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In-Depth Issues:
Israel Expands Attack to include Iran's Oil and Gas Industry - Farnaz Fassihi ( New York Times)
Israel targeted Iran's critical energy infrastructure at gas and petrochemical refineries on Saturday, Iran's oil ministry said.
Israeli drones targeted a section of the South Pars Gas Field in Bushehr Province. The Fajr Jam Gas Refining Company was also targeted.
Videos posted to social media showed a large fire burning at the South Pars gas refinery.
Israel Found Iran Carried Out Key Tests for Nuclear Weapon Design - Emanuel Fabian ( Times of Israel)
Israel discovered that Iranian scientists had conducted successful experiments in the design process of a nuclear weapon, bringing it weeks away from being able to produce a bomb, Army Radio reported Sunday.
Shortly after Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, onslaught, Iran ordered scientists to work in secret on components of the process of weaponizing nuclear material into an actual explosive device.
The IDF was able to monitor the secret weapons process, which left Jerusalem with no doubt that Iran had decided to build a nuclear weapon.
A senior Israeli military official said Saturday that "all the scientists eliminated in the opening strikes had, over the years, been involved in developing the nuclear detonation device."
Iran Rattled after Mossad Operation Exposes Deep Intelligence Penetration - Lior Ben Ari ( Ynet News)
Iranian authorities have launched an extensive internal alert campaign following the exposure of an Israeli Mossad operation on Iranian soil, underscoring the depth of Israel's intelligence reach into the country.
The Israeli operation featured three coordinated phases:
Precision weapons pre-positioned inside Iran were activated to launch precision-guided missiles simultaneously at Iranian missile defense sites.
Hidden strike systems smuggled into Iran on civilian vehicles launched advanced munitions at Iran's air defense infrastructure, reportedly neutralizing key systems.
Explosive drones, staged in advance by Mossad near Tehran, were launched at one of Iran's central surface-to-surface missile bases, Espajabad.
Palestinians on the Flight Path of Iranian Missiles - Adam Rasgon ( New York Times)
In the Palestinian Authority, which lies on the flight path between Israel and Iran, few, if any, Palestinians have safe rooms or communal shelters to protect them from incoming Iranian ballistic missile attacks on Israel.
No air-raid early warning system is in place, though Palestinians living near Jewish communities can hear their sirens and others use Israeli applications that provide alerts.
PA civil defense said that its teams had responded to 40 reports of injuries and property damage from falling shrapnel on Friday. Seven children were among the injured.
While many Palestinians said they were fearful of the missiles, others said they had gone up to their rooftops to witness the spectacle of them flying overhead.
IDF Targets Houthi Chief of Staff in Yemen - Yonah Jeremy Bob ( Jerusalem Post)
The IDF conducted strikes in Yemen on Saturday night in a targeted attack on senior Houthi military leader Muhammad Abd al-Karim al-Ghamari, IDF sources confirmed. "We will soon know if it succeeded," an Israeli source said.
Egypt Blocks Activists from March to Gaza - Sam Metz ( AP)
Egyptian authorities detained activists planning to march to Gaza, while security forces in eastern Libya blocked a convoy of activists.
Organizers of the Global March on Gaza on Friday said Egyptian security forces had begun detaining and using force to remove activists and suppress protests.
Hundreds arriving in Cairo were detained and deported to their home countries in Europe and North Africa.
The severity of the crackdown surprised European activists.
Iran Regime Loyalists Feel Betrayed after Israeli Attack ( Ynet News)
Azita, a young woman from Tehran who opposes the regime, told Ynet that regime supporters "are stunned by the damage to military sites and the deaths of high-ranking officers and scientists."
"They hear or see that Israeli intelligence agents entered Iran and did as they pleased. Now they realize just how vulnerable they are, and how incapable the regime really is of protecting them."
"Those of us who oppose the regime knew this was coming. It was obvious after what happened to Hamas, Hizbullah and the Assad regime in Syria."
"It's like watching a movie about a once-powerful leader who took over a country. One of the first things he said was that he wanted to export Shiite Iran to the world. And for a while, he succeeded. But now we're in the closing scenes. All his proxies are collapsing."
"Rumors are flying across Tehran about senior figures in politics, the military and the nuclear program fleeing for their lives....All flights have been canceled, and yet one plane takes off, then another. The officials are fleeing."
Israel's Ancient Struggle to Survive - Dr. Fiamma Nirenstein ( JNS)
The people of Israel understand something that the world fails to grasp: Survival comes first and we will do what must be done with skill and precise targeting and action.
On the eve of its arch-enemy - the Islamic regime in Iran - building an atomic bomb, it was time for Israel to act.
Israel's resilience is not a political calculation. It's a deeply embedded survival instinct - sharpened through centuries of exile, war, and genocide.
What all of Israel's enemies still fail to grasp is that the Jewish people do not die quietly. They do not submit to terror. They confront it at its root.
What Israel's enemies face is not just a strong state, but a powerful people for whom survival is not optional and for whom life itself is resistance.
The writer, a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, served as vice president of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Italian Chamber of Deputies.
Rerouted to Cyprus - Rachel Sharansky Danziger ( Times of Israel)
We were 10 minutes away from landing in Tel Aviv when it was announced: "Due to a security situation, we were ordered to reroute this airplane to Cyprus."
In less than a minute, everyone on the plane - Israelis and non-Israelis, religious and secular, Jews and Arabs - turned into one big family, with everyone looking out for everyone else.
People offered food and hugs and words of encouragement to whoever needed them. Some passengers took it upon themselves to help the flight attendant so she could catch her breath for a moment.
Whoever got their phones to work performed the profound kindness of sharing the news from Israel with everyone else.
After we disembarked in Cyprus, strangers helped each other search for places to stay, buy the right adapters, and carry heavy bags.
I have no idea how long I will be on this island. But here in Cyprus, I am surrounded by my people, and they are family too. We are in it together, wherever we are.
The writer is the daughter of former Soviet dissident and Israeli government minister Natan Sharansky.
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- Trump Says Attack on Iran "Excellent" and Says "More to Come" - Jonathan Karl
ABC News spoke to President Donald Trump by phone on Friday and asked him about the attack on Iran.
"I think it's been excellent," Trump said. "We gave them a chance and they didn't take it. They got hit hard, very hard. They got hit about as hard as you're going to get hit. And there's more to come. A lot more."
Trump wrote on social media on Friday: "Two months ago I gave Iran a 60-day ultimatum to 'make a deal.' They should have done it! Today is day 61. I told them what to do, but they just couldn't get there. Now they have, perhaps, a second chance!"
"I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to 'just do it,' but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn't get it done. I told them it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told, that the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the world, by far, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come - and they know how to use it." (ABC News)
- Israeli Official: "We Have More Surprises" for Iran - Greg Norman
A senior Israeli intelligence official told Fox News on Saturday, "We have more surprises coming up" for Iran following the initial wave of strikes. The official said, "Everything is going as planned. Actually, better than planned." Forty Iranian air defense systems have been hit since the beginning of the operation, which is targeting Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs to remove the Iranian existential threat against Israel.
The official said the U.S. is "fully coordinated" with Israel, and that "the way the U.S. is standing beside Israel is unprecedented. We feel it." (Fox News)
- U.S. Helps Israel Shoot Down Barrage of Iranian Missiles - Tara Copp
American air defense systems and a Navy destroyer helped Israel shoot down incoming ballistic missiles from Iran on Friday, U.S. officials said. The U.S. has both ground-based Patriot missile defense systems and Terminal High Altitude Air Defense systems in the Middle East capable of intercepting ballistic missiles. A Navy destroyer in the eastern Mediterranean also shot down Iranian missiles heading toward Israel, one official said.
(AP-Washington Post)
- A Miscalculation by Iran Led to Israeli Strikes' Extensive Toll, Iranian Officials Say - Farnaz Fassihi
Iran's senior leaders never expected Israel to strike before another round of talks that had been scheduled for Sunday in Oman, officials close to Iran's leadership said on Friday. They dismissed reports that an attack was imminent as Israeli propaganda meant to pressure Iran to make concessions in those talks,
six senior Iranian officials and two members of the Revolutionary Guards said.
On the night of Israel's attack, senior military commanders did not shelter in safe houses but stayed in their own homes. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards' aerospace unit, and his senior staff held an emergency war meeting at a military base in Tehran and were killed when Israel struck the base.
On Friday, Iran's Supreme National Security Council held an emergency meeting to discuss how the country should respond. Divisions emerged on whether Iran could sustain a prolonged war with Israel that could also drag in the U.S., given how badly its defense and missile capabilities were damaged. One official said in the meeting that if Israel responded by attacking Iran's infrastructure or water and energy plants, it could lead to protests or riots.
A member of the Revolutionary Guards briefed on the meeting said that Ayatollah Khamenei had to decide between acting, and risking an all-out war that could end his rule, or retreating, which would be interpreted domestically and internationally as defeat.
Ultimately, Khamenei ordered Iran's military to fire on Israel. Initially, the plan was to launch up to 1,000 ballistic missiles on Israel to overwhelm its air defense and ensure maximum damage, according to two members of the Guards. But Israel's strikes on missile bases had made it impossible to move missiles quickly from storage and place them on launchpads, they added. (New York Times)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- Iranian Missiles Kill at Least Six in Israel, Wound 200
Emergency services have pulled six bodies out of the rubble in Bat Yam near Haifa after an Iranian missile made a direct hit on an apartment block on Saturday night. 200 people were injured and 7 were still missing.
A missile hit the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, causing damage to buildings on campus. Sabereen News, affiliated with pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, said 100 missiles were launched toward Israel in the attack. The Israeli Air Force intercepted dozens of them, many outside Israeli airspace.
Three Israeli citizens were killed and 76 wounded in Iranian missile strikes on civilian areas on Friday.
(Ynet News-Jerusalem Post)
See also Iranian Missile Strike in Israeli Arab Town Kills 4 - Lior El-Hai
A mother and her two daughters and another relative were killed late Saturday and 10 others were wounded when an Iranian missile made a direct hit on a three-story building in the town of Tamra near Haifa. (Ynet News)
- Israel to UN Security Council: "How Long Did the World Expect Us to Wait?" - Leah Schwartz
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday that the mission of Israel's operation in Iran was to "dismantle Iran's nuclear program, eliminate the architects of its terror and aggression, and neutralize the regime's ability to follow through on its repeated public promise to destroy the state of Israel."
"How long did the world expect us to wait?...Until they assembled the bomb? Until they mounted it on a Shahab missile? Until it was en route to Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, like the more than 100 missiles that they sent an hour ago?"
"When Iran marched toward nuclear capability, you said nothing. When they crossed line after line, you drew none of your own. So we acted. We acted to ensure our people live. We acted so that Jewish children in Jerusalem will not wake up to the sound of air raid sirens triggered by a nuclear launch."
What Israel was seeking from the Security Council, Danon said, was not permission but recognition: "Recognition that Israel did what the world should have done. Recognition that the Iranian regime violated every obligation they ever undertook. Recognition that Israel had the undeniable right and duty to defend its people from extermination." (Jerusalem Post-Media Line)
- A Campaign to Deny Iran Capabilities to Destroy Israel - Ariel Kahana
Senior Israeli sources say the objective of Israel's campaign is to deny Iran the capabilities to destroy Israel. These capabilities encompassed its nuclear project and missile program, both of which have sustained significant damage.
Given Iran's development of extensive, powerful capabilities, Israel anticipates continuing attacks against Iran for at least several more days, possibly longer, until its objectives are met. Israeli officials emphasize that Iran retains considerable attack capabilities. (Israel Hayom)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
War with Iran
- We're Witnessing a Historic Test of Assumptions about Israel - Natan Sharansky
The Israeli government has launched a targeted military assault against the Islamic Republic of Iran, striking its military facilities, nuclear sites and top military leadership. We are witnessing the historic test of the assumption that Israel cannot eliminate the Iranian nuclear threat without active U.S. involvement.
As successive U.S. governments chose the path of diplomacy, Tehran inched closer and closer to obtaining nuclear weapons. And so, after decades of failed international negotiations, Israel decided to wage its battle without America's direct participation. The Jewish state's very existence hangs in the balance.
In conversations I had with Iranians over the past few months, two narratives emerged. Those closer to the government predicted that a war would rally citizens around the regime and thereby strengthen its grip. Dissidents, on the other hand, insisted that an attack limited to nuclear and military targets, and even extending to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps but sparing civilians and ordinary soldiers, would help their cause by exposing and deepening the regime's fragility.
The writer, a human rights activist and former Soviet dissident, is a former Israeli government minister and deputy prime minister.
(Washington Post)
- Israel Can See what Europe Can't: the Devil - Jake Wallis Simons
Ayatollah Khamenei's pet theology lusts after the apocalypse. Triggered by the obliteration of Israel, this cataclysm will supposedly herald the arrival of the "Mahdi" to lead Shia forces to global victory. These are the convictions that drive actual Iranian foreign policy. When Jerusalem was forced to act, you'd have thought the West would rally. But no. Israel was the bad guy.
We have seen this movie before. When Jerusalem destroyed Saddam Hussein's nuclear program in 1981, the world was appalled. Two decades later, the White House quietly acknowledged that the Jews had done everybody a favor.
The countries that will thrive will be those with conviction in their values and the courage and resilience to defend them. As Menachem Begin observed, "The world may not necessarily like the fighting Jew, but the world will have to take account of him." The Devil exists. It makes no sense to appease him. (Telegraph-UK)
- One Iranian Miscalculation after Another - Editorial
Israel has pulled off against Iran's military what it did to Hizbullah in September: a decapitation. Nearly the entire top echelon of Iran's army and Revolutionary Guard has been killed. A series of mistakes has led Iran to the catastrophic scenario it has long sought to avoid: open war with Israel without the aid of proxies and before obtaining nuclear weapons.
For months President Trump made clear that he wanted to avoid a military confrontation and make a nuclear deal. He all but begged the regime to come to terms, and his envoy Steve Witkoff made a generous offer - too generous - that would have let Iran continue enriching uranium domestically for some years. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed it out of hand. Now, the Middle East war Iran started is becoming an historic defeat.
(Wall Street Journal)
- In Jerusalem after Israel Strikes Iran - Gil Troy
The threat against Israel - and the West - had been getting worse in recent months. Beyond Iran's rush to go nuclear, there were rumors of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps coordinating a multiborder invasion, which would include first deposing the Egyptian and Jordanian regimes to encircle Israel in a "ring of fire."
Iran has repeatedly threatened Israel with destruction, unleashed lethal proxies against the Jewish state, and launched at least 500 missiles at Israel in the past 14 months. Anyone who doesn't understand why such aggression requires a devastating response doesn't understand jihadism, international law, or just-war theory.
Iran is a country of more than 90 million people some 1,400 miles from Israel, which has 9.5 million people. About 1.8 million Muslims live in Israel, and the country contains many major Muslim holy sites that Islamists should protect, not threaten. There is no historic enmity between Persians and Jews.
Under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, there were robust economic and cultural ties, as well as many secret military exchanges.
Israel has long avoided this day, trusting diplomacy, the international community and its own efforts to contain the threat. But as Iran galloped toward atomic power and defied American pressure, Israel felt compelled to act. Our people are proud that we are making the world safer, because we're willing to do the West's dirty work.
The writer, a Distinguished Scholar of North American History at McGill University, is a Senior Fellow in Zionist Thought at the Jewish People Policy Institute.
(Wall Street Journal)
- Israel's Strike Changes Everything in Iran - Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh
Iranian VIPs routinely dismissed the Israelis as the little Satan that couldn't. Imagining the Zionists - not the Americans - derailing their nuclear ambitions was too embarrassing to the regime. Younger officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have seen Iran go on an unparalleled losing streak since Oct. 7. The regime, which suspects that most Iranians would welcome its demise, can't count on nationalism working to its advantage. We haven't yet seen Iranians rallying around the Islamic Republic's flag.
Jerusalem might have saved the Middle East from an imminent nuclear-arms race by giving nonproliferation what it's been lacking - teeth. Russia and China, who have been back-stopping the Islamic Republic, will likely re-evaluate the utility of Iranian power in the Middle East.
Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former Iranian-targets officer in the CIA, is a resident scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Ray Takeyh is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. (Wall Street Journal)
- Israel's Nuclear Good Deed Against Iran - Editorial
Israel's air campaign against Iran's nuclear program is, if successful, a favor for the world. The Jewish state deserves American support as the strikes continue. Israel doesn't ask the U.S. to fight its wars, only to support it as it defeats shared enemies. Iran's "death to America" regime qualifies. Iran has always cast the U.S. as the Great Satan, and has been working on ICBMs to bring the U.S. in range.
There is much TV chatter that a new regional war has begun in the Middle East, but Iran has been waging war against Israel and the U.S. for decades. Hundreds of Americans have died at its hands. Iran was able to do that killing with conventional arms. A nuclear-armed Iran would be a grave regional and global menace.
Israel, with its keen sense of existential dread, has acted against a danger that threatens everyone. The U.S. has a moral and strategic interest in standing by Israel's side and helping it finish the job. (Wall Street Journal)
- What the World Misunderstands about the Threat to Israel - Charles Moore
With Israel's repeated, wide-ranging and successful attacks on Iran's installations and key military leaders,
the Israeli air force has displayed the greatest effectiveness since the 1967 Six-Day War.
Few countries face targeted, active existential threats - an enemy trying to wipe you out. Israel is one such nation. The Iranian regime wants not only to destroy the state of Israel, but also to kill all the Jews who inhabit it. "Death to Israel" is the constant cry from the ayatollahs' pulpit. It is why Iran wants the nuclear bomb.
Western powers undoubtedly do not want a nuclear Iran, seeing it as a menace to regional peace. They regard this as just one of the trickier questions of international relations. For them, the question is not existential. For Israel, it is. For a long time now, Iran has been the principal orchestrator of global and regional attacks on Israel. What does seem clear is that Israel is winning by prosecuting its long-term existential aims rather than seeking an unavailable peace process.
The writer, a member of the House of Lords, is a former editor of the Daily Telegraph, the Spectator, and the Sunday Telegraph.
(Telegraph-UK)
- Israel Has Saved Us All from Nuclear Enemies - Stephen Pollard
Just last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) declared that Iran was in breach of its non-proliferation obligations. The threat of an Iranian nuclear weapon has not been theoretical but very real and increasingly imminent.
Israel has been acting not only on its own behalf but on behalf of all those Middle Eastern states which have been destabilized by Iran - and on behalf of the West itself. This is a familiar story; twice before Israel has saved us all from nuclear enemies, in 1981 when it destroyed Saddam's reactor in Iraq and in 2007 when it destroyed Assad's facilities in Syria.
This is the time for action by a clear-eyed state which understands the threat posed by its enemy and is willing to act to defend itself by neutering that threat. It is essential that Israel finishes the job it began. Israel has not started a war - it has prevented one.
(Telegraph-UK)
- Israel's Strikes on Iran Were Inevitable - Ilan Berman
For the moment, Israel has stopped short of taking aim at Iran's clerical leadership, focusing instead on the country's nuclear program and select military targets. That decision has kept Israel within the confines of U.S. policy, and left the door open for U.S.-Iranian negotiations. In fact, Israel's strike has improved the Trump administration's negotiating position considerably, demonstrating to Tehran the catastrophic consequences of unsuccessful diplomacy.
President Trump has already publicly called for the Iranian regime to continue talks and make meaningful concessions, lest it face even more severe action. In this way, Israel has allowed America to play the role of "good cop," short-circuited Iran's time-tested negotiating strategy of delay and obfuscation, and improved the chances of some sort of meaningful arrangement with the ayatollahs to contain their nuclear effort.
Iran's clerical leadership now faces a fateful choice it has avoided for far too long: regime survival or nuclear weapons. The unspoken message of Israel's military campaign is that Tehran can't have both.
The writer is senior vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council. (Newsweek)
- How Israel's Iran Attack Looks in Turkey - Murat Yetkin
Turkey's President Erdogan condemned Israel's attack "in the strongest terms" and sent condolences to Iran on the loss of life. According to sources, Ankara tracked Israel's attack on Iran minute-by-minute starting from midnight on June 12. Israeli jets utilized Syrian and Iraqi airspace during the attack. Ankara's technical assessments indicate Israel received internal support within Iran for targeting. This suggests Israel had high-level intelligence support within Iran.
No country in the Middle East is likely to go beyond political condemnations or diplomatic efforts to stop Israel's attack on Iran. Saudi Arabia and Gulf states, despite public criticism, are privately content with Iran's weakening, especially after the regime change in Syria.
(Yetkin Report-Turkey)
- Anything that Weakens Iran's Proxies Is a Win for India - Swasti Rao
On June 13, Israel acted with stunning finality as it launched Operation Rising Lion, striking deep into Iran's military and nuclear command. Among the casualties was Maj.-Gen. Hossein Salami, chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a figure symbolic not only of Iran's military backbone but also of its revolutionary ideology.
Any deal at this stage would not have rolled back Iran's nuclear enrichment capability in any meaningful way. Since Oct. 7, Israel has systematically dismantled the architecture of Iran's regional influence - from Hamas to Hizbullah and Iran itself. Yet Iran's nuclear ambitions have persisted, undeterred. In Israel's eyes, this is intolerable. A bomb in Iranian hands is not just a regional issue - it is an existential one.
Israel seems to have invested decades in cultivating deep intelligence networks inside Iran. It has been preparing for this moment, even as the rest of the world talked and tweeted and mediated.
India wants the Red Sea to calm down. The Houthi threat has rendered Bab-el-Mandeb nearly impassable for Indian vessels. Since October, Indian cargo has been forced to detour via the Cape of Good Hope, driving up costs and time. Therefore, anything that weakens Iran's proxies - especially the Houthis - is a win for India.
(The Print-India)
Observations:
- Israel has struck a blow to prevent Iran from developing nuclear bombs - weapons that it might credibly use toward its stated goal of removing Israel from the planet. This is not simply a matter of regional security. This conflict is a central front in a global contest in which the forces of tyranny and violence in recent years have been gaining ground against the forces of freedom, which too often are demoralized and divided.
- In a world full of bad actors, Iran is the most aggressive and dangerous totalitarian force of our time. Its leaders seek to weaken and destroy free society, democracy and human rights with Russian and Chinese support. In Iran, women are systematically oppressed and abused. Homosexuals are murdered. Those who think differently are imprisoned and tortured.
- According to official state doctrine, the primary goal of the mullahs in Tehran is the annihilation of the State of Israel. Clocks in the streets of Tehran count down to the "destruction of Israel." But Israel is only the first target. Once Israel falls, Europe and America will be the focus. Radical Sunni and Shiite Islamism has been preparing for this for decades. Their attacks are directed against our values, our way of life.
- It is therefore surprising that Israel is not being celebrated worldwide for its historic, extremely precise and necessary strike against Iranian nuclear weapons facilities and for the targeted killing of leading terrorists. America and Europe, in their own interests alone, must stand united with Israel.
The writer is chair and CEO of Axel Springer, Politico's parent company.
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