MEMRI | March 4, 2026

Iran’s Ambassador to Qatar Ali Saleh Abadi (center) with Qatari Foreign Ministry official Ibrahim Yousef Fakhro (right) and Qatari Minister of Environment and Climate Change Abdullah Al-Subaie. Screengrab via X, February 5, 2026

In the weeks before the launch of the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, Qatar conspicuously sided with Tehran – politically, diplomatically, and in the media – despite its ostensible role as a strategic ally of Washington and as a mediator between the U.S. and Iran. The warming between Doha and Tehran was evident first and foremost in the increasing diplomatic contacts between them in that period, alongside Qatar’s blatant disregard for the popular protests in Iran and their violent suppression by the Iranian regime.[1] Thus, on January 31, 2026, Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Aal Thani, met in Tehran with the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani.

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Rabbi Jacob Herzog | X | Mar 3, 2026

Translated by Peloni

Image via X

The fate of Bahrain, the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, and Saudi Arabia in detail:

* The Gulf will never return to how it was on the twenty-seventh of last February. The Gulf will not return to how it was on the night of the war with Iran. The element of trust and stability has ended forever, and I will give you the details now.

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Peloni

The United States and Israel have launched a joint  military campaign against Iran, employing a historic level of bilateral cooperation. While each nation has its own codename for the ongoing operatoin, Operation Epic Fury by the U.S. and Roaring Lion by Israel, their unified effort began with the aim of dismantling Iran’s nuclear program, destroying its ballistic missile and drone capabilities, eliminating its navy, and decapitating its leadership. The ongoing operation follows months of bilateral planning coordinated between U.S. Central Command and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), which also included daily coordination their respective leaders, ie CENTCOM chief Adm. Brad Cooper and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir. 

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Peloni:  Erin opens with a monologue chastising Megyn Kelly for her offensive and inaccurate claim that American soldiers are fighting for Israel.  Later, in an interview with Elliot Abrams, Abrams raises the concern that it is a mistake that Pres. Trump has not directly addressed the American people from the Oval Office, and adds his weight behind the lack of clarity for the aims of the war in Iran.  He notes that the support for Trump entering this war is not strong, and that this might be strengthened with an Address to the Nation and better explaining what the aims of the war actually are.  Erin next talks with Israeli DM Gideon Sa’ar.  They address casualties of the war as well as effect of the Iranian strikes on the Arab countries.  Among other matters, they also discuss the emerging conflict in Lebanon and what victory in Iran might look like.

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Peloni:  Hypocrisy is a favorite undertaking of Western leaders in challenging that Israel should simply be more conciliatory as they are relentlessly attacked, that they should be more tolerant as terror attacks fill Israeli streets, and that they should be more restrained as threats made against them by hostile terror states are put into action.

by Seth Mandel | Commentary | Mar 2, 2026

Prime Minister Keir Starme. Picture by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street. Photo by Number 10 – Flickr, CC BY 2.0, Wikipedia

Israel’s retaliatory attacks on Iran in October 2024 were carefully designed to avoid hitting Iran’s nuclear program or destroying its energy infrastructure. They did, however, prove to Tehran that Israel had the capability to hit targets inside Iran virtually at will and to take control of Iranian airspace.

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US has sunk ‘the entire’ Iranian Navy, says CENTCOM chief Adm. Cooper: ‘We’ve just begun’

All Israel News Staff | Published: March 4, 2026

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a global leadership summit on the end of the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas at the Tonino Lamborghini International Convention Center in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Monday, October 13, 2025. Photo by Daniel Torok –Flickr, Public Domain, Wikipedia

U.S. President Donald Trump denied that Israel had forced the U.S. into launching military strikes on Iran on Tuesday, claiming that, if anything, it was he who may have forced Israel, based on his belief that Iran was planning a preemptive attack.

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The Iranian examples.

Barry Shaw | The View from Israel | Mar 04, 2026

Photo by Kevin Kandlbinder on Unsplash

The world was astounded when beepers began exploding across Lebanon killing and maiming the top echelon of the Hezbollah terror regime. It turned out that Israel had set up an export company that delivered lethal communication equipment directly into the hands of their enemy agents which exploded when Israel paged them.

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Peloni: The stark honesty and earnest context with which this essay is framed should serve as an eternal promise that that which was suffered on October 7 should never lose the fragile solemness which marked the terrible horrors of that day, and which should characterize it for all time. A sense of cold helplessness swept over not just our people but the whole world that day, as the streams of terror were screamed thru chats, phone calls, and emails, only to find that ever greater horrors were to be later revealed as having been enshrined in the personal recordings of Go-pro’s made by the terror hordes. These recorded trophies were of course meant to be later cherished in some future memorialized vicarious retelling of their fiendish revelry of ‘having killed Jews,’ something explained further in the surreal confession of one of the celebratory terrorists relating his acts of happy barbarism with his family in real time.  Indeed, the striking contrast which stands between this celebratory mindset of these savages and the solemnity surrounding the acts of terror perpetrated on their victims should reveal itself as the proper distinction between abject evil and the decency of mankind – in essence, it is the difference between the barbarians of old and modern civilization.  So, as explained by Norma Zager below, “it will always be too soon to laugh at this new level of malevolence that has infected the civilized world,”  and this is because there is no humor to be found in a war being waged to retrograde the modern world back to the state of subjugation and depravity as was normal in 7th Century Arabia, and this should be understood to be even more true while the outcome of that war is still before us.

By Norma Zager

Most comedians are familiar with a question they ask frequently of an audience when doing topical humor.

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Peloni: Yishai Fleischer interviews Dr. Mordechai Kedar and they discuss the fallout surrounding the execution of Khamenei.  Towards the end of the interview they raise the topic of what the endgame of the war might be, to which Dr. Kedar asserts rather conclusively that the outcome will see Iran being broken apart.  So, will the final outcome of the liberation of Iran come to be realized in the form of multiple smaller states?  This debate between the continued unity of Iran and it being dissembled into a series of states based on the member ethnic groups is best described by Dr. Martin Sherman and Dr. Harold Rhodes in characterizing the benefits and rationales for these two models for the Day After the Mullahs.  Personally, I think the better outcome for everyone will be found in multiple smaller states, and this likelihood is increased as Pres. Trump has recently suggested that he might make use of the militant groups associated with the separatist ethnic groups.

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Peloni:  Mike Doran and Gadi Taub discuss the conclusion that when Trump calls for Regime Change in Iran, he is actually signalling Regime Transformation, as explained below.  An important point confirming this suggestion is Trump’s recent comment explaining that many of the potential future leaders with whom he contemplated possibly engaging actually died in the attack alongside Khamenei.

Peloni

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A very interesting and thought provoking conversation by Mike Doran and Gadi Taub regarding the future paths of war and peace in Iran.  In the first 30 minutes, Mike argues that Trump is straddling the line between premiere policies pursued by both Obama and George W. Bush, i.e. the JCPOA and regime change, both of which Trump has been highly vocal in criticizing over the years.  He argues that Trump is in fact trying to not be Bush while also not being Obama leaves him with the choice of pursuing regime transformation rather than preserving or replacing the regime in Iran.

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The US and Israel air forces struck with precision, based on exquisite intelligence, and wiped out the wicked Ayatollah and his evil senior leadership team in one fell swoop. And that’s for starters.

Leonard Grunstein | Mar 3, 2026

IDF strikes inside Tehran, Mar 1, 2026. Screengrab via Youtube. 

Iran’s aggression against the United States:

It began, shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, under the rule of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader, with the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and holding of 52 American hostages.

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Why Operation Epic Fury Is the Opening Act of the Indo-Pacific Century

Zineb Riboua | Beyond the Ideological | Feb 28, 2026

Xi Jinping meets with the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ali Khamenei. January 23, 2016. Photo by Khamenei.ir, CC BY 4.0, Wikipedia

Iran is most often discussed as a nonproliferation problem, a sponsor of terrorism, a regional spoiler. Each of these framings captures a real problem, but none captures what matters most. The nuclear file, the militia archipelago stretching from Lebanon to Yemen, the question of Gulf security architecture: these only acquire their full meaning when read against the backdrop of Chinese grand strategy.

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Qatar strikes Iran while Israel expects Saudi Arabia to join war | IDF attacks during election of new Iranian leader | No victims, limited damage in missile attacks from Iran & Hezbollah

All Israel News Staff | Published: March 3, 2026

17:12 – Pakistan reminds Iran of defense pact with Saudi Arabia to stop further attacks

Nuclear-armed Pakistan has stressed its defense pact with Saudi Arabia in talks with the Iranian leadership, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said at a news conference in Islamabad on Tuesday.

“I informed the Iranian side about our defense agreement,” said Dar, “The Iranian side said Saudi Arabia should ensure that its territory is not used against Iran.”

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Peloni:  Brilliant demonstration that Israel continues to command complete military dominance over the most secure and sensitive aspects of Iran’s leadership, even after having eliminate more than three dozen of its most senior leadership in the opening salvo of the war.

Assembly of Experts is clerical body responsible for choosing next Iranian Supreme Leader

All Israel News Staff | Published: March 3, 2026

Iran’s Assembly of Experts was struck by Israel while a votes were being counted to determine who would lead Iran next. Mar 3, 2026. Screengrab via X.

The Israeli Air Force struck a building in Qom, Iran, being used by the Assembly of Experts, the body of religious leaders responsible for choosing the next Supreme Leader, Israeli officials told media outlets on Monday.

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Iran’s Missile Capability is Significantly Degraded

Below please find an up to date analysis of the number of missiles fired by Iran. The information was assembled from AI sources plus the author’s own input.

The US and Israel are focusing on destroying Iranian launchers (typically mobile TELs or Transporter, Erector, Launchers). I would expect much more attrition of launchers in the coming few days.

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Peloni: Tony Badran, a foremost authority on the Levant and new editor at Tablet magazine, criticizes the Trump administration’s strategic endgame for the war with Iran, named Operation Epic Fury, as it remains unclear and internally contradictory. Trump described the justification for the war by condemning the Iranian regime’s five?decades long hostility toward the United States, describing the campaign as both a punishment for Iran’s “Death to America” state policy as well as a chance for the Iranian people’s “hour of freedom.” However, despite this initial rhetoric, Badran highlights that Trump’s stated goals have since become ambiguous as he has both signaled limited, punitive objectives and floated broader visions for regime change.

Badran relates this emerging uncertainty with Trump’s historical skepticism of nation?building and his preference for decisive, limited military actions. He outlines several possible Trump post-conflict options including maintaining a weakened IRGC regime with which negotiations might resume (“Venezuela option”), decimating Iran’s command structure leaving internal forces to determine the country’s future, or a hybrid approach that risks strengthening the IRGC under U.S. protection.

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Peloni:  It has been an important reality that Israel’s entire body politic has remained steadfast in support of the policy of eliminating the Iranian threat.  The role being played by J Street sets it apart from any support of Israel in a fundamental and significant aspect, as well importantly explained by Moshe Phillips in the below column.

Its repeated criticism of actions of self-defense—and now, its opposition to the elimination of a nuclear threat—raise real questions about its priorities.

Moshe Phillips

Iranian missile strikes Tel Aviv. Feb 28, 2026. Screengrab via Youtube. 

Echoes of some of the very darkest periods of recent Jewish history reverberated in the statements made by anti-Zionist Jews over the weekend of the initial phases of joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran.

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Peloni:  The borderline with Lebanon needs to be extended northwards.  The active and continued threat from Hezbollah attacks has been demonstrated to be real and ongoing, and internationally imposed ceasefires have simultaneously failed to mature into anything more than a pause between missile barrages without Hezbollah surrendering a single rifle or rocket, demonstrating that peaceful conditions are not possible under the current arrangement.

IDF kills Iranian Quds Force commander leading Hezbollah’s rearmament

All Israel News Staff | Published: March 3, 2026

Hezbollah Command Center attacked. March 3, 2026. Screengrab via Youtube

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) entered Lebanese territory on Tuesday, in an operation aimed at seizing high ground that could be used by Hezbollah to fire on Israeli communities.

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Peloni: PM Netanyahu highlights the following:

* Joint Israel-US campaign against Iran will be short.

* Campaign aims include regional stability, not a prolonged conflict.

* Praise for Pres. Trump’s leadership, crediting him for a peaceful vision

* Iranian terror network targets US interests.

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