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This Week:

• War with Iran: Military Action
• Trump Rejects Tucker Carlson
• Gur: This Isn’t Israel’s War. It’s America’s
• Buckhout: Peace Through Strength is Not a Slogan, It’s a Strategy
• Levin: Think Again, Tucker
• Rep. Fine Speaks Out for US Security
• Symposium on Antisemitism
• Short Takes
• Week's Best Tweets
• Upcoming Events

War with Iran: Military Action

The US and Israeli attack on Iran that began on February 28 is reshaping the Middle East and the world in profound ways, thanks to the extraordinary military action, intelligence dominance, and intense cooperation of the US under President Donald Trump and Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Here are brief highlights of what has happened, militarily, so far:

• Israel's opening strikes against Iran eliminated a series of top regime officials, including the supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Mohammad Pakpour, and Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh.

• The US military strikes, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, followed months and years of preparations, according to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine. US Army cyber units disrupted Iran's ability to see and respond to what came next: 100 US aircraft in a wave. The US hit 1,000 targets in the first 24 hours, while Israel launched hundreds of its own strikes.

• US operations have focused on eliminating the threat of Iran's short-range ballistic missiles and the threat posed by their navy, particularly to naval assets.

• Israel has focused on decapitating Iran's leadership and destroying regime leadership infrastructure. Israeli strikes have taken out the Islamic Republic's state broadcasting complex in the Iranian capital, a covert Iranian nuclear-weapons facility near Tehran, and a facility in Isfahan used to store, produce and launch ballistic missiles.

• Israeli warplanes struck dozens of Iranian internal security and Basij command centers in Tehran in the joint air campaign targeting the Islamic Republic's military and repression apparatus.

• US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said that the leader of the unit who plotted to assassinate President Donald Trump has been hunted down and killed.

• An Israeli Air Force F-35I fighter jet shot down a Russian-made Iranian Yak-130 jet over Tehran, in the first-ever downing of a manned aircraft by an F-35. The incident also marked the first time in some 40 years that the Israeli Air Force engaged in air-to-air combat with manned aircraft.

• US forces have struck or sunk more than 20 Iranian ships since the conflict with Tehran began last week, the US Central Command says.

• A US Navy submarine sank the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena off the coast of Sri Lanka. This marks the first enemy warship sunk by the US using a torpedo since World War II, the first ever US nuclear-powered attack submarine kill using a guided torpedo, and the second ship ever sunk by a US nuclear-powered attack submarine.

• Iran struck out at its regional neighbors, launching attacks on Jordan, Syria and every member of the Gulf Cooperation Council — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Despite claiming it is aiming at US military assets in the region, Iran has struck widely at civilian infrastructure, including hotels, residential neighborhoods and airports.

• Hezbollah joined the conflict, sending missiles against Israel, and Israel responded in force. A wave of strikes targeted senior Hezbollah operatives in the Beirut area, Hezbollah and Iranian command centers in Lebanon, and a Hezbollah weapons storage site in the Tyre area. In total some 30 terrorist infrastructure sites were struck.

• Israel used its laser air defense system, known as "Laser Dome" or "Iron Beam," against Hezbollah rockets launched from Lebanon and successfully intercepted them.

As of today, six US service members have died in this conflict: Chief Warrant Officer Robert Mars, Major Jeffrey O'Brien, Capt. Cody A. Khork, Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, and Sgt. Declan J. Coady. Their sacrifice for our country will not be forgotten.

Trump Rejects Tucker Carlson

This afternoon, journalist Jonathan Karl posted on X:

In a lengthy conversation just now, President [Donald] Trump hit back at Tucker Carlson who called the Iran war "absolutely disgusting and evil."

"Tucker has lost his way," Trump told me. "I knew that a long time ago, and he's not MAGA. MAGA is saving our country. MAGA is making our country great again. MAGA is America first, and Tucker is none of those things. And Tucker is really not smart enough to understand that."

To which the Republican Jewish Coalition responded:

President Trump is 100% correct.

Tucker is NOT MAGA.

Gur: This Isn't Israel's War. It's America's

There is much to be said about the "why" of the military campaign against Iran. US interests and regional stability are key factors. But Haviv Rettig Gur offers us a glimpse of a much bigger "chessboard" and a more high-stakes reason for what's happening now in Iran. He writes:

This is not a war about Israel. This is not a war for Israel's sake. Israel is a beneficiary, a capable and willing local partner, but it is not the reason America is in this fight. America is playing a much bigger game, about more than what happens in the Middle East. The subtext, that Israel exercises outsize influence or "drags Americans into wars they don't want," borders on the conspiratorial.

This isn't one war, but two. There is a regional chessboard, on which Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the other Gulf states all play. Iran's proxies, its drones and ballistic missiles, its nuclear ambitions, its funding of Hezbollah and the Houthis: All of that belongs primarily to this smaller game. Israel has always understood this board. So have the Saudis. So has everyone in the neighborhood.

But there is a second chessboard, vastly larger, on which the United States and China are the primary players. On this board, the central question of the next 30 years is being worked out: whether the American-led global order survives, or whether China displaces it. Every significant American foreign policy decision, from the pivot to Asia to the tariff wars to the posture in the Pacific, is ultimately a move on this board.

America is in this fight because of China. Specifically, it is about dismantling the most significant Chinese forward base outside of East Asia.

… The picture that emerges from all of this is of a Chinese forward base, a linchpin of the country's naval architecture; cyber efforts; an economic Belt and Road influence program—every element of Chinese power projection and empire-building—positioned at the throat of the global oil supply, armed with weapons designed to penetrate advanced American defenses and kill American sailors, and embedded in a strategic architecture whose explicit purpose is to constrain American military freedom in any future conflict over Taiwan.

When Iran began to look like that, it stopped being Israel's problem and became America’'s.

… Once you understand the real reasons for America to strike now, everything else about this conflict—who is being targeted, why now, what comes next—clicks into place. The loudest voices in the debate are still arguing about the smaller chessboard. The war is being fought on the larger one.

You can get more of Gur's excellent analysis on the "larger chessboard" in an episode of his podcast. Watch it here.

See also: Riboua: The Iran Strike is All about China

Buckhout: Peace Through Strength is Not a Slogan, It's a Strategy

Col. Laurie Buckhout, a retired Army Colonel and decorated combat commander, is the Republican nominee for the US House of Representatives in North Carolina's First District. In an op-ed at the Washington Reporter, she writes:

Peace does not come from press releases, empty threats, or strongly worded letters. It comes from strength — demonstrated strength. The president's decisive military action sends a clear message: America will not tolerate attacks on our people, our allies, or our interests. When red lines are crossed, there are real consequences.

As a retired Army Colonel, combat veteran, former Acting Assistant Secretary of War for Cyber Policy in the Trump administration, and someone who was involved in the planning of Operation Midnight Hammer last June, I understand how deterrence actually works. Our adversaries must believe we mean what we say and know that when America speaks, America acts. That credibility is earned — and it must be maintained.

Under President [Donald] Trump, our enemies understand that America is serious again.

Levin: Think Again, Tucker

Mark Levin has been a champion, defending Israel and the Jewish people from the unhinged elements on the far right such as Tucker Carlson. In an article for JNS, he writes:

For America's most overrated and diabolical podcaster, Tucker Carlson, and his cabal of like-minded miscreants, [the success of Operation Epic Fury] is devastating. The United States is winning, as is its closest ally, Israel, in what is one of the most remarkable and successful alliances in history. We will be safe from the Iranian regime's nuclear threats and terrorism, and tens of millions of Persians will be free again.

All of Carlson's fear-mongering, Jew-hatred, Christian-bashing and back-stabbing of our president, coupled with his anti-Israel conspiracies and the rest of it, were for naught. He only succeeded in destroying himself. Deep down, he knows it. We all know it.

Rep. Fine Speaks Out for US Security

Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) stood up on the House floor this week to call for the reopening of the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats have refused to fund and reopen DHS and are holding American security hostage.

Rep. Fine said:

I rise angry by the stunning disparity between the priorities of the two parties this week. Republicans' number one priority is to reopen the Department of Homeland Security because our homeland is under threat. Whereas Democrats, as we'll see, this afternoon's number one priority, is to stop and protect those who endanger our homeland. The US Coast Guard is actively in operations in Bahrain, protecting the United States. And every one of those brave individuals is not being paid. But not only that, the DHS Office of Counterterrorism and Homeland Threats is not being paid to look after those who would threaten us in the United States.

… How many Americans are going to die while the Department of Homeland Security is closed? We swore an oath to protect Americans, not to protect terrorists. We need to get the Department of Homeland Security open so that we can live up to that obligation.

Watch his remarks here.

Short Takes

Thiessen: The Trump Doctrine is here. It ends forever wars.

Critics say President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran is a violation of his promise not to engage in "forever wars." In fact, the opposite is true. Trump is not starting a forever war in Iran; he’s ending one.

Greenblatt: The last best chance to break Tehran’s grip

Clarity has arrived in the Middle East. Illusions are collapsing. The events of the past several days have forced governments across the region to confront what many have long known but avoided stating publicly: The central destabilizing force and enduring threat to stability and prosperity in the region is the Iranian regime. US President Donald Trump’s decision to confront Tehran was not reckless. It was strategic and grounded in reality.

Segal: The new Israeli rules of engagement

Two and a half years [after the October 7 attacks], Israel stands at the pinnacle of its power in the Middle East. This transformation occurred only after it shed every rule it had gradually adopted in recent decades.

Prager: Mostly paralyzed but happy to be alive

On Nov. 12, 2024... I had a catastrophic fall at home, which left me paralyzed from the shoulders down.

My condition has reinforced what matters most in my life: my wife, children and grandchildren, my friends, my mind and my mission to deliver ideas that better people’s lives. Why haven’t my views on happiness changed? Because I’ve never believed happiness is solely a function of what happens to us. Catastrophic events will affect us. But even in dire circumstances, we can and should pursue happiness.

… From the day I regained consciousness, I realized I had only three alternatives: death, depression or perseverance. Since I don’t want to die and I don’t want to be depressed, my choice is obvious. I will continue enjoying my family and friends, resume broadcasting, write books and columns and produce more PragerU videos.

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