“Regardless of the desire for Israel to act first, the likeliest scenario may be a jointly launched U.S.-Israel operation”

POLITICO
White House officials believe ‘the politics are a lot better’ if Israel strikes Iran first
Dasha Burns and Nahal Toosi
February 25, 2026

Senior advisers to President Donald Trump would prefer Israel strike Iran before the United States launches an assault on the country, according to two people familiar with ongoing discussions. These Trump administration officials are privately arguing that an Israeli attack would trigger Iran to retaliate, helping muster support from American voters for a U.S. strike. The calculus is a political one — that more Americans would stomach a war with Iran if the United States or an ally were attacked first. Recent polling shows that Americans, and Republicans in particular, support regime change in Iran, but are unwilling to risk any U.S. casualties to achieve it. That means Trump’s team is considering the optics of how an attack is conducted in addition to other justifications — such as Iran’s nuclear program. READ MORE

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“Axios’s report implicitly supports the notion that Democrats are withholding their own autopsy to shield Israel and pro-Israel Democrats from criticism”

NATIONAL REVIEW
Would You Believe That Democrats Were Not Anti-Israel Enough in 2024?
Noah Rothman
February 23, 2026

…On Monday, Americans were privy to some selective leaks from that closely guarded document [DNC-funded “autopsy” of 2024 loss], and those leaks just happen to support all the otherwise dubious claims of the Democratic Party’s activist class. According to the autopsy, the anti-Israel left is just as crucial to Democratic electoral prospects as the anti-Israel left always said of itself. Imagine that. Activists with the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) Policy Project told the DNC’s forensic electoral analysts that “the Biden-Harris administration’s support for Israel was a factor in the party’s losses because it drained support from some young people and progressives,” Axios reported. Furthermore, the Democratic Party secretly agreed with the activists, according to the IMEU…[Kamala Harris] supposedly “pleaded” privately with Joe Biden to express more skepticism toward Israel, and she believed that her campaign was hindered by the “perceived blank check” he handed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. READ MORE

AXIOS Dems working on secret report found Gaza cost Harris votes Asked for comment, a Harris aide pointed to the former vice president’s recent comments about the war in Gaza on a tour stop for her memoir, “107 Days.” “We should have done more as an administration,” Harris said at the event, adding “we should have spoken publicly about our criticism” of how Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu executed the war.

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“Israel’s security establishment is examining the possibility that Tehran is preparing to activate the entire “Axis of Evil” against Israel”

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
Fire everything: Iran’s ‘doomsday order’
Amit Segal
February 26, 2026

Hitler called it the “Nero Decree.” In March 1945, when the Allies were already on German soil advancing toward Berlin, he signed an order to burn all bridges, destroy all local industry and leave behind scorched earth. A fierce debate is taking place in the upper floors of the Kirya and the lower levels of the “Bunker.” It concerns the possible existence of a parallel Iranian directive, three words long: “The Doomsday Order.” If such an order exists, it would not deal with destroying Iranian infrastructure but rather with issuing a “go” command to the entire Axis of Resistance—Hezbollah, the Houthis, Hamas and the militias—to fire everything they have. If such an order exists, its meaning is no longer existential from Israel’s perspective: Hamas has been dismantled as an army, Hezbollah has been cut down by 90%, and Syria no longer takes instructions from Tehran. READ MORE

WALL STREET JOURNAL The Diminishing Risk of an Iran Attack Early one Saturday morning two years ago, I stood outside President Biden’s house in Rehoboth Beach, Del., with intelligence that Iran was about to launch an unprecedented missile barrage at Israel. The stakes felt enormous, yet I hesitated before waking him. My concern was that the region would spiral into chaos. Many of my friends were stationed at bases that could become targets. Working at the Central Intelligence Agency in the post-9/11 era, I had long worried about Iran and the possibility that  a U.S. misstep would spark chaos. A lot has changed in two years. The risk of regional war has greatly diminished. Several factors have put the regime on its heels…

FUTURE OF JEWISH The (Obvious) Reasons Israel and America Should Eliminate Iran’s Regime Regime change in Iran would not simply serve American or Israeli interests. It would first and foremost serve the Iranian people — one of the most educated, globally connected, and historically sophisticated populations in the Middle East, currently held hostage by a clerical leadership that has systematically impoverished and isolated them. Even within the region, this reality is quietly acknowledged. A Saudi royal family source told Israel’s N12 News on Sunday that the solution for Iran is no longer limited strikes or symbolic containment, but a fundamental transformation of leadership, including the removal of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Khamenei and the regime “must be eliminated one by one,” and “the only solution is to change the regime in Iran in one way or another,” the source said.

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Netanyahu’s message to the mullahs

FRONT PAGE MAG
Bibi’s Warning
Hugh Fitzgerald
February 25, 2026

…Now Netanyahu has told the Iranians what to expect if they attack the Jewish state, and the leader of the opposition, Yair Lapid, has said that in case of war with Iran, all internecine conflict will promptly stop, and Israelis of all political persuasions will rally round the government. …Israel will reply with “unimaginable” force if Iran’s Islamic regime launches an attack on Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Monday evening….Unlike Trump, who does not always keep his promises, it is highly likely that if even one barrage of missiles is launched toward Israel, Netanyahu — who has been warning about Iran’s nuclear project ever since he first became prime minister — will order a full-scale attack on Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commanders, on the roughly 1,500-2,000 ballistic missiles Iran still has, on the entry points to the new uranium enrichment facility under Pickaxe mountain, a mile from Natanz, and finally, on the supreme leader himself, who must now be remembering what happened to Hezbollah’s leader Hasan Nasrallah, who wrongly believed he would be safe from the IDF in a bunker deep underground. READ MORE 

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“After months of warnings from inside and outside the White House, Trump is asking Carlson to cut his Israel-bashing”

FREE PRESS
Trump Has Had Enough of Tucker Carlson
Eli Lake
February 22, 2026

Donald Trump has a Tucker Carlson problem. Since January, the president has privately urged the popular podcast host to end his battle with prominent pro-Israel MAGA influencers, according to multiple sources familiar with the conversations. People close to Trump have routinely brought Carlson’s attacks on Israel to his attention. And they have warned, as one Republican fundraiser close to the White House said, that the split Carlson was creating in Trump’s coalition was “destroying the chances of winning the midterms and the next election.” The interview that Carlson aired on Friday with Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, could have been a chance for Carlson to create a reset. But instead of marking a truce, Carlson used the combative three-hour interview to open up a new front. Since the October 7, 2023 massacre, Carlson has condemned Israel’s response, and claimed that the Jewish state exercises a stranglehold on U.S. foreign policy. READ MORE

TABLET MAG Lee Smith: The Man Setting Fire to the GOP While audiences are eagerly awaiting broadcast of the conversation between U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and Tucker Carlson, the podcaster has already scored a decisive win. Carlson and his team leaked to a friendly reporter that after the interview with Huckabee at Ben Gurion Airport, Israeli airport authorities detained and harassed them. According to Carlson, “Men who identified themselves as airport security took our passports, hauled our executive producer into a side room, and then demanded to know what we spoke to Ambassador Huckabee about.

NEW ZIONIST TIMES The Many Lies of Tucker Carlson: A Point-by-Point Rebuttal of Exaggeration, Historical Erasure, and Double Standards Carlson repeatedly labels Israel “useless,” “insignificant,” resource-poor, and a strategic liability, claiming it has “no resources,” “its gasoline comes from Azerbaijan,” and the alliance is “the biggest burden we face outside our borders.” These assertions are contradicted by verifiable data. Israel’s economy grew 3.1 percent in 2025 (outpacing the OECD average), with high-tech driving 56–57 percent of exports and $111 billion in capital deals.Natural gas production from Leviathan and Tamar fields is on track to exceed 3 billion cubic feet per day in 2026, powering a $35 billion export deal to Egypt and additional supplies to Jordan and Europe. Two modern refineries produce gasoline and other products. Defense exports reached $14.8 billion, with systems like Iron Dome, Trophy, and Iron Beam battle-tested and integrated into U.S. forces. Israeli intelligence sharing on Iran and terrorism has been valued by U.S. officials as “worth five CIAs,” accelerating American technological superiority.

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Jack Hughes, who scored the winning goal, was one of three Jewish players on the U.S. Olympic team.

JNS
Jewish brothers propel US hockey team to gold medal in 2-1 win over Canada
Ben Baruch
February 22, 2026

Jack Hughes, of the New Jersey Devils, scored the game-winning overtime goal on Sunday to clinch the gold medal for the United States over Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina—the first time Team USA has won gold since the “miracle on ice” in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y. The win came on the 46th anniversary of that “miracle,” in which the underdog American team beat the Soviet powerhouse to advance to the gold medal game. The Jewish native of Orlando, Fla., was proud to deliver the moment for his home country on Sunday. “This is all about our country right now. I love the USA. I love my teammates. It’s unbelievable,” Hughes told NBC. “The USA Hockey brotherhood. It’s so strong. We had so much support from ex-players, and I’m so proud to be American today.” Another brotherhood was on display in the game. The game winner’s older brother, Quinn Hughes of the Minnesota Wild, scored the game-winner in the quarter finals to defeat Sweden. READ MORE

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“26 nations, $17 billion, and no one will disarm the ideology that produced October 7th. They pledged billions to rebuild Gaza, but not to defeat Hamas”

FUTURE OF JEWISH
Israel is the only country willing to defeat Hamas.
Mitch Schneider
February 22, 2026

…Twenty-six nations gathered. Seventeen billion dollars was pledged. The world’s cameras were there. And the force designed to implement everything agreed upon still cannot operate where it is needed most. Hamas noticed. The day after the meeting they issued a statement — not a surrender, not an apology, conditions. Any political process must begin, they said, with a total halt to Israeli aggression and the lifting of the blockade. Hamas has also formally confirmed that disarmament has never been discussed with them by any mediator. Their position remains what it has always been: They will not disarm until a state is established. One wonders what the $17 billion is for, exactly. But before we get to the mechanics of this framework, it’s worth asking a more fundamental question: not whether the structure will work, but whether it can. Because a diplomatic architecture that refuses to name the ideology it is trying to defeat is not a peace plan. It is a performance of one. And we have seen this performance before in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Lebanon. The West builds institutions, pledges money, trains local forces, and declines to confront the ideological root. Then it is surprised when the problem remains. READ MORE

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“Ali Ayoub is proof that the binary of oppressor/oppressed, white/Black, Jewish/Arab is the real myth”

ELDER OF ZIYON
A top Nvidia executive in Israel is an Arab, and Israeli Jews aren’t resentful – they are proud
February 25, 2026

If your understanding of Israel comes from The Guardian or the New York Times, Ali Ayoub shouldn’t exist. Ayoub is an Nvidia VP of software engineering in Israel, with hundreds of people working under him worldwide. He earned his degree at the Technion, worked at an Israeli tech company Mellanox, moved to the US to work at Google, founded a startup, moved back to Israel and Mellanox which was acquired by Nvidia. In other words, he is a fantastic Israeli high tech success story, similar to many others but now one of the most powerful tech executives in Israel.  He is also an Arab, born and raised in the Galilee village of Majd al-Krum. While Ayoub is happy to discuss his upbringing and the importance of Arabs in the Israeli tech sector, there is something missing from the coverage of one of the highest profile Israelis in AI. READ MORE

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Jason Hill: ‘Israel must assert its civilizational supremacy in the region”

FRONT PAGE MAG
From the Euphrates to the Nile: A Moral Defense of Greater Israel
Jason D Hill
February 27, 2026

…What I intend to do in this article is not debate the coordination, plausibility, or practicality of the application of Greater Israel. Instead, I offer a moral defense of the idea itself. That is, I will argue, given the existence of certain geopolitical existential threats in the Middle East – which, among other things, undermine Israel’s security – that Israel’s expansionist doctrine is both morally and strategically defensible…My position is hardline: whether we are talking about Israeli expansionism from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, the Euphrates River to the Nile River, those countries that operate under a Koranic mandate to destroy Israel and eliminate Jewry have every right to be subjugated under Israeli law and inducted into the pantheon of civilizational order……the antidote to this dilemma, as I have written elsewhere is, among other things, the total annexation of Judea and Samaria. READ MORE

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Homeschooling: “With day school increasingly out of reach and public schools on the fritz, the third option is increasingly compelling”

TABLET MAG
Is It Time for American Jews to Consider Homeschooling?
Bethany Mandel
February 19, 2026

…In broader American culture, homeschooling has shed much of its fringe reputation. What was once the exclusive province of ideological outliers or religious separatists has become an increasingly mainstream choice. Before the coronavirus pandemic, roughly 2.5 million American children were homeschooled, a number that surged to more than 3.5 million by 2021 and has remained well above pre-COVID levels since. Homeschooling is now one of the fastest-growing forms of education, embraced by families across racial, religious, and political lines who want more time with their children, more course options, and more control over the social environments in which their children spend most of their waking hours…I recently did the math: I would have to make $200,000 more to afford private school for our kids. READ MORE

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