Europeans in Ukraine, the EU continues to take largely symbolic measures.
The writer is an Iran and financial terrorism expert at the Jerusalem Center. (Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs)
- The West's Weepers for the Islamic Republic - Brendan O'Neill
No sooner had the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes against regime targets inside Iran than critics began raging against the "murder" of Iranian civilians. So it's murder when Iranian innocents tragically die as a result of war but not a big deal when Iranian innocents are intentionally butchered by Islamist monsters who loathe them for wanting freedom.
Where were the "emergency protests" in solidarity with the millions of workers and students who have been waging a most valiant revolt against the Islamic Republic? None of the keffiyeh classes who have marched every week "for Gaza" could say a single word "for Iran." If the reported deaths of some regime goons make you angrier than the proven deaths of thousands of everyday Iranians, then it's not Iran you sympathize with. It's the ruthless theocracy that has been squatting on that once great nation for nearly 50 years now.
How do we explain a moral universe where there can be more fury over strikes against a government than there was over that government's mass murder of its own citizens? According to the commandments of anti-Westernism, America is the source of every earthly problem. Thus, when America causes a death in Iran, it's a crime against humanity. Yet when the regime causes infinitely more deaths in Iran, meh.
There's a curious reverse racism to this insistence on blaming the West for everything. It treats the crimes of the regimes of the world almost as instances of diminished responsibility rather than true offenses against the human spirit. To see imperialism in action, look no further than the Islamic Republic. It deploys cruel proxies to enforce its theocratic writ everywhere from Lebanon to Gaza to Yemen. If you're an anti-imperialist, the Islamic Republic should offend your every moral fiber.
We are well within our rights to wonder if those saying "Hands off Iran" really mean "Hands off this regime that slaughters innocent men and women because at least it is anti-American like us." (Spiked-UK)
Observations:
- The Hamas paragliders, who were tentacles of Iran, began today's war on Oct. 7, 2023, igniting one of history's most spectacular backfires. Iran's regime and its terrorism multipliers, Hamas and Hizbullah, have unintentionally magnified Israel's security.
- And Iran's regime, whose mantra since its inception in 1979 has been "Death to America," is near death by the clasped hands of Israel and America.
- The at least 30,000 protesters who perished in Iran's streets in January did not die in vain. Iran's protesters dramatically underscored the regime's barbarism, so those who today regret the regime's demise reveal their barbarism.
- Some say that U.S. involvement in Iran constitutes a "war of choice." That casually bandied phrase rarely fits untidy reality. Donald Trump's administration has chosen not to wager U.S. safety on Iran's abandoning its multi-decade pursuit of nuclear weapons, or on Iran's acquiring them but not really meaning "Death to America."
- For Israel, the death of Iran's self-proclaimed genocidal regime was a choice only in the sense that Israel chose to believe the regime when it called Israel a "one-bomb country."
- In 1939, Adolf Hitler said a world war would mean "the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe." Israel exists because Hitler meant that. Israel's survival depends on forever thinking that nothing is unthinkable.
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