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In-Depth Issues:
U.S. Rebuilds Western and Arab Coalition ahead of Confrontation with Iran - Danny Zaken ( Israel Hayom)
The U.S. has in recent months consolidated varying levels of support and cooperation with several Arab states, and previous disagreements with Britain have largely been resolved.
The cooperation is seen as critical not only for intelligence, logistical and defensive assistance in the event of an attack, but also for securing international legitimacy for such a decisive move.
In addition to most Gulf states, the coalition includes Jordan and Egypt, Greece and Cyprus.
U.S. Deploys F-22 Stealth Jets to Israel in Show of Force and Coordination - Itamar Eichner ( Ynet News)
12 U.S. F-22 fighter jets have landed in Israel as part of a buildup of U.S. forces ahead of a possible strike on Iran.
The decision to send the aircraft to Israel conveys a message that Washington and Jerusalem are coordinated and could act together.
The advanced stealth F-22 has not been sold to any foreign militaries.
See also U.S. Deploys Combat Jets to Israel for Potential Wartime Mission in Iran - Michael R. Gordon ( Wall Street Journal)
The deployment of F-22 Raptors to Israel this week marks the first time the U.S. has deployed combat aircraft to the country for a potential wartime mission against Iran.
For decades prior to the Abraham Accords, U.S. forces in the Middle East had sought to avoid the impression that they were closely integrated with the Israeli military.
"Operating aircraft from Israeli bases is a first," said Dennis Ross, a former senior U.S. official.
The F-22 deployment is the product of "the growing cooperation between the United States and Israel, and the refusal of so many countries to allow the U.S. to use their bases," said Elliott Abrams, another former senior U.S. official.
"I have to wonder if, over time, Americans will wonder why we have bases in countries that don't cooperate when we ask."
Israel's antimissile defenses will help protect the F-22s based in the country.
"If I was going to put a very high value asset somewhere, I totally would want to go for a country that has pretty robust air and missile defense," said Douglas Birkey, executive director for the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
Iran Transferred $1.7 Billion to Terror Proxies through Cryptocurrency in 2025 - David Yaffe-Bellany ( New York Times)
Internal investigators at the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, the world's largest venue for crypto trading, found that people in Iran had access to 1,500 accounts on their platform in 2025.
$1.7 billion had flowed from two Binance accounts to Iranian entities with links to terrorist groups.
Ordinary Iranians Have Formed a Collective Resistance to the Regime - Shay Khatiri ( Middle East Forum)
In Iran, the balance of fear has changed. Organically, Iranians have formed a collective resistance that surpasses the state's capacity to crack down on it.
There are not enough prison cells to make a dent in the movement.
People still fear the Islamic Republic, but few people are still scared of showing their faces when they condemn the regime.
People are increasingly at ease to participate in collective resistance, such as classroom protests, attending funerals, leading anti-regime chants, and going on strike.
A decade ago, the cowards feared participating in anti-regime activities. Today, they fear skipping them.
Nobody wants to be remembered as the person who did not participate in protests, in case the regime falls.
The writer is a senior fellow at the Yorktown Institute.
Follow the Jerusalem Center on:
PA Continues Pay-for-Slay Scheme - Amichai Stein ( Jerusalem Post)
The Palestinian Authority transferred $163 million to terrorists in 2025 under its "pay-for-slay" mechanism - $132 million to terrorists currently in prison, and $31 million to the families of terrorists killed while carrying out attacks, the Jerusalem Post learned on Wednesday.
Terrorists released as part of the most recent hostage deals received a "special grant" from the Palestinian Authority.
Senior Israeli security officials said that in recent months, salaries of PA employees, including teachers, doctors, and nurses, have been reduced to ensure that payments to terrorists remain unaffected.
The current average salary in the PA is $1,000 per month. Payments to terrorists, however, can reach $4,000 per month.
Israel's Forgotten Christians - Robert Nicholson ( Providence)
More than 70% of Israel's 188,000 Christians live primarily in the north, especially in the Galilee. They play an outsized role in education, medicine, and business.
Accounts of Christian life in Israel ignore Israeli Christians like Jacob Hanna, a leading stem-cell researcher; Hossam Haick, a pioneer in nano-sensor technology; and Johnny Srouji, who helped lead Apple's research and development expansion in Israel.
Ignored, too, are statistics showing Christians as Israel's most highly educated and most fully employed population per capita.
Forgotten as well are the extensive efforts undertaken to protect and preserve Christian holy sites and the fact that the number of churches and chapels in the Holy Land has more than doubled since 1948.
George, a young Christian from Haifa, volunteered for the Israel Defense Forces several months before Oct. 7.
Christians are exempt from military service by law, but Christian enlistment has been rising steadily for years, a trend that accelerated sharply after Oct. 7.
Over the last two years, George fought alongside Jews and Muslims on the front lines of Gaza, Syria, and Lebanon. He wore a cross around his neck and shared foxholes with men of other faiths. He saw friends die.
Yet George and his family are more patriotic, more rooted, and more invested in Israel's future than ever.
Israel Delivers Unmanned Submarine to German Military - Assaf Uni ( Globes)
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) on Wednesday delivered an unmanned submarine to the German Navy in a deal worth tens of millions of euros, German media reported.
The BlueWhale autonomous submarine was developed in collaboration with German company Atlas, a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp.
The submarine is used mainly for intelligence gathering by electronic means. It can detect hostile submarines and other vessels, and assist in mine clearance.
It is capable of diving to a depth of 300 meters and remaining at sea for weeks. It was already tested last summer in the Baltic Sea, where it will operate.
Greece is also in advanced stages of procuring BlueWhale from IAI.
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
- Trump: Iran "Working to Build Missiles that Will Soon Reach the U.S."
President Donald Trump, in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, said:
"As president, I will make peace wherever I can, but I will never hesitate to confront threats to America wherever we must. That's why in a breakthrough operation last June, the United States military obliterated Iran's nuclear weapons program with an attack on Iranian soil known as Operation Midnight Hammer."
"For decades, it has been the policy of the United States never to allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. Since they seized control of that proud nation 47 years ago, the regime and its murderous proxies have spread nothing but terrorism and death and hate. They've killed and maimed thousands of American service members...with what's called roadside bombs."
"This is some terrible people. They've already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they're working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America. After Midnight Hammer, they were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program, and in particular nuclear weapons, yet they continue."
"They want to start it all over again and are at this moment again pursuing their sinister ambitions....I will never allow the world's No. 1 sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon." (AP)
- U.S. Demands that Any Future Iran Nuclear Deal Have No "Sunset Provision" - Barak Ravid
White House envoy Steve Witkoff told a private gathering of AIPAC donors on Tuesday that the Trump administration is demanding that Iran agree that any future nuclear deal will remain in effect indefinitely with no "sunset provision."
Witkoff said, "We start with the Iranians with the premise that there is no sunset provision. Whether we get a deal or not, our premise is: you have to behave for the rest of your lives."
(X)
- 40 Iranian Doctors and Nurses Describe a Massacre - Roxana Saberi
In January, at the peak of the violent crackdown on anti-regime protests in Iran, a medical worker in Rasht suddenly found his trauma center overwhelmed with hundreds of injured protesters. Many were struck by multiple pellets or bullets targeting their heads, necks, chests, femurs and abdomens. "They were shooting to kill, absolutely," he said.
After four days, he finally went home and began compiling 11 gigabytes of X-rays, CT scans and medical records, later sending them to us.
Former UN war crimes prosecutor Payam Akhavan believes the death toll could be in the tens of thousands, based on reports by a network of doctors in Iran collecting hospital records. "This is not just the worst mass killing in the contemporary history of Iran," said Akhavan, now a human rights lawyer and a co-founder of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center. "It is one of the worst mass killings in contemporary world history."
Many of the accounts we received from the doctors and nurses inside Iran were of children under 18 who were injured or killed. At least 209 children were killed in the protests, according to Shiva Amelirad, who represents a network of teachers' unions. "There is a consistent pattern in many documented cases indicating that children were shot in the head," she said. Nearly 54,000 Iranian demonstrators have been arrested, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. (New York Times)
- Iran: A Tsunami of Arbitrary Arrests, Enforced Disappearances
Iran's intelligence agencies and security forces have carried out mass, arbitrary, violent arrests and detentions of tens of thousands of protesters, including children, since Dec. 28, 2025. Authorities have subjected detainees to torture and those detained are at serious risk of death in custody with secret executions. Media outlets affiliated with the IRGC have broadcast hundreds of protesters' coerced "confessions."
Since the start of the protests, officials have vilified protesters, repeatedly referring to them as "criminals" and mohareb, an individual "waging war against God," which is a capital offense. (Human Rights Watch)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
- Iran Shows No Flexibility ahead of Geneva Talks with U.S. - Danny Zaken
Before Thursday's meeting in Geneva, U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner received a new Iranian position paper that was expected to signal greater flexibility from Tehran. Instead, according to diplomatic sources familiar with the negotiations, the document showed almost no change from the proposal Iran presented at the previous round. (Israel Hayom)
- Indian Prime Minister Modi: "India Stands with Israel" - Amir Ettinger
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Israel's Knesset on Wednesday:
"I bring with me the blessings of 1.5 billion Indians, and a message of peace and partnership. I was born on the same day that India recognized Israel."
"My honorable friends, I also carry with me the deepest condolences from the people of India for all the lives lost and for every family whose world was shattered in the barbaric and cruel terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7. We share in the pain. India stands with Israel at this moment and beyond."
The Indian prime minister concluded in Hebrew, saying, "Am Yisrael Chai" (the people of Israel live).
(Ynet News)
See also Israel and India to Sign Major Defense Deals during Indian Prime Minister Modi's Visit - Yonah Jeremy Bob
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Israel on Wednesday and is expected to sign defense deals with Israel totaling $8-10 billion. This comes in the aftermath of the 2023-2025 Middle East War in which Israeli air defense systems proved their worth, and after the May 2025 India-Pakistan conflict which highlighted New Delhi's vulnerabilities in the areas of drones, missiles, and cyberwarfare.
India has been Israel's largest defense purchaser for years, including 34% of total sales from 2020-2024. Total arms sales to India during this period were $20.5 billion. Many Israeli defense companies have established subsidiaries there.
(Jerusalem Post)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
Iran
- Trump and the Stakes in Iran - Editorial
Any attack on Iran carries risks. In June 2025, Iran launched more than 500 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel but was unable to do major damage or down any jets.
There are also risks to not striking now. The Tehran regime is weaker than it has been since it came to power in 1979. Israel has degraded its proxy armies. It is under extreme financial and economic pressure, and it is at war with its own people.
Waiting a year, as some advise, would give the regime time to rebuild its proxies and rearm. The Financial Times reported this week on a secret 500 million euro deal for Iran to buy advanced missiles from Russia. Reuters reports that Iran is nearing a deal with China to buy supersonic antiship missiles.
Waiting would squander a rare opportunity to topple a regime that has terrorized the world, spread war across the Middle East, supplied Russia and China, and killed or maimed thousands of Americans.
Mr. Trump has put himself in a position where there is risk no matter what he decides. The upside is a chance to weaken or topple a regime that promises "death to America," and to give the Middle East a new chance for peace. (Wall Street Journal)
- Trump Focusing on Iran's Pursuit of Nuclear Weapons - Amb. Dennis Ross
The Iranians now seem to feel that Trump can be deterred by their threats to attack U.S. forces, interests and friends throughout the region. They read him as wanting only a limited conflict and they are threatening a much wider one.
Neither side actually wants a wider war. The Iranians, for all their bluster, know they are profoundly vulnerable with little or no air defense, and with the risk that their forces, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and related control mechanisms of their public, could be dramatically weakened by a war that escalates.
I think President Trump defines his objective as: Iran doesn't rebuild its nuclear infrastructure and program and effectively gives up its pursuit of nuclear weapons in a way that is unmistakable. (Politico)
- The Iranian Case for Bombing Iran - Atbin Moayedi
Think about how bad things would have to be for ordinary Iranians to plead for Donald Trump to carry out military intervention against their own country. Iranian women, children, men, flora and fauna are dying at the hands of the Iranian regime. Killing is what they do and what they believe is their divine duty to carry out. There is no Western power that would be responsible for the deaths of more Iranians than their own government and its proxies.
The Islamic Republic does not only deliver death through murder but also through its incompetence and indifference. In 2024, 59,000 Iranians died as a result of air pollution. Iran consistently has one of the highest road fatality rates globally. During the pandemic, Khamenei banned the import of Covid-19 vaccines from the U.S. and UK, causing 146,000 preventable deaths. Thousands of people in Iran die every year because of the systemic corruption that causes shortages of essential medicine.
Decades of aggressive dam construction, river diversion projects and groundwater over-extraction has reduced to dry basins once-thriving ecosystems and lakes, devastating local communities and agriculture, leading to droughts, failed crops, starvation and poverty.
The Islamic Republic is a mafia, an enormous racketeering business. Iranians inside Iran are hoping and waiting. They are asking when the U.S. will strike against the central commanders of the regime and the IRGC. Military action in Iran would not be war, it would be a rescue mission. (Spectator-UK)
- How U.S. Strikes on Iran Can Aid the Protest Movement - Janatan Sayeh
If U.S.-Iran talks collapse, how can the U.S. align military action with Iran's ongoing protest movement so that pressure accelerates regime fracture rather than suppresses it. After Iran accepted the aid of foreign militiamen from its Iraqi and Lebanese terror proxies to kill unarmed Iranian protesters in January, the protest movement appears far more willing to tolerate foreign intervention from its allies abroad.
If Trump launches an extensive campaign targeting senior leadership and missile stockpiles, it should also include the forces actively suppressing protesters. Striking at Iran's repressive apparatus must go beyond hitting empty buildings. It is far more important to target Basij units and security forces actively involved in repression on the ground.
This means leveraging real-time intelligence and precision drone operations, rather than relying solely on airstrikes against large fixed bases. But it is possible to do. The U.S. should apply its capabilities directly against mobile repression units, including Basij squads on motorcycles or pickup trucks mounted with heavy weapons. At present, protesters face live fire, while Basij forces operate with relative impunity. Once security personnel see that their own lives are in jeopardy, they are more likely to defect than to suppress.
The writer is the Iran analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
(National Interest)
Gaza
- The Hazards of Creating a New Palestinian Police Force in Gaza - Yaakov Lappin
U.S. Central Command head Maj.-Gen. Jasper Jeffers, commander of the International Stabilization Force for Gaza, said there are plans to train 12,000 Palestinian police officers tasked with maintaining internal order.
Former Israeli national security adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat views the creation of an armed Palestinian police force in Gaza with deep suspicion, saying the nature of Gazan society after nearly two decades of Hamas rule makes the idea of a trustworthy police force nearly impossible. "There is no way to ensure that problematic people, from an Israeli perspective, will not serve in this body," he said.
"Even if there were an ability to filter people during recruitment, it cannot be guaranteed they will not transfer their loyalty to Hamas or other hostile elements immediately after they begin to serve. There are very high support rates for Hamas in Gaza, as well as relatively high support for the Oct. 7 attack. More than half of the population was born into Hamas rule, educated in Hamas institutions, prayed in Hamas mosques and consumed Hamas media." (JNS)
Hizbullah
- Hizbullah Seen Unlikely to Join Iran in War - Rany Ballout
Hizbullah has issued veiled threats of retaliation in the event of a U.S. strike on Iran, stating that it would not remain neutral. However, Hizbullah is unlikely to start another war with Israel. Although reports suggest efforts to reconstitute, the group faces significant constraints: domestic opposition to renewed conflict, a demoralized base, sharply diminished military capabilities following Israel's fall 2024 campaign, and disrupted supply lines after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria.
Meanwhile, Israel continues targeted strikes against Hizbullah to prevent its reconstitution, with more than 400 of its operatives reportedly killed by Israel since the ceasefire. Hizbullah is not militarily capable of meaningful retaliation. It is notable that Hizbullah opted not to intervene during the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June 2025, even though the group's leadership was advised by Iran on the fifth day of the war to intervene.
According to the Alma Research and Education Center, Hizbullah retains 25,000 short- and medium-range rockets, a smaller number of precision missiles and air defenses, and an expanding drone arsenal including 1,000 kamikaze drones. The group fields 40,000-50,000 active fighters and tens of thousands of reservists, including the 5,000-strong Radwan unit as its primary offensive formation.
(National Interest)
- After Assad, Hizbullah's Empire in Syria Shrinks to Cells, Smugglers, and Cheap Rockets - Ahmad Al Kwaider
For years, Hizbullah helped keep Bashar Assad in power in Syria with thousands of fighters, open supply lines, and bases visible on satellite imagery. Now Syrian authorities say Hizbullah looks different: a small group operating near Damascus with drones, Katyusha rockets, and weapons that came from Lebanon.
David Des Roches, a U.S. defense and strategic expert, said, "Hizbullah has long operated as a 'state within a state,' and losing unimpeded land access across Syria is a major strategic blow. Without Syria as an open corridor, Hizbullah shifts from being an organized military force with reliable supply routes into something closer to a network dependent on smuggling and limited access."
Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, head of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, said, "Hizbullah still manages activity in Syria near the Lebanese border. They have been able to build cells that help smuggle weapons....It is not the strategic infrastructure it once was, but the network has not been fully dismantled."
This helps explain Israel's posture in southern Syria, aimed at blocking Hizbullah and other Iranian-aligned elements from entrenching near its border. "Israel believes it needs a military presence to prevent Hizbullah and Iranian-backed cells from deploying in southern Syria," Kuperwasser said. "The U.S. would prefer a solution that makes Israel's presence unnecessary, but for now it understands Israel's logic." (Medialine)
Palestinian Arabs
- The Disastrous Legacy of Mahmoud Abbas - Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who became head of the Palestine Liberation Organization after Yasser Arafat's death, is a Holocaust-denying, terror-supporting, corrupt dictator who was bad for Israel, bad for the Palestinians, and bad for peace, which he undermined more than promoted. His policies promoted, incited, and rewarded terrorism and the systematic indoctrination of generations of Palestinians to hate Israel and Israelis.
He insisted on treating genocidal terrorist organizations such as Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) as legitimate Palestinian factions and continued to reject peace efforts. Abbas bears direct responsibility for the deaths of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis. If the PA is to continue playing any future role, any future Palestinian leader must be the absolute antithesis of Abbas.
While consistently feigning moderation and pragmatism, Abbas consistently rejected peace. In 2008, he rejected an offer by then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to create a Palestinian state. Instead, Abbas chose to pursue virtual statehood, repeatedly requesting that the UN recognize the non-existent "State of Palestine."
Abbas accumulated a substantial personal fortune estimated to be over $100 million. His sons, Tarek and Yasser, run the large Falcon business consortium that controls much of Palestinian commerce. The consortium includes tobacco, electrical and mechanical engineering, media, construction, and investment interests. They, too, have amassed huge personal fortunes.
The writer, former director of the Military Prosecution in Judea and Samaria, is director of the Palestinian Authority Accountability Initiative at the Jerusalem Center. (Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs)
Weekend Features
- Israel's Economic Miracle during Wartime Defies All Predictions - Saul Sadka
After 28 months of conflict, Israel's longest and most expensive war was predicted to break its economy. The opposite has happened. The cost of the war has pushed the country's external debt from 60% to 70% - still a figure the peacetime economies of the UK and the euro zone could only dream of. Remarkably, Israel's GDP has grown from $525 billion in 2022 to a projected $650 billion this year, and its GDP per capita has now surpassed the EU average.
Elevated levels of military exports are likely to be the most direct economic boon from the war. Israel has demonstrated its home-grown technology in real combat conditions and under the scrutiny of the entire world.
Making this war the dominant global news story for nearly two years has only benefited the reputation of Israel's defense industry. Israeli defense exports hit a record $15 billion in 2024, marking a fourth consecutive year of growth.
The catastrophic performance of Russian equipment in Ukraine will remain a marketing disaster for decades to come. This opens a large opportunity for Israel to supply former Russian clients in Africa and Asia, India in particular.
In the early months of the war, dark rumors circulated about the imminent collapse of Israel's high-tech sector, which accounts for 20% of GDP and more than half of exports. These fears have proven unfounded. On the contrary, growth accelerated throughout the conflict, with cybersecurity and fintech emerging as standout sectors.
In addition, Israel is finally achieving energy independence. It is now largely self-sufficient in natural gas, which generates over 90% of its electricity, replacing coal. Israel exports gas to Jordan and Egypt - an arrangement that is not only economically beneficial but strategically significant. It is difficult to go to war with a neighbor who can shut down your power supply overnight. (Jewish Chronicle-UK)
Observations:
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday:
- "Everyone should know that Iran poses a very grave threat to the United States and has for a very long time. First and foremost, after their nuclear program was obliterated, they were told not to try to restart it, and here they are. You can see them always trying to rebuild elements of it. They're not enriching right now, but they're trying to get to the point where they ultimately can."
- "Iran possesses a very large number of ballistic missiles, particularly short-range ballistic missiles that threaten the United States and our bases in the...UAE, in Qatar, in Bahrain. And they also possess naval assets that threaten shipping and try to threaten the U.S. Navy."
- "So I want everybody to understand that, and beyond just the nuclear program they possess these conventional weapons that are solely designed to attack America and attack Americans."
- "Iran refuses to talk about ballistic missiles...that's a big problem. You've seen them increasing the range of the missiles they have now, and clearly they are headed in the pathway to one day being able to develop weapons that could reach the continental U.S."
- "The ranges continue to grow every single year exponentially.... Eventually, we'll have to have conversations about more than just the nuclear program; but if you can't even make progress on the nuclear program, it's going to be hard to make progress on the ballistic missiles as well."
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