The hottest Israel policy Substack posts right now

The Trump administration has launched a large-scale regime-change war against Iran that serves long-standing neoconservative and Israeli goals.
This action directly contradicts Trump’s decade-long promises to end regime-change wars, betraying the anti-war stance many of his supporters expected.
The war lacks a clear justification, congressional approval, or exit strategy and risks massive, unpredictable destruction and prolonged U.S. entanglement in the Middle East.

Free speech in Western democracies is being aggressively eroded to stop criticism of Israel and its supporters.
Governments, institutions, and social pressures are increasingly used to silence dissent, and this trend is rapid and widespread.
These free-speech fights are tied to geopolitical developments, including growing tensions involving Trump, Netanyahu, and conflicts with Iran.

Some U.S. officials reportedly want Israel to strike Iran first so an Iranian retaliation against U.S. assets would create political cover for a U.S. war.
Government leaders and mainstream media are pushing misleading or false claims about Iran’s intentions and capabilities to manufacture public support for military action.
Because the U.S. and Israel have pursued sanctions, military deployments, covert actions, and attacks that escalate tensions, any Iranian retaliation that kills U.S. or Israeli troops would be the consequence of those provocations and thus their responsibility.

Israel wants peace but faces deep rejectionism from militant movements that refuse a Jewish state, so responsibility for many civilian deaths lies with groups like Hamas rather than Israel.
Older right-leaning Jews welcome moves against campus antisemitism and DEI and appreciate strong US support for Israel, but they fear heavy-handed tactics could alienate allies and that American backing may not be durable.
Rising antisemitism reflects a broader ideological crisis where Jews become scapegoats, and the suggested remedy is stronger security measures — more intelligence, strict law enforcement, and aggressive action against terrorists — rather than just education.

The U.S. and Israel have entered a wide-scale Middle East war, with missile strikes and attacks reported across the Gulf and on multiple bases and countries.
Israel appears to have pushed U.S. leadership into attacking Iran, with the U.S. strike reportedly planned months in advance and the attack date set weeks beforehand.
Iran has retaliated and warned it has far stronger weapons to follow, and reported targeting of the Ayatollah and IRGC leaders raises the risk that hardliners could take control and dramatically escalate the conflict.

Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity:

Netanyahu and Trump lack a coherent strategy to win the US-Israeli war against Iran, so Iran is likely to come out ahead.
President Trump made a major blunder by taking the United States into war with Iran.
Even a pro-Israel leader like Joe Biden refused to attack Iran in April and October 2024, resisting Israeli efforts to draw him in.