| DAILY ALERT |
Sunday, July 19, 2026 |
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
Two U.S. soldiers were killed Friday while defending against an Iranian missile and drone attack in Jordan, and another service member is missing, U.S. Central Command said Saturday. (NBC News) See also Jordan Is Becoming a New Focus in the U.S.-Iran War - Greg Jaffe The Iranian attack that killed two U.S. soldiers and left one service member missing on Friday was the fourth in five days on U.S. forces in Jordan. Together, the attacks have wounded dozens of U.S. service members. The first attack struck a residential facility at King Faisal Air Base, wounding five U.S. service members. The second hit a base in eastern Jordan, damaging a significant number of U.S. Blackhawk helicopters. Then, Iranian missiles hit Jordan's Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Azraq, where the troops were killed on Friday. The earlier strike wounded 20 U.S. troops rushing to take cover in bunkers. (New York Times) Fighting between the U.S. and Iran expanded on Friday, with the American military striking a broader range of targets and moving jet fighters into the Middle East while Tehran launches attacks across the Persian Gulf. Recent targets have included multiple bridges in an effort to cut off supply routes to the port and naval base at Bandar Abbas on the Strait of Hormuz. The port normally handles 90% of the country's container traffic. Iran also uses the facilities to attack ships, a senior U.S. official said. Several highways connecting the port city to nearby provinces were declared closed, according to Iran's state broadcaster IRIB. The U.S. has been striking targets throughout the country and not just along the coast, a U.S. defense official said. In recent days, Iran fired a ballistic missile at a U.S. base in Saudi Arabia after avoiding hitting the kingdom. On Friday, Kuwait said Iranian strikes damaged a power and desalination plant, while the country intercepted 32 drone attacks since Thursday. Iran also has begun attacking Qatar and Oman - two countries involved in efforts to find a diplomatic solution - and stepped up its attacks on shipping. (Wall Street Journal) See also U.S. Bridge Strikes Cut Off City that Keeps Iran Alive - Benedict Smith New U.S. bombings leave Bandar Abbas, where half of Iran's trade comes ashore, almost completely isolated. By Friday morning, the roads linking the city to the rest of the nation lay broken, the railway severed, and a port that helps feed some 90 million people all but cut off from the country it sustains. Bandar Abbas is also home to Iran's main naval base. Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official, said, "There's a growing sense, a growing conclusion inside the Pentagon, that whether the United States wants to do this or not, they really have no choice if they want this to end." (Telegraph-UK) Israeli President Isaac Herzog told Al Arabiya that he was not surprised by the latest developments, arguing that Iran has a long history of violating agreements. He said Israel had repeatedly raised legitimate concerns about Iran's behavior, and that recent events demonstrated those concerns. "I'm happy that the American reaction is firm and clear, so that everybody understands, especially the Iranians, that they cannot goof around here," he said, adding that Tehran must "go back on track" if it wants to pursue a path out of the conflict. He said any future agreement should ensure Iran is prevented from obtaining nuclear capabilities and cannot "blackmail" the international community, saying any closure of the Strait of Hormuz would amount to blackmail. Herzog reiterated Israel's desire to reach agreements with additional Arab states, including Saudi Arabia. (Al Arabiya) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
Israel is not an active participant in the new round of fighting between the U.S. and Iran. Yet, behind the scenes, the U.S. still relies heavily on Israeli intelligence support. A former senior Israeli defense official who trained for years alongside the U.S. military said: "They need us for intelligence, operational capabilities and operationalization" - the process of identifying and verifying a target, translating the intelligence into an operational plan and carrying it out. "Our pilots have accumulated considerable experience that they can contribute to planning, creative problem-solving, and the execution of strikes. The relationship is reciprocal." For Israelis, this less visible role is a blessing. It reduces the risk of casualties and allows daily life to continue largely as normal, without trips to bomb shelters. (Ha'aretz) Saudi broadcaster Al Hadath, citing an Israeli security official, reported Sunday that Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is not in Iran. That means all statements and messages recently issued in his name are fake. The official said the messages were actually drafted by Revolutionary Guard commander Ahmad Vahidi and other senior figures, who were attempting to create a false impression of control and continuity. According to the official, Tehran planned and set in motion a complex operation aimed at assassinating senior Israeli figures in Tel Aviv in retaliation for the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei. (Israel Hayom) U.S. strikes against Iran in the coming days and weeks are expected to focus on keeping the Strait of Hormuz open while avoiding escalation into a full-scale war, a security official told Israel Hayom. The Americans are listening closely to the Gulf states and coordinating their actions with them. The Gulf states have changed course and are now demanding a decisive outcome against Iran. Two Gulf states are actively participating in the strikes, although on a limited scale. At the same time, they remain concerned about their sensitive strategic infrastructure, particularly oil and gas fields and facilities, as well as desalination plants. The Americans, together with Britain, France, Israel and other countries operating through the joint command center of U.S. Central Command, are helping the Gulf states establish an intelligence, early-warning and active defense network against Iranian missile and drone attacks. Over the past week, Iran has fired almost no missiles or drones at the UAE. However, Iran may expand its attacks to include the UAE and Saudi Arabia if the confrontation escalates. The U.S. Navy is now also preparing to protect the shipping route through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea to the Suez Canal. According to reports in Iranian media, the U.S. Treasury has successfully frozen several billion dollars belonging to Iran in digital assets. (Israel Hayom) As tensions between Iran and the U.S. are rising rapidly, Israel's political and military leadership is preparing for a possible escalation. Dozens of U.S. military refueling aircraft have landed in Israel in recent days and deployed to Israeli Air Force bases. Israeli officials are holding daily security assessments. (Israel Hayom) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
Iran The Iranians seem determined to remain in control of the Strait of Hormuz. They see it as giving them leverage over the global economy and forcing their Gulf neighbors and others to pay them off both economically and politically. So, what should Trump do? The best - or least bad - option would be to combine the U.S. blockade with forceful and sophisticated diplomacy. The blockade is slowly raising the war's costs to the Iranians and weakening their leverage. But on its own, it is not enough. Iran needs to see and feel isolated and discredited on Hormuz. It needs to see the Europeans and the Arabs offer a UN Security Council resolution that insists that the strait remain an international waterway, not controlled, monetized, or managed by any member state. Trump needs to work with the Saudis and the Emiratis to tell China that they expect Beijing to support such a resolution or not block one - which would be a shock to Tehran. The Islamic Republic's leaders see themselves as the heirs to a rich historical, national, and cultural legacy, and preventing isolation matters to them. Trump wants to end this war with Iran weaker and not in control of Hormuz. Diplomacy that is integrated with the use of force and tied to increasing economic pressure just might allow him to shape a deal. The writer, a former chief U.S. Middle East peace negotiator, is the counselor at the Washington Institute. (Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Roody, 27, was sentenced to be flogged following the death of her brother, Mehdi, 37, who was shot several times in the head during the nationwide demonstrations in January. Roody wrote about his killing on X, raging against the Islamic Republic. She had earlier run-ins with the authorities began in 2023, after she posted a photograph of herself without a hijab. At the time, she went into hiding as security forces raided her home, beat her father and interrogated him for hours, threatened relatives and beat her friends so badly they were almost unrecognizable. After Roody spoke out about her brother's death, she received a summons, charged with disturbing public order. She said: "As soon as I found out about the sentence, I was shocked....The idea that someone is going to whip you in this day and age as a legal punishment never becomes normal." The woman who carried out the flogging recited "Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim" ("In the name of Allah, the most compassionate, the most merciful") every two lashes. By the end, Roody said, she had heard it 30 times - 60 lashes in all. "She was an older woman in a black chador....She was religious....I hated her polite, ceremonial tone. She spoke to me as if she were doing something normal." (The Times-UK) Lebanon On June 26, 2026, the Israeli, Lebanese, and U.S. governments signed the Trilateral Framework Agreement to "establish peaceful neighborly relations" between Israel and Lebanon. The problem is that the conflict in question is being driven by Hizbullah, which initiated attacks against Israel in support of Hamas right after Oct. 7, 2023, and then again in March 2026 in the context of the war with Iran. Hizbullah leader Naim Qassem said the agreement is "null and void" and crossed all of its "red lines." The agreement maps out a series of sequential actions aimed at disarming Hizbullah, enabling the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to restore "effective Lebanese sovereign authority over all Lebanese territory," and ultimately - pending verified disarmament of non-state armed groups and the dismantlement of their infrastructure - redeployment of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) out of Lebanese territory. A partner in the agreement, the U.S. commits to work closely with both governments to monitor compliance and back implementation. Under this sequenced process, the IDF will continue to clear areas in southern Lebanon of Hizbullah fighters, weapons, tunnels, bunkers, and other infrastructure, and then, after an agreed-upon third party verifies they are clear of non-state armed groups, the areas will be handed over to vetted and "highly qualified" LAF forces, who will assume control and prevent any return or resurgence of Hizbullah or other non-state armed activities. The need for verification is clear - not only confirming that the LAF has moved into areas the IDF has cleared, but, more critically, that the LAF keeps Hizbullah out. That will require substantial intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance to detect Hizbullah movement into LAF-controlled areas. After the November 2024 ceasefire, the LAF sought to be judged by metrics such as the number of patrols it conducted or sites it inspected, rather than measures of effectiveness like the number of seized and verifiably disposed weapons. This will no longer be the case. As long as Washington sees this effort as a viable and functioning path toward the parties' shared goal of achieving lasting peace and security, and as long as other countries share the burden of any military, intelligence, and financial support mechanism, it just might work. The writer is director of the Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute. (Washington Institute for Near East Policy) U.S.-Israel Relations The vote by 103 House Democrats and one Republican on Wednesday to block U.S. arms to Israel as it fights a multifront war is a shocking abandonment of an ally. The measure to strip Israel of all aid - humanitarian and military, offensive and defensive - was offered by the isolationist Republican Thomas Massie. The second ranking Democrat in leadership, Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, said, "We should not provide a blank check for military aid to any country that does not comply with U.S. law, interests, and values." Israel has violated no U.S. laws we know of. As for U.S. interests, Israel is fighting by the side of the U.S. against Iran and fighting alone against Iran's proxies that have killed Americans. The defense relationship with Israel is a U.S. military advantage that helps maintain America's technological edge over adversaries. These Democrats are voting to abandon even Iron Dome missile defense. How is it a U.S. "value" to disarm an ally fighting against murderous enemies that fire rockets on civilian towns? (Wall Street Journal) Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said Friday: "I am a supporter of Israel, and I recognize they are under profound existential threat. We should not forget October 7th or the reality that Hamas, Hizbullah, and Iran want to eliminate Israel. I also recognize that many of those who want the U.S. to completely abandon Israel do not support Israel's right to exist and are willfully blind to the dangerous, violent, extremist beliefs of Hamas and others who threaten Israel." "I am deeply concerned about the tactics used by those on the far left to advocate for cutting off aid to Israel. To date, my family and I have had our home vandalized, a fire has been set in my driveway, my neighbors' lives have been disrupted by demonstrations in the middle of the night, town halls meant to be forums for dialogue have been shut down, and a staff member has been physically assaulted. Those who engage in this type of behavior model a dangerous form of corrosive politics that seeks to intimidate those who disagree with them." Rep. Smith voted to stop military assistance to Israel. (Rep. Adam Smith) Israeli Security Inside the combat zone of a maneuvering force, real-time information flows across ruggedized screens, intelligence officers analyze enemy movements, and decisions are made within seconds. This is what the new cooperation between intelligence headquarters and combat forces looks like. The change is part of a deep conceptual shift undergone by the IDF during the war: a transition to operating through multidimensional combat teams. This gives every fighting framework full independence and diverse capabilities from all branches, allowing it to function as an autonomous army in the field. This is reflected in the close integration of infantry, armored forces, and advanced armored vehicles operating alongside lethal drone swarms and organic engineering and sabotage capabilities. Completing the picture are these combat intelligence capabilities, which are far more diverse and extensive than anything field-level forces had previously known. At the center of this effort are forward intelligence centers (Military Intelligence for Deployed Forces) integrated directly into maneuvering areas. They provide forces with an accurate intelligence picture in real time. In a comprehensive manpower restructuring, the number of intelligence officers in each battalion was doubled and combat brigades were assigned dedicated collection experts in the fields of human intelligence (HUMINT), visual intelligence (VISINT), signals intelligence (SIGINT) and open-source intelligence (OSINT). The intelligence information reaches commanders after it has already been processed and refined, allowing field commanders to make rapid decisions under fire without getting lost in mountains of digital data. (Ynet News) Yahalom, the elite special operations unit of the IDF Combat Engineering Corps, includes two primary sub-units: S-1 (Commando & Tunnel Warfare) and S-2 (Explosive Ordnance Disposal). The S-2 platoon also works to locate, map, and destroy strategic tunnels in Gaza and southern Lebanon, its commander, Lt.-Col. D., told Walla. D. described how the massive blast doors at the entrance to the tunnels were removed, how dozens of trucks carrying explosives were brought in overnight into an area swarming with terrorists and drones, what lies behind the tunnel network built by the Iranians, and why the IDF's operation must not stop now. After the mapping and clearing comes the climax - destroying the tunnel - while soldiers are exposed to anti-tank threats, drones, and the watchful eyes of Hizbullah terrorists in the area. "Imagine that one night, 140 trucks enter from Israel loaded with 84 tons of 'special material,' and 50 soldiers unload it again in one night. At first, they thought it would take four days. But the soldiers did it with determination, running from one end of the truck to the other end of the tunnel, all night." (Jerusalem Post) 26 years ago, on July 11, 2000, at Camp David, under the auspices of U.S. President Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak met with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat in an attempt to reach a permanent-status agreement and bring the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to an end. At that time, Israel was prepared to transfer more than 90% of Judea and Samaria to the Palestinians and discuss the division of Jerusalem. But despite all the sweeping concessions that were offered, the Palestinians said no. Arafat's rejection exposed the truth: the Palestinians never intended, and still do not intend today, to establish a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel. The true and unchanging objective of the Palestinian national movement is the establishment of a state over the entire Land of Israel, on the ruins of the State of Israel. The result of those concessions was the outbreak of the Second Intifada, a planned wave of terrorism that claimed the lives of more than 1,000 Israelis. The Camp David Summit definitively shattered the assumption that territorial concessions would bring reconciliation. It proved that the root of the conflict is not Israel's presence in Judea and Samaria, but the very existence of a sovereign Jewish state in the Land of Israel. Even at the point of Israel's maximum willingness to compromise, it became clear that a historic compromise was not the objective of the other side. From this we understand that lasting arrangements are not achieved through territorial gestures, but are built upon strength, deterrence, and security. Only when the other side becomes convinced that it cannot defeat Israel or alter reality through terrorism, international pressure, or rejectionism, and that the continued illusion that the Jewish presence in the region is temporary bears no fruit, will the foundation for a stable and realistic arrangement truly be laid. The writer, a Senior Fellow at the David Institute for National Security Policy, served as a policy assistant to former Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer. (Jerusalem Post) Israel should be able to produce its own Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bombs - which convert unguided bombs into precision-guided munitions - en masse within two years, which will revolutionize its warfare capabilities, the Jerusalem Post has learned. Israel started producing more of its own bombs in late 2024 after decades of relying on the U.S. This came after the Biden administration slapped a partial arms freeze on certain bombs to Israel in May 2024 over differences related to the IDF's invasion of Rafah in Gaza. (Jerusalem Post) Israel Aerospace Industries unveiled HYPNOSIS, an advanced navigation warfare system designed to counter a wide range of airborne threats, including large drone swarms, by disrupting their satellite-based navigation systems. HYPNOSIS uses advanced jamming and spoofing capabilities to disrupt or deceive satellite navigation systems. The system can integrate soft-kill capabilities, such as electronic disruption, with hard-kill systems that physically intercept and destroy threats. It can counter coordinated attacks involving large numbers of threats approaching simultaneously from multiple directions and operate fully autonomously, without the need for operator intervention. (Israel Hayom) Israel and the West "Support for Israel around the world is declining," former Chicago mayor and potential Democratic presidential candidate Rahm Emanuel declared in Israel last week. Is that true? Argentina's Javier Milei visited Israel in April to establish the "Isaac Accords." Bolivia's Rodrigo Paz and Chile's Jose Antonio Kast both restored diplomatic ties with Israel after taking office. In Colombia, voters gave the nod to pro-Israel Abelardo de la Espriella. The Conservative Party of Canada couldn't be more pro-Israel, from leader Pierre Poilievre to future foreign minister Shuv Majumdar. In Britain, the Reform party brings more supporters of Israel and anti-Islamists into its fold by the day. Slovenia has announced it will move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem while rescinding the country's recognition of a Palestinian state. Germany's Friedrich Merz and India's Narendra Modi are busy expanding their defense relationships with Israel. Military delegations from Canada, Britain, France, Morocco, Finland, Greece, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Austria, Estonia, Japan, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia all came to Israel to learn from its military's battlefield lessons and innovations. Richard Goldberg, former White House and National Security Council official, is a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Roger Zakheim, a former general counsel and deputy staff director of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, is director of the Ronald Reagan Institute. (RealClear Politics) See also Colombia Withdraws from ICC Case Against Israel - Anna Barsky (Jerusalem Post) Palestinian Arabs Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has once again announced legislative and presidential elections, presenting the move as evidence of democratic renewal. Western governments and donors will undoubtedly welcome the announcement as a sign that Abbas is finally responding to long-standing demands for reform. They should not. Holding elections for the sake of holding elections is not reform. Elections alone do not create democracy, end corruption, or establish accountability. As seen in Russia, Venezuela, Iran and other dictatorships, elections are not signs of reform, but just choreographed burlesques. The Palestinians desperately need transparent institutions, an independent judiciary, a free press, functioning checks and balances, and leaders who answer to the public rather than rule indefinitely by presidential decree. None of that exists under the PA in the West Bank or under Hamas in Gaza. Abbas, now 91, is serving the 21st year of a four-year presidential term that began in 2005. For decades, both Fatah and Hamas have systematically prevented the emergence of alternative leadership. Both bear responsibility for widespread human rights abuses, political repression, arbitrary arrests of opponents, media intimidation, and corruption. Instead of building democratic institutions, they have built systems designed to preserve their own power. Public opinion surveys over the past two years have repeatedly shown that Hamas remains one of the most popular political forces in Palestinian society and, in many cases, enjoys greater support than Abbas's Fatah faction. New elections could once again hand victory to Hamas. Such a result would strengthen an Iran-backed terrorist group that openly seeks Israel's destruction, rejects peace, and continues to advocate armed jihad (holy war). (Gatestone Institute) Antisemitism France defeated Morocco 2-0 in a World Cup quarterfinal. The Jewish people had nothing to do with it. Yet within hours, crowds in European cities were chanting, "Hamas! Hamas! All Jews to the gas chambers." In The Hague, police were pelted with bottles. Fires were set in Amsterdam. Rioting broke out on Edgware Road in London. A North African team lost a soccer match, and the immediate reflex was to call for the murder of Jews. Why is it always the Jews? A soccer match, a pandemic, an economic crisis, a war, an assassination, a wildfire, an election - somehow, someone finds a way to blame the Jews. After the assassination of Charlie Kirk, conspiracy theories spread online claiming that Israel or the Mossad was responsible. We have watched this pattern for two thousand years. When the Black Death swept through Europe, Jews were accused of poisoning wells, and Jewish communities were burned alive for a plague they were dying from alongside everyone else. During the Spanish Inquisition, Jews were accused of corrupting the faith and were expelled, tortured, or murdered. Every generation invents a fresh reason and attaches it to the oldest target. There are 15 million Jews in a world of more than eight billion people - less than 0.2% of humanity. Yet this tiny people are routinely accused of controlling nations. If Jews truly possessed the extraordinary power attributed to them, would they have spent centuries being expelled from country after country? Would Jewish schools and synagogues around the world require armed guards? Would Israel, a country smaller than New Jersey, have spent most of its existence fighting for the right to exist? The writer is founder and CEO of the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce. (Jerusalem Post) Observations: Israel Is Fighting on the Front Lines of the War for Western Civilization - Dr. Dan Diker interviewed by Mathilda Heller (Jerusalem Post)
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