News Roundup for June 25, 2025

June 25, 2025
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J Street In the News

Israel Used To Be Deterred from Attacking Iran. Not Anymore [Podcast], NPR
Speaking to Daniel Estrin, J Street Chief Policy Officer Ilan Goldenberg says, “What we actually pursued during those years (in the Obama Administration), and I think it’s been really a consistent strategy for 20 years from the United States, has been what you might call the hug-and-punch strategy. Demonstrate to the Israelis at every step of the way, we are capable of doing this much more effectively than you are, and we’ve got your back, and we will do it if we need to. And at the same time, don’t you do it.”

Maybe It is Time for Israel to Mature, The Times of Israel
J Street Israel Executive Director Nadav Tamir writes, “Trump’s approach is no longer about unconditional support. If Israel wants the full backing of the US, it must be willing to shoulder more of the burden, whether in the form of military investments or of diplomatic concessions.”

Top News and Analysis

Strike Set Back Iran’s Nuclear Program by Only a Few Months, US Report Says, The New York Times
“The strikes sealed off the entrances to two of the facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings, the officials said the early findings concluded. […] The report also said that much of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was moved before the strikes, which destroyed little of the nuclear material. Iran may have moved some of that to secret locations. Some Israeli officials said they also believed that the Iranian government had maintained small covert enrichment facilities so it could continue its nuclear program in the event of an attack on the larger facilities.”

Gaza Health Authorities Say Israel Kills 44 Waiting for Aid as War’s Death Toll Passes 56,000, AP
“Israeli forces and drones opened fire toward hundreds of Palestinians waiting for aid in separate incidents in southern and central Gaza early Tuesday, killing at least 44, witnesses and hospitals said, as health authorities announced the number of Palestinians killed in the war has risen above 56,000. Palestinian witnesses and health officials say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on crowds heading toward desperately needed food, killing hundreds in recent weeks.”

Rage and Mistrust Course Through Congress on Iran, Axios
“‘If the press reporting about the impact of last weekend’s strikes in Iran is true, and I cannot confirm them, then that might be the reason why the administration postponed our classified briefing today at the very last minute,’ Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor. ‘I’m very concerned about [Trump] distorting, manipulating and even lying about intelligence,’ Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) told Axios on Tuesday. ‘We’ve been here before. We went to war in Iraq under false pretenses.’”

News

White House Postpones Briefing Congress on Iran Strikes, The New York Times
“The Trump administration on Tuesday postponed classified briefings for members of Congress on the recent US strikes against Iran, fueling outrage among Democrats that President Trump has yet to share key details of the operation with the legislative branch.”

Trump Administration Authorizes $30 Million for Israeli-backed Group Distributing Food in Gaza, AP
“The request is the first known US government funding for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s aid distribution efforts amid the Israel-Hamas war. The American-led group had applied for the money to the US Agency for International Development, which has been dismantled and will soon be absorbed into the State Department as part of the Trump administration’s deep cuts of foreign aid.”

7 Israeli Soldiers Killed When Armored Vehicle Hit by Explosive in Southern Gaza, The Times of Israel
“The deaths raised Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 440. According to an initial IDF probe, a Hamas terror group operative planted a bomb on the soldiers’ Puma armored combat engineering vehicle while they were driving in Khan Younis.”

Israel’s Bedouin Rely on Makeshift Shelters When Missiles Fall, The Washington Post
“While most Israeli citizens live within dashing distance of a reinforced air raid shelter, Bedouin in remote, poor and often unrecognized villages like this one usually have nothing but what they can rig themselves. Some cower in buried trucks and vans. Others have dug pits or scratched shallow caves in the limestone hills.”

Four Israelis Killed in Iranian Missile Attack on Be’er Sheva Identified, Including IDF Soldier, Haaretz
“Michal Zacks, 50, from Be’er Sheva; Her son, Corporal Eitan Zacks, 18; his girlfriend Noa Boguslavsky, from Arad; and activist Naomi Sha’anan have been identified as those killed in a shelter just minutes before the US-spurred cease-fire went into effect.”

Opinion and Analysis

Trump Ended the Israel-Iran War. Now Saudi Crown Prince MBS Can Do the Same for Gaza, Haaretz
Nimrod Novik writes, “When it came to Iran, Trump undeniably succeeded in helping Netanyahu avoid prolonged entanglement in an exhaustive war of attrition, to exploit Iran’s degraded capabilities and current weakness to extract concessions at the negotiating table. However when it comes to Gaza, the president seems to prefer taking his time. It is with this reality in mind, that the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammad Bin Salman is the leader who can tip the scales. He can undertake a two-part game-changing initiative, which both Trump and Netanyahu might find difficult to ignore.”

If This Mideast War Is Over, Get Ready for Some Interesting Politics, The New York Times
Thomas Friedman writes, “Everyone went all the way, bursting through psychological and military barriers we never imagined would be breached. If they don’t stop now, or soon, they will all get where they are going: Into a forever war – everyone, everywhere, all the time – that will leave nothing and no one unscathed. For all of these reasons, I’m convinced that some very big internal debates are coming – if the wars really stop.”

Hesitation to Alignment: How the US Entry Into the Iran War Reshaped Israeli Perceptions – And Validated Netanyahu’s Gamble, J Street
J Street Policy Fellow Yael Patir writes, “In contrast to previous military campaigns that sharply divided Israeli politics, there’s currently a broad sense of unity – even among prominent center-left figures. Yet the nature of their support reveals a dual message: Endorsement of the US action and a renewed call for diplomacy.”

Doubt is a Virtue in this Complex and Dangerous Era, The Times of Israel
Rabbi John L. Rosove writes, “Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction, but Bibi was so certain it did, and he even came to the United States Congress to declare the truth of his dystopic narrative. The United States went to war on that basis and thousands of Americans and Iraqis died, and billions of dollars were spent, and the fortunes of the Middle East were utterly distorted, and Iran rose in the vacuum of a vanquished Iraq (even under the brutal dictatorship of Sadaam Hussein) to become the sole hegemonic power in the Middle East.”