News Roundup for March 26, 2026
[Watch] Ilan Goldenberg on Trump’s Iran Strategy, BBC
J Street Chief Policy Officer Ilan Goldenberg joined the BBC to analyze Trump’s conflicting messages about peace talks with Iran.
ICYMI: Former Nuclear Negotiator & Pentagon War Planner Weighs in on War with Iran, Word on the Street
Ilan Goldenberg was joined by former Pentagon Iran negotiator Ariane Tabatabai to discuss the status of Iran negotiations and possibility for getting back to the JCPOA.
Israel Says It Killed Iran’s Top Naval Commander in Bid to Reopen Strait of Hormuz, Washington Post
“Weakening Iran’s hold on the strait — a critical conduit for global energy supplies — has emerged as a top military objective for the U.S., which has developed a 15-point proposal aimed at ending the war while also ordering a wave of troops to the region.”
32 Outposts, 10 Miles of Ground Barrier: IDF Builds New Border Line Inside Gaza. Here’s How It Looks, Haaretz
“The IDF’s entrenchment along the line has had a deadly impact on Gaza’s population. The area around the line is an active firing zone, with ongoing Israeli airstrikes, artillery shelling and small-arms fire. According to the UN, more than 200 Palestinians, many of them civilians, have been killed in its vicinity.”
Lebanese Fear Another Occupation as Israel Threatens to Use Gaza Tactics in the South, AP
“Israel says it needs to establish a zone of control in the depopulated south to shield its own northern communities, which have faced daily rocket attacks since the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group joined the wider war. Many in Lebanon fear that could mean the open-ended displacement of over a million people, the flattening of their homes and a loss of territory.”
Israeli Judge Closes Case of Palestinian Teen’s Death in Prison Despite Evidence of Starvation, AP
“Ahmad, who was described by his family as a healthy teenager, spent six months in Israel’s Megiddo prison before he collapsed in March 2025. His autopsy did not establish a single, definitive cause of death, but said that starvation was likely the leading cause, according to the report of an Israeli doctor who observed the procedure.”
Iran Officials Reply Coldly to Truce Offer, as US Warns of Harsher Strikes if Rejected, Times of Israel
“‘At present, our policy is the continuation of resistance,’ [Iran Foreign Minister] Araghchi said on state TV, adding: ‘We do not intend to negotiate — so far, no negotiations have taken place, and I believe our position is completely principled.'”
Iran’s Attacks Force US Troops to Work Remotely, New York Times
“Iran has bombed U.S. bases across the Middle East in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli war, forcing many American troops to relocate to hotels and office spaces throughout the region, according to military personnel and American officials.”
Israel Is Gleefully Copying Nazi Imagery in the Propaganda War With Iran, The Forward
“The irony might seem almost too pointed to be real. Sadly, it fits a pattern that has been developing for years: The Israeli government has increasingly adopted the symbolic vocabulary of classical antisemitism and redeployed it, directing its logic not at Jews, but at Iran, Gaza, progressive diaspora organizations — and sometimes even at diaspora Jews themselves,” Joel Swanson writes.
