“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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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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Iran: “Two years ago, there was a strong possibility the region would spiral out of control. Not anymore”

WALL STREET JOURNAL
The Diminishing Risk of an Iran Attack
Marc Gustafson
February 22, 2026

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…READ MORE

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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“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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Iran: “What initially looked like a one-man show with Israeli assistance now appears to include Israel on stage”

IT’S NOON IN ISRAEL
Operation Irani Freedom?
Amit Segal
February 19, 2026

…There are serious indications that a strike is coming. Senator Lindsey Graham said today that the decision to attack has “already been made.” As for when, we still don’t know. But it’s always entertaining to watch headlines outrun developments. In the space of the last week we’ve seen stories racing toward a negotiated deal, only to pivot 180 degrees and sprint toward declarations of imminent attack. But the buildup in the Middle East reveals more about the scale than the schedule. Despite the escalation with Iran seemingly flowing from the abduction of Maduro in January, the next strike will not be another small-scale, pinpoint operation. More than a hundred fighter aircraft are already in the region—including, but not limited to, forty-eight F-16s, twelve F-22s, eighteen F-35s, six E-3G Sentry AWACS aircraft, and roughly forty refueling planes. READ MORE

ISRAEL HAYOM As the US eyes Iran showdown, how far should it go? It is clear that militarily, Iran is not capable of challenging the United States militarily. The US, then, must answer one basic question: What does success look like, and at what cost?

JPOST ‘Hundreds of strikes per day’: Former CENTCOM deputy says US can wipe out Islamic Regime in hours The massive accumulation of US military assets in the Middle East is not merely a show of force but a signal that the United States has the capacity to dismantle the Iranian regime’s power structure in a matter of hours, according to Vice Admiral (Ret.) Bob Harward, former deputy commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM)...However, the most significant shift in strategy concerns the regime’s internal grip on power. Harward suggested that a campaign would target the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the instruments used to oppress the Iranian people, rather than the national infrastructure.

JEWISH INSIDER Lahov Harkov: ‘Don’t change your weekend plans,’ experts say amid media frenzy over possible Iran strikes Experts tell JI that despite the constant flow of reports that Trump favors a military response as talks with Iran falter, an American strike and Iranian retaliation against Israel are likely not imminent

FRONT PAGE MAG Khameini the Psychopath: Profile of a madman. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is not merely a clerical strongman; he is the living embodiment of a theocratic delusion that has wreaked havoc across the Middle East for more than four decades. As Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran — the ultimate authority over the state, the military and the Revolutionary Guard — he blends absolute religious conviction with ruthless political power, creating a toxic worldview that is both messianic and merciless. At the core of Khamenei’s psyche is an obsession with divine mission. As leader of Iran’s Shiite Twelver sect — a branch of Islam that venerates the succession of twelve imams as God’s appointed guides — Khamenei perpetuates the notion that he is not just a political ruler but a spiritual commander. 

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IDF: “Looking ahead, without Hamas disarmament and under the auspices of the technocrat committee, Hamas will succeed, in our view, to preserve influence and control in the Gaza Strip”

ALGEMEINER
Hamas Tightens Grip in Gaza as Trump Pushes Peace Plan
Reuters and Algemeiner Staff
February 19, 2026

Hamas is cementing its hold over Gaza by placing loyalists in key government roles, collecting taxes, and paying salaries, according to an Israeli military assessment seen by Reuters and sources in the Palestinian enclave. Hamas’s continuing influence over key Gaza power structures has fueled widespread skepticism about the prospects of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, which requires the terrorist group to give up its weapons in exchange for an Israeli military withdrawal from the territory. Trump‘s international Board of Peace, which is meant to supervise Gaza‘s transitional governance, held its inaugural meeting in Washington on Thursday…Israeli military officials say Hamas, which refuses to disarm, has been taking advantage of an October ceasefire to reassert control in areas vacated by Israeli troops. Israel still holds over half of Gaza, but nearly all its 2 million people are in Hamas-held areas. READ MORE

THE HILL 5 takeaways from Trump’s Board of Peace launch event President Trump on Thursday gathered representatives from nearly 50 countries in Washington D.C. to mark an inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace. The meeting laid out the Trump administration’s plan for the next phase of the U.S. peace plan for the Gaza Strip, but the president also touted the potential for the board to tackle other conflicts…European nations in particular have largely held back from signing up for Trump’s broader vision for the Board of Peace, which was originally endorsed in a United Nations Security Council resolution in October.

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