World

Saturday

Yossi Melman

Is Israel ready for a long war with Iran?

The spectacular Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear, missile and military sites and their commanders and scientists astonished the Israeli public as well as the world. It was a combination of accurate intelligence and brilliant execution by the Israeli Air Force and Mossad operatives. The intelligence preparations for this operation, codenamed‘ Rising Lion’, lasted more than a year. Mossad agents infiltrated Iran and created a network of agents, assistants, safe houses, workshops, vehicles, forged documents and cover stories – alongside advanced technologies. They also smuggled drone components into Iran, before assembling and hiding them there. These drones took part in the attack. In a sense the attack was reminiscent of the

Limor Simhony Philpott

Netanyahu wants to topple the Iranian regime

Last night, the Middle East witnessed its fiercest clash yet as Israel and Iran traded blows. A daring Israeli operation, orchestrated by Mossad and the Israeli Air Force (IAF), obliterated Iran’s top military commanders, including IRGC leaders, and struck ballistic missile sites and nuclear facilities. Iran initially retaliated with a barrage of drones, all of which were shot down. It then escalated its attack, firing over 200 ballistic missiles targeting civilians. Several missiles hit the densely populated cities of Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, and Rishon Lezion, killing three civilians and wounding over 75. Unlike Iran’s barrages last year, which inflicted minor damage, this assault overwhelmed Israel’s defences. A lot less

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Iranian rockets will not dim Israel’s resolve

Tel Aviv, Israel Israelis last night once again found themselves seeking shelter as the Islamic Revolutionary forces in Iran launched their long-anticipated retaliation for Israel’s 15-hour offensive against their nuclear and ballistic missile facilities. The Israeli strikes themselves had come as something of a surprise, not entirely unforeseen, but unexpected in their timing. Perhaps as part of an elaborate decoy, or perhaps as an unfortunate casualty of circumstance, the annual Tel Aviv Pride parade – whose stages, tents and other facilities had been installed and tested throughout Thursday – was dismantled on Friday before the event could take place. Caitlyn Jenner, perhaps the world’s most famous ‘trans’ activist, had flown

Jim Lawley

The post-Brexit Gibraltar deal is going down badly in Spain

Conservative and Reform politicians have denounced this week’s post-Brexit Gibraltar deal as a betrayal. ‘Gibraltar is British, and given Labour’s record of surrendering our territory and paying for the privilege, we will be reviewing carefully all the details of any agreement that is reached,’ Dame Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, said. Meanwhile, describing Labour as ‘the worst negotiators in history’, Nigel Farage called the agreement ‘yet another surrender’. Vox declared that ‘Gibraltar is a territory illegally colonised by the UK’ But Spain’s right-wing parties have, if possible, been even more damning. José Manuel García-Margallo, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, described the agreement as ‘total surrender’, the ‘absolute renunciation’

Friday

Patrick Gibbons

Israel strikes Iran – how will Iran retaliate?

14 min listen

Israel struck military and nuclear targets in Iran overnight in a major escalation of hostilities in the Middle East has begun further strikes on Friday. Iran has vowed retaliation though President Trump has warned Iran and encouraged the Iranians to continue negotiations over their nuclear programme. Further talks had been due to take place this weekend. What’s Israel’s objective? And does this underline the unpredictability of geopolitics, at a time when the UK has pledged significantly more money for defence?  Patrick Gibbons speaks to James Heale and Michael Stephens, associate fellow at RUSI. Plus: updates on assisted dying and the government’s plans for welfare. Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

Jonathan Spyer

Israel’s war with Iran is only getting started

With the launch of Operation ‘Rising Lion’, Israel appears to have sought to take advantage of a narrow window of opportunity. Through its own actions over the last 18 months, the Iranian regime brought itself to a moment of extreme vulnerability. Tehran found itself in an uncomfortable position in which it continued to seek to prosecute its long war against Israel – intended to result in the Jewish state’s demise – while at the same time finding itself shorn of many of the capacities for aggression and defence on which it had relied. Israel has struck in this narrow window. Iranian has retaliated. The two sides are continuing to exchange strikes.   The

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Israel’s Iran attack has done the West a favour

Israel’s overnight strikes on the Islamic Republic of Iran represent the initial salvo of what Jerusalem is calling Operation Rising Lion. In Genesis 49, Jacob tells his sons: ‘Judah is a lion’s cub/ from the prey, my son, you rise up/ He lies down and crouches like a lion/ like a lioness — who dares disturb him?’ Jerusalem is bracing itself for painful reprisals and has put its citizens on alert Israel rose up after years of warning the world of Iran’s plot to acquire nuclear weapons. In a series of daring precision strikes, it has targeted key regime figures, ballistic missile supplies and the Natanz nuclear facility. Israeli intelligence

Stephen Pollard

Israel’s attack on Iran marks the beginning of a new era for the Middle East

On 5 June 1967, Israel destroyed three Arab air forces with a devastating pre-emptive strike at the start of what became the Six-Day War. Overnight, Israel has undertaken what appears to be a similarly devastating pre-emptive attack, this time on Iranian nuclear, military and terror facilities. Israel has undertaken what appears to be a devastating pre-emptive attack But there is a key difference between the two strikes. In 1967, Israel was fighting to defend only itself. It had no allies in the region and little concern with what happened outside its own borders. Today, Israel is not only acting as a proxy for the West itself; it is acting against

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Israel’s shadow war on Iran has burst into the open

Woken by sirens outside my window in Israel at 3 a.m. I made my way to the bomb shelter in the basement, reaching for my phone on the way. An unusual and urgent message appeared on the screen which had been sent to the entire nation: Home Front Command had updated its guidelines with immediate effect. Israelis are instructed to know where their nearest protected space is, to avoid unnecessary movement, and to prepare for possible extended periods in shelters. Public institutions are not to open. The meaning was clear: the long-anticipated Israeli operation against Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes had begun. Saudi Arabia publicly condemned the Israeli strikes

Daniel DePetris

How will Iran respond to the Israeli airstrikes?

President Donald Trump was off the mark when he was asked about the likelihood of an Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities on Thursday afternoon. “I don’t want to say imminent, but it looks like it’s something that could very well happen,” he said. Hours later, the Israelis conducted a major bombing campaign against dozens of Iranian targets purportedly linked to its nuclear, missile and military programs. Dubbed “Operation Rising Lion,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed the operation was geared to hit the heart of Tehran’s nuclear capability in order to protect Israel’s survival. Iran has a number of ways to retaliate “This operation will continue for as many days

Thursday

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Is Israel preparing to strike Iran?

While much of the Western debate remains trapped in tired slogans and false moral narratives, events on the ground in the Middle East have taken a decisive turn. In the past 24 hours, U.S. embassies have begun evacuating non-essential staff. Military dependents are being authorised to leave key bases. Multiple reports say U.S. officials have been told Israel is fully ready to launch an operation against Iran if required, and Washington expects possible Iranian retaliation on American sites in Iraq. The U.S. anticipates that Iranian retaliation against U.S. assets in Iraq could follow any Israeli strike The trigger is Iran’s growing stockpile of near-weapons-grade uranium, its preparations for potential retaliation

Terry Barnes

Could Donald Trump scrap Aukus?

America’s policy undersecretary of defence, Elbridge Colby, is one of the brightest brains in Donald Trump’s administration. Having served in the first Trump presidency, Colby has an outstanding reputation as a defence and strategic thinker. He is also, however, very much aligned with Trump’s America First thinking in respect of foreign policy, and the United States’ relationship with her allies. That would be a strategic disaster for Australia and Britain In tasking Colby on Wednesday with reviewing the Aukus nuclear submarine-centred strategic partnership between the US, the UK and Australia, the president sends a clear message to Britain and Australia: Aukus is part of his inheritance from Joe Biden, and its

Louise Perry

Porn Britannia, Xi’s absence & no more lonely hearts?

47 min listen

OnlyFans is giving the Treasury what it wants – but should we be concerned? ‘OnlyFans,’ writes Louise Perry, ‘is the most profitable content subscription service in the world.’ Yet ‘the vast majority of its content creators make very little from it’. So why are around 4 per cent of young British women selling their wares on the site? ‘Imitating Bonnie Blue and Lily Phillips – currently locked in a competition to have sex with the most men in a day – isn’t pleasant.’ OnlyFans gives women ‘the sexual attention and money of hundreds and even thousands of men’. The result is ‘a cascade of depravity’ that Perry wouldn’t wish on

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Can Pope Leo end the liturgy wars?

Last weekend, under windswept banners depicting the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, nearly 20,000 young pilgrims marched through fields and forests between the cathedrals of Paris and Chartres. All of them carried rosaries and chanted in Latin, sometimes breathlessly: it’s a punishing 60-mile trek through mud and rocks. Each ‘chapter’ of the column was accompanied by priests. Like the lay pilgrims – drawn from 30 countries but dominated by French teenagers in scouting uniform – they wore backpacks and trainers, but also full-length cassocks or habits. They were traditionalists and so were the young people: despite their informality, they were utterly committed to intricate Latin worship. Making

Francis Pike

Is Xi Jinping’s time up?

Stories about Xi Jinping’s father, Xi Zhongxun, are blowing up on social media. He died in 2002, so why the interest in him now? The weird fact is that Xi Zhongxun is being talked about in the West because he is not being talked about in China. Omission is the perverse way that one learns about what is really going on in the opaque world of Chinese Communist party (CCP) politics. China-watchers live on scraps. Xi Zhongxun was a big cheese in his own right. Born in the north-west’s Shaanxi province, he was an early member of the youth league of the CCP. After meeting Mao Zedong at the conclusion

Piers Morgan

In defence of Piers Morgan

‘What happened to Piers Morgan?’ asked a Spectator writer last weekend. The answer, according to slavishly pro-Israel commentator Jonathan Sacerdoti, is that I’m now ‘darker’, ‘degraded’, ‘dismal’ and ‘debase(d)’ – because I’ve become more critical of how Israel is prosecuting its war in Gaza. For a long time on my YouTube show Uncensored, I defended the country’s right to defend itself after 7 October attacks. But I now believe Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has crossed the ‘proportionality’ line with its recent food and aid blockade and relentless bombardment of civilians. Self-evidently, Israel is failing in its mission to eliminate Hamas and get the remaining hostages released. Its forces have been killing

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Spending review, LA protests and Greta Thunberg deported

Home Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, was the last minister to agree funding in the government spending review. Once the NHS and defence were settled there wasn’t enough to go round. The police wanted more. Everyone over the state pension age in England and Wales with an income of £35,000 or less will receive the winter fuel payment after all, at a cost of £1.25 billion, Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced. Capital spending included £39 billion on social housing over the next ten years. The government also committed £14.2 billion for the new Sizewell C nuclear power station, but did not say where the money was coming

Wednesday

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Will the L.A. immigration riots reach Europe?

The pro-immigration protests that erupted last week in Los Angeles have now spread across the United States. On Tuesday there were confrontations between police and demonstrators in Atlanta, Chicago and Denver, where tear gas was used to disperse a crowd. Police in New York City arrested 45 people as they came under attack from a variety of projectiles thrown by a mob that numbered several hundred. Demonstrators shouted ‘shame, shame’; one local councillor, Shahana Hanif, accused the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of ‘attacking our communities’. The anti-ICE protestors are in the minority The protests began in L.A. last Friday when ICE officers began rounding up suspected illegal immigrants in

David Bergman

Will Bangladesh’s leader mention Tulip Siddiq in his meeting with the PM?

If Keir Starmer meets Bangladesh’s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, as planned at Downing Street this week, their agenda will likely include the country’s transition to democratic elections, scheduled for April next year, as well as how the Labour government might assist in recovering stolen Bangladeshi assets. Siddiq wrote to Yunus inviting him for “lunch or afternoon tea” at the Houses of Parliament But the unspoken tension in the room will be Labour MP and former minister Tulip Siddiq – niece of deposed Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina. Hasina fled the country on 5 August 2024 following a violent state crackdown on student-led protests, in which over 800 people have been

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Britain’s sanctioning of Israeli ministers is a grave mistake

The United Kingdom’s decision this week to impose personal sanctions on two Israeli cabinet ministers, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, is a grave error – not only strategically, but morally. In concert with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Norway, Britain claims this move defends human rights and opposes settler violence. In truth, it represents a striking double standard, a capitulation to domestic partisan pressures, and even a step towards decreased relevance on the international stage. The UK is posturing for domestic political gain The contrast between Britain’s treatment of Israeli ministers and its posture towards the enablers of terrorism is glaring. Palestinian Authority officials who