ISRAEL HAYOM ( by agreement with JNS)
Inside the US military’s massive buildup ahead of possible Iran strike
Dudi Kogan
January 21, 2026

Amid rising tensions with Iran, the US is steadily amassing additional military forces in the region, according to open-source intelligence analysts, media outlets covering the US military and American newspapers reporting on Wednesday. According to The Wall Street Journal, President Trump has continued to press his advisers for “decisive” military options against Iran, even after backing away from a strike last week. Senior US officials told the paper that the president repeatedly uses the word “decisive” when describing the impact he wants any American action against Iran to have. At the center of the buildup is the movement of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and its strike group, which includes destroyers, F-35 jets and additional combat aircraft. READ MORE

JERUSALEM POST By asking Trump to delay Iran attacks, Netanyahu exposes Israel’s air defense holes The stunning revelation that part of why US President Donald Trump called off, or at least paused, any American attack on the Iranian regime was a request from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exposes a gaping, relatively new hole in Israel’s otherwise stellar multilayer air defense shield. The IDF sent more than a dozen messages in a matter of days about how it was ready and how strong its air defense capabilities are, only for Netanyahu to privately tell Trump the opposite. There were likely a variety of reasons that Trump canceled or postponed attacking the Iranian regime, and there were multiple reasons why Netanyahu also pushed him in that direction.