Geopolitical Tensions: Iran and Israel

The sweeping military success of the IDF's surprise preemptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities coupled with the devastating retaliatory ballistic missile strikes have left Israelis "feeling triumphant and scared at the same time," columnist Amir Tibon said on the Haaretz Podcast, adding that "the vast majority of the public in Israel support this war."

Tibon, Haaretz's former diplomatic correspondent, reviewed the progress of the war over the first week with host Allison Kaplan Sommer, along with the ways he sees the conflict potentially playing out.

"The best-case scenario for Israel is either an American attack on the underground Fordow nuclear site or an agreement that causes the Iranians to give up the uranium there," he said. "The worst case scenario is a war of attrition with Iran, in which we continue to bomb them but cannot fully eliminate some of their sites, and they continue to bomb us and wake us up three times every night with ballistic missiles."

In retrospect, Tibon said, "the 10 days before the Israeli strike were a joint American-Israeli trap set for the Iranians" in which U.S. President Donald Trump deceptively declared he was pressuring Israel to stand down in deference to diplomatic efforts.

Also on the podcast, Professor Amit Schejter, one of the tens of thousands of Israelis stranded abroad after the war shut down Israel's airports, discusses the challenges of finding his way back home.

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