Israel began planning for the strikes on Iran in December after the decimation of the Hezbollah terror group and the fall of the Assad regime in Syria opened up an air corridor, the New York Times reports.
According to the report, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House in February, he gave a presentation to US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Iran’s nuclear program.
The report says that instead of opting to join the assault or doing nothing, Trump initially took a middle path and decided to give Israel “as-yet undisclosed support from the US intelligence community to carry out its attack.”
The wide-ranging report details Trump’s apparent shift in thinking on Iran over the past few months and days.
“When [Trump] woke on Friday morning, his favorite TV channel, Fox News, was broadcasting wall-to-wall imagery of what it was portraying as Israel’s military genius. And Mr. Trump could not resist claiming some credit for himself,” the newspaper writes.
The Times concludes that with Trump suggesting that the US could get directly involved, there is now “little indication that the conflict would be brought to a quick end through diplomacy.”
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The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.
There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.
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From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, June 18, 2025
