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In-Depth Issues:
Israel Exceeds Expectations in Striking Iranian Military Targets - Amos Harel ( Ha'aretz)
The scale and pace of strikes on targets in Iran during the current war has pleasantly surprised the Israeli defense establishment.
According to Israeli and American assessments, more than 3,000 members of the Iranian security services have been killed (the real number may be double that) and more than 7,000 wounded.
A significant portion of the offensive effort is currently being aimed at regime targets - headquarters, bases and commanders of the internal security services, the Basij militia and the Revolutionary Guards.
The IDF has divided the targets into important, vital, and essential (in escalating order of importance), and the goal is to finish hitting all the essential targets before the war ends.
The Israeli strike on fuel storage facilities near Tehran on Saturday was intended as a signal for the regime, and also to create demoralization via photos of the heavy smoke around the capital.
Israel briefed the Americans in advance about the plan to attack the facilities - which aren't connected to oil production but to Iran's internal consumption of gasoline - and encountered no opposition.
Israel and U.S. Shift Focus to Iran's Military Industry - Ron Ben-Yishai ( Ynet News)
Israel's security leadership convened Monday evening to assess progress in the war against Iran.
The picture presented was positive. "Even very good," said a senior security official. "We have achieved far more than we expected by the tenth day of the war."
The assessment was based on a detailed list of targets the IDF had planned to strike according to priorities and timelines prepared in advance.
Hundreds of Iran's long-range ballistic missile launchers were destroyed in the early days of the war, while others were disabled. Hundreds of missiles were also eliminated.
As a result, Iranian forces have been firing only isolated missiles at a time instead of barrages of dozens of missiles.
The next stage focuses on destroying Iran's military-industrial infrastructure which manufactures missiles, missile fuel, launch systems, navigation equipment, and attack drones.
Because Iran is geographically vast, Israeli officials acknowledge the task cannot be completed by Israel alone, and the U.S. is now intensifying its involvement in the effort.
Intelligence officials believe the regime may face growing unrest once the fighting subsides as Iran's economic difficulties, already severe before the conflict, have worsened considerably.
In Lebanon, Israeli strikes have targeted branches of Hizbulllah's Al-Qard Al-Hasan banking system.
For the first time, Hizbullah fighters reportedly did not receive salaries this month.
Iran Foresees a Very Different Future - Yaroslav Trofimo ( Wall Street Journal)
The calculus of the Iranian regime is "that in coming days the U.S. and Israel will run out of interceptors and they will be able to inflict much more harm on every one of the U.S. allies in the region, and then Trump will be coming to beg for some kind of ceasefire, for which they could dictate the terms," said Ali Vaez, head of the Iran project at the International Crisis Group.
"It is to a degree wishful thinking because even if U.S. defensive capabilities suffer, it is still well-stocked on the offensive side and can inflict way more damage to Iran."
Vaez added that it would be unthinkable for Mojtaba Khamenei to strike a deal with Trump, given that his entire family was just wiped out.
Instead, he would likely use any pause in the fighting to seek nuclear weapons. "Even if the guns fall silent, it will be a very ugly equilibrium, which will not be stable," Vaez said.
Ukraine Helps U.S. to Counter Iranian Drones - Kim Barker ( New York Times)
Ukraine has sent interceptor drones and a team of drone experts to protect U.S. military bases in Jordan, President Volodymyr Zelensky told the New York Times.
The country was eager to use its hard-won expertise and advanced technology to help U.S. forces and their Middle Eastern allies defend against the Iranian-designed attack drones that Russia has been using in Ukraine for years.
An Iranian drone killed six U.S. service members at a command center in Kuwait last week.
Ukraine now builds interceptor drones to destroy most Russian attack drones. In February, Russia sent 5,000 attack drones and decoys into Ukrainian cities; Ukraine downed 87% of them.
Israel Air Force Pilot on Iran War: "Everyone Wants to Fly More" ( Jerusalem Post)
A senior Israel Air Force pilot told Walla on Tuesday:
"Everyone is fighting for the seat in the cockpit. They want to fly more...they are eager because there's a sense of pride in being part of this historic effort."
"I truly believe that this war has the potential to affect the security reality for the citizens of Israel for many years ahead."
"We will win, because it's based on values. That's why our people have survived for over 3,000 years."
"It's also what separates us from our enemies. Look at the regime in Iran, look at what it has done to its people. We will continue to sanctify life, and they will continue to sanctify death."
Elbit Lands $120 Million U.S. Army Deal for Battlefield System ( Ynet News)
The U.S. Army has awarded Elbit Systems of America a $120.5 million contract to develop a next-generation battlefield system designed to give soldiers real-time intelligence and faster decision-making in combat, the company announced Sunday.
The Soldier Borne Mission Command (SBMC) system is intended to connect soldiers with sensors, positioning data, and shared battlefield intelligence through a head-borne interface designed to provide continuous situational awareness without requiring soldiers to look away from their surroundings.
It will allow soldiers in a unit to share visual intelligence and threat data in real time, enabling more synchronized operations and faster responses in complex combat environments.
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- Iran Lays Mines in Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Destroys 16 Iranian Mine-Laying Boats
After Iran laid mines in the Strait of Hormuz over recent days, an escalation meant to shut down a vital economic throughway, American forces eliminated 16 Iranian mine-laying boats and other vessels on Tuesday near the strait, U.S. Central Command said. A fifth of the world's oil supply flows through the strait.
(Wall Street Journal)
- U.S. Ramps Up Bombing of Iran - Benedict Smith
The U.S. intensified its war against Iran on Tuesday, dropping bunker-busting bombs on the regime's underground missile facilities. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said B-2 stealth bombers had been used to drop 2,000-lb. bombs on Tehran's secret missile factories. "The U.S. military is moving to dismantle Iran's missile production infrastructure," she said.
(Telegraph-UK)
See also B-1s and B-52s Pour into Europe for Bombing Runs over Iran - Todd South
Nearly a dozen U.S. Air Force bombers, plus additional support aircraft, have arrived at bases in Europe as Pentagon leaders promise to ramp up bombing runs over Iran. Five B-1B Lancer bombers arrived at Royal Air Force Fairford, UK, over the weekend, and another three went to Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany, according to open-source flight tracking data and aircraft spotters.
Three B-52s landed at Fairford on March 9. The new locations cut roundtrip flight times to the Middle East roughly in half for bomber crews. (Air & Space Forces)
- New Iranian Leader Was Wounded Early in the War - Farnaz Fassihi
Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, who succeeded his slain father as Iran's supreme leader, suffered injuries, including to his legs, on the opening day of the attack by Israel and the U.S., three Iranian officials said. He has not appeared on video or in public nor issued any written statements, due to concerns that any communication could reveal his location and put him in danger.
(New York Times)
- Drone Hits U.S. Diplomatic Facility in Iraq - John Hudson
On Tuesday, six drones were launched by Iranian-supported militias in Iraq against the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center, a sprawling logistical hub for American diplomats near Iraqi military bases and the Baghdad airport, which has come under repeated attack since the start of the U.S. offensive. Five drones were shot down, while one hit the facility. There were no casualties. (Washington Post)
See also At Least 17 U.S. Sites Damaged in War with Iran - Bora Erden
Iran has launched drones and missiles at American targets across the Middle East, hitting embassies and damaging military bases and air defense infrastructure. The New York Times has identified at least 17 damaged U.S. sites and other installations, several of which have been struck more than once. This article presents satellite images to show the scale of the damage from Iran's attacks. (New York Times)
See also 140 U.S. Troops Wounded So Far in Iran War - Phil Stewart
"Since the start of Operation Epic Fury, approximately 140 U.S. service members have been wounded over 10 days of sustained attacks," Pentagon Spokesperson Sean Parnell said Tuesday. He said the vast majority of them were minor and that 108 of them had already returned to duty. (Reuters)
- Civilians Killed by Strikes in Gulf States Are Almost All Migrant Workers - Zia ur-Rehman
The economy in the Gulf states depends heavily on foreign workers. At least 12 civilians have been killed in Iranian attacks across the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain; all but one were foreign nationals.
(New York Times)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- Israeli Official: Regime Change in Iran Unlikely in Short Term - Itamar Eichner
"The chances of regime change at the moment are not high, but it is not over," an Israeli official said.
Nevertheless, Iran had suffered a severe strategic blow. "Their system is in ashes. They have no navy. They have no air force. They have no defense industries. We severely damaged the infrastructure. It will be difficult for them to pay salaries. Do not underestimate the strategic damage."
"From their perspective, if the regime does not fall, they have won," the official said. "But we have pushed them back years....The Americans are not stupid. They did not enter this war only to come out with Iran strengthened. There will be more heavy blows in Iran. The last word has not yet been spoken." Current assessments in Israel suggest the conflict will last at least two more weeks. (Ynet News)
- Israel Air Force Hunts Iranian Missile Launchers - Elisha Ben Kimon
The Israel Air Force is targeting Iran's surface-to-surface missile infrastructure, with Israeli drones patrolling wide areas of Iran, flying above launch sites identified by intelligence. Iran has deployed surface-to-air missiles near many missile launch sites in an effort to counter Israeli operations. Since the beginning of the campaign, several Israeli drones have been shot down.
A military source said, "They have many launchers in underground tunnels. They simply cannot bring them out and fire because aircraft are constantly operating above the launch areas." A security official emphasized, "The Iranian people are not the target, and there is no intention of harming them. Pilots and planners do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties. Our strikes are directed only at regime targets."
(Ynet News)
- Missile Damage in Israel a Fraction of 2025 Levels after 11 Days of War with Iran - Ela Levi-Weinrib
Compared to the 12-day war with Iran in June 2025, in the current fighting Iran has been firing fewer missiles and is concentrating its efforts on central Israel. While in June, Iran launched 1,600 missiles and drones, the number launched in this round of fighting so far is less than 600. While direct damage from missile hits in 2025 reached NIS 3 billion, the damage in the current campaign is estimated at several hundred million shekels so far.
Yigal Govrin, chairman of the Israel Association of Engineers, said, "In the previous campaign, we saw missiles with large warheads of hundreds of kilograms, and each missile that was not intercepted and landed had the potential to destroy an entire building."
"In this round, the Iranians are sending cluster missiles, that is, warheads that scatter, each with much less explosives, so the chance of a building being completely destroyed is very small. On the other hand, the large scatter is problematic. The potential for harm to people and property is greater because it reaches more places." (Globes-TNS-Jerusalem Post)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
The Iran War
- U.S., Israel Preparing Secret Plan for "Day After" War Ends - Ariel Kahana
Israel and the U.S. have prepared a plan aimed at creating the conditions to accelerate the fall of Iran's ayatollah regime after the war ends, according to a source familiar with the details who spoke with Israel Hayom.
The plan includes components designed to provide real-time assistance to Iranians in replacing the country's leadership. Both the U.S. and Israel hope that any alternative leadership will emerge from the central elements of Iranian society rather than from the many minority groups in the country.
Against the backdrop of the rapid progress of the war, which is advancing faster than originally anticipated, a source estimates that the conflict could last less time than initially expected.
(Israel Hayom)
- Stopping Iran Is Not a Violation of International Law - Dr. Fiamma Nirenstein
The Iran of the ayatollahs has long been dangerous and ready for war. If the world wished to prevent it from attacking its enemies with lethal weapons, including potentially nuclear ones, then action to stop it was not only justified but necessary. International law does not forbid self-defense.
The danger posed by Iran has been clear and present for decades. Ignoring it would have been an invitation to catastrophe - potentially even nuclear aggression. Tehran's ambitions were not hidden. They were developed methodically over the years and accompanied by constant acts of war carried out directly and through proxies.
Yet in much of the international conversation, anti-Americanism, pacifist reflexes, and hostility toward Israel dominate the narrative. Iran is no longer described as the world's leading sponsor of terrorism, governed by a dictatorship that brutally violates human rights. Instead, it is often portrayed as the victim.
Critics of Israel and the U.S. insist that confronting Iran undermines the global code of justice and morality. But such arguments reveal how compromised that framework has become. If international law cannot recognize the need to defend oneself against a war already being waged against you, then it has lost its relevance.
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.
(JNS)
- On Iran, We Stand with Israel and America - Dr. Houman David Hammati
47 years ago, I stood at a window in Tehran as a 3-year-old boy, smelling burning tires and hearing the chants that would steal my country. I do not celebrate war. No decent person does. What I celebrate - what millions of Iranians inside the country and in the diaspora have prayed for in secret for decades - is the possibility that a regime which has no right to exist may finally be forced to go.
This is the same regime that armed and cheered the Oct. 7 massacre against Israel for no reason other than pure genocidal hatred; murdered tens of thousands of its own sons and daughters who dared to walk peacefully in the streets demanding the most basic freedoms; gouges out the eyes of young women for the "crime" of wearing makeup; hangs teenagers from cranes for posting a tweet; exports terror, poverty, and darkness to every corner it can reach including the U.S.
No nation, no people, should have to live under that. Not Israelis. Not Americans. And certainly not Iranians. I am a son of Iran who has spent his life mourning a stolen homeland. What we are witnessing is not aggression - it is necessary surgery to remove a tumor that has metastasized for 47 years. The tumor is the Islamic Republic that has hijacked Iran.
To the brave pilots of the Israel Air Force and the men and women of the U.S. military now carrying out this mission: You are not invaders. You are the answer to the prayers of millions who have whispered "enough" in the dark since 1979. Thank you, Israel. Thank you, America. The Iranian people - the real Iran - will never forget.
The Iranian-born writer is Adjunct Assistant Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at USC Keck School of Medicine. (Facebook)
- The Forgotten 444 Days in Tehran - Warren Kozak
In 1979 Iranians held 52 Americans hostage for more than a year. From 1979 to 1981, the captives seized from the American Embassy were humiliated, paraded around blindfolded for cameras and jeering crowds and threatened.
Diplomatic immunity is a concept that goes back to ancient times. It evolved over centuries to an accepted standard between governments. Even Adolf Hitler respected diplomatic immunity.
The Iranians used diplomatic immunity when it was in their murderous interest. They used diplomatic immunity to bring in the bomb material used in the car bomb detonated outside a Jewish center in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994, killing 85 and wounding another 300.
Tens of thousands of human beings would be alive today, and the entire Middle East wouldn't have been destabilized for half a century, had the Iranian theocracy been stopped at the start.
(Wall Street Journal)
Hizbullah
- It's Time to Finally Eliminate Hizbullah - Jason Greenblatt
For decades, the Lebanese people have lived under the shadow of a state within a state: Hizbullah, an armed proxy of the Iranian regime that hollowed out Lebanon's sovereignty, economy and political system. If Lebanon is ever going to reclaim its independence, this is the moment.
Hizbullah's strength rested not only on its position within Lebanon but also on the broader architecture of Iran's regional proxy network. That network allowed Tehran to project power across the Middle East while pursuing its ambitions of destroying Israel and imposing the Iranian regime's theocratic vision across the region. That structure is now under unprecedented strain due to President Trump's actions, working hand in hand with Israel, to finally break the Iranian regime's ability to threaten Israel, Iran's Arab neighbors, and the U.S. itself.
The Iranian regime, the pillar sustaining Hizbullah, has been significantly degraded. For decades, Hizbullah and other Iranian proxies operated with the confidence that Tehran's support would always be there.
But the regime's ability to bankroll distant militias while its own economy deteriorates is collapsing.
Hizbullah itself has also taken major blows as Israeli operations have targeted the group's leadership, finances, and military infrastructure. The aura of invincibility that Hizbullah cultivated for decades has faded. For years the Iranian regime treated Lebanon as a forward operating base. Hizbullah was built to serve Iran's ambitions. The interests of the Lebanese people never mattered.
What was once one of the Middle East's most vibrant societies has been pushed to the brink. Future generations of Lebanese deserve a country whose army answers only to the state. They deserve institutions capable of restoring Lebanon's historic role as a center of commerce, education and culture. And they deserve a government that represents Lebanon's national interests, not the strategic ambitions of Tehran.
The U.S. and Israel will continue to weaken Hizbullah, but they cannot restore Lebanese sovereignty. Only the Lebanese state can do that. The question now is whether Lebanon's leaders have the courage to recognize this moment, put the Lebanese people first and act before the opportunity disappears.
The writer served for three years as the White House Middle East envoy in the first Trump administration. (Al Arabiya)
The Golan Druze
- IDF Military Funeral in Golan Druze Town Signals Historic Shift - Adi Hashmonai
For decades, the community center in Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights was covered with a huge Syrian flag. This week, that flag was nowhere to be seen. The hundreds who filled the community center came to console the family of Master Sgt. Maher Khatar, a native of the town and an IDF combat soldier, who was killed in Lebanon.
In the 1980s, those few Golan Druze with Israeli ID cards were victims of a religious and social boycott, considered to have betrayed the Syrian nation. Dr. Ramzi Halabi, from the Israeli Druze town of Daliat al-Carmel, said this moment symbolizes the breaking of the last barriers between the residents of the Druze villages in the Golan and the State of Israel. "The Druze in Israel...have long since defined ourselves first of all as Israelis, and hope that in the next stage the identification with Israel will reach the Golan Heights."
Dr. Salim Barik, a political scientist who studies the Druze, said the process of the Israelization of the Druze in the Golan began with the outbreak of the civil war in Syria. "It started in 2011 when people said, 'Syria is falling apart, so it's clear we won't return to Syria and it won't be able to liberate the Golan Heights. The story is over - we're Israelis, let's become part of Israel.'"
"What strengthened this trend most was the massacre in Sweida.... About 800 Druze were slaughtered there, thousands were wounded and displaced, and villages were torched. Today there's a genuine fear of Muslims."
Sheikh Zahir al-Din said, "Israel stood by our side in Sweida when accursed people massacred our brothers, and we'll never forget that. I asked someone here who was pro-Syrian how he agreed to let his son enlist in the IDF. He replied: 'At the time, we had children and relatives in the Syrian army. Now there aren't any, and if my son enlists he'll fight ISIS, and I'm very pleased about that.'" (Ha'aretz)
Observations:
- Some experts say the U.S. war with Iran was inspired by Israel and imposed by Israel, and that the U.S. is merely the executor of "Israel's war." I don't deny that the two countries have converging interests, or that their military and intelligence agencies are operating in close coordination. But that is called an alliance.
- Would anyone have said that Franklin D. Roosevelt was being manipulated by Charles de Gaulle? Or that Winston Churchill - who in 1919 said Bolshevism should be strangled in its cradle - became Stalin's puppet 22 years later?
- In this case, Israel has one concern: neutralizing a threat that it rightly considers existential. The U.S. has its own concerns: defending its allies (Arab countries as well as Israel), weakening a strategic axis that runs from Tehran to Moscow and Beijing, and washing away the humiliation that has remained for 47 years - the invasion of the U.S. Embassy in 1979 and holding of American hostages for more than a year.
- To believe that a country the size of New Jersey could twist the arm of a country of 350 million, equipped with the most powerful military and the most sophisticated network of bases in history, and governed by a president of unrivaled egotism? To imagine that Donald Trump would have given any foreign prime minister the gift of a war of this magnitude? It is simply grotesque.
- But the more serious problem is that this fable revives a very old and toxic lie. This is how people thought in the 1930s - those who saw in "the Jews" a community of conspirators pushing nations toward war, pulling the strings of catastrophe, and scheming to provoke conflicts from which they expected to profit.
The writer is a philosopher and author of more than 45 books.
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