Washington, DC — The following is a statement from Michael Makovsky, President and CEO of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, on the U.S.-led military operation against the Iranian regime:

“We commend President Donald Trump for taking the historic, courageous, and proper decision to launch a major military campaign, in collaboration with Israel, to severely weaken the vile Iranian regime to ensure it can no longer threaten the United States or our regional allies, or destabilize the region, and to encourage the Iranian people to rise up and ‘take over your government.’

“President Trump, despite obvious risks, has opted for a more significant campaign over limited strikes, which has characterized his previous military engagements. We commend Pres. Trump’s willingness to address the Iranian threat with Iran, despite Tehran instigating the murder of hundreds of American soldiers and civilians over decades, and development of nuclear weapons and missiles that would one day reach the American homeland.

“For years, JINSA has called on the U.S. to adopt a strategy toward Iran of ‘regime collapse,’ and since the uprising of the Iranian people and the murderous response by the regime, we have pressed for implementing it: by weakening the regime and its nuclear and conventional forces, thereby enabling the Iranian people to remove the regime.

“In true form, Iran has wrongly and counter-productively fired missiles today at uninvolved countries in the region, such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Aptly, the Iranian regime is alone now, with none of its axis partners, such as China and Russia, willing to do anything to help them. 

“Americans should remember those countries which stood with us today, and those who have sat on the fence or even opposed us at this critical moment.

“We greatly appreciate the stellar American soldiers involved in this effort, led admirably by U.S. Central Command Commander Admiral Brad Cooper, and wish them great success and safety in their efforts to advance U.S. national security and peace in the world.”

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Click here to read a transcript.

Facing a potential war with the United States, Iran has reopened its old playbook of seeking talks, with U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff scheduled to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on February 6. Yet what the United States hopes to achieve in negotiations, which give the vulnerable Iranian regime much-needed legitimacy and respite from military pressure, is unclear — especially since Tehran refuses to put its nuclear enrichment or ballistic missile programs up for negotiation.

To discuss the upcoming talks and the lessons of past U.S.-Iran negotiations, JINSA hosted a webinar featuring JINSA Senior Advisor Stephen Rademaker, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation; JINSA Iran Policy Project member Ray Takeyh, who is also the Hasib Sabbagh Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations; and Jonathan Ruhe, JINSA Fellow for American Strategy.

JINSA Vice President for Policy Blaise Misztal moderated the discussion.

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Stephen Rademaker Stephen Rademaker is a Senior Advisor at JINSA. He is the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, has led multiple bureaus at the State Department, and also directed the Proliferation Security Initiative and nonproliferation policy toward Iran and North Korea. During this time he also headed U.S. delegations to the 2005 Review Conference of Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Click here to read full bio

Ray Takeyh Ray Takeyh is a member of JINSA’s Iran Policy Project and Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He previously served as a senior advisor on Iran policy at the Department of State. Click here to read full bio

Jonathan Ruhe Jonathan Ruhe is Fellow for American Strategy at JINSA. Prior to joining JINSA, he worked at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), where he focused on Middle East and Former Soviet Union security issues. His commentary has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The Dispatch, and various international media outlets. Click here to read full bio

Blaise Misztal Blaise Misztal is the Vice President for Policy at JINSA. He previously served as Fellow at the Hudson Institute, Executive Director of the Task Force on Extremism in Fragile State, and Director of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s National Security Program. Click here to read full bio

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The post Watch Webinar – Iran Talks Deja Vu appeared first on JINSA.

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On September 9, Israel struck Hamas’s headquarters in Doha, Qatar, marking the first known Israeli military operation within Qatar’s borders. Operation Summit of Fire targeted Hamas’s most senior leaders, including Khalil al-Hayya, and ended years of Qatari impunity for hosting and bankrolling Hamas. According to Israeli media, the strikes were greenlit by President Donald Trump.

The daring strike came a day after Hamas terror operatives opened fire at a Jerusalem bus stop, killing six civilians and wounding 12 others. In Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces are beginning a major offensive against Hamas’s Gaza City stronghold, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling on civilians to evacuate the area and announcing his directive for Israeli forces to act decisively against Hamas’s “terror towers” in Gaza’s urban center.

To discuss Israel’s unprecedented military action in Qatar and the unfolding operation in Gaza City, JINSA hosted a conversation featuring JINSA Iran Policy Project Member and former U.S. Special Representative for Iran Elliott Abrams, moderated by JINSA President & CEO Michael Makovsky, PhD.

Elliott Abrams Elliott Abrams is senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in Washington, DC. He served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor in the administration of President George W. Bush, where he supervised U.S. policy in the Middle East for the White House, and as Special Representative for Iran and Venezuela in the administration of Donald Trump. Click here to read full bio

Michael Makovsky, PhD Michael Makovsky, since 2013, has been President and CEO of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA). Makovsky has worked extensively on U.S.-Israel defense ties, U.S. policy toward Iran, Syria, Iraq, Gaza, the Persian Gulf, the role of energy in U.S. national security policy, and the Eastern Mediterranean. Click here to read full bio

The post Watch Webinar – Israel Strikes Hamas in Qatar appeared first on JINSA.

In any major conflict scenario with Iran, the central calculus will be the measurement of how long the Iranians could sustain a drone and missile bombardment of its neighbors, in the face of U.S. efforts to strike their launching systems and command and control facilities. Such a war would hinge largely on the American use of strike aircraft, tankers, and air and missile defense. However, U.S. strike aircraft in the Middle East are largely based at locations along the southern coast of the Arabian Gulf, exposing them, in the event of a conflict, to Iranian missiles that can reach them in a timespan of five minutes or less. This would be exacerbated by the fact that these bases’ refueling and rearming facilities are largely immobile and thus vulnerable to Iranian aerial attacks, which could override U.S. defenses at vital facilities along the Gulf.

The current geography of U.S. bases in the Middle East does not have to be its destiny, however. Working with its partners, this new report recommends the United States:

• Re-examine where U.S. military assets are based in the region, both on a day-to-day basis and on a contingency basis.
• Work with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman, and Egypt to identify bases as far to the west as possible where it can deploy aircraft, maintenance capabilities, refueling capabilities, and weapons.
• Relocate land-based air defenses, based on warning and indications of war, from their current locations along the Arabian Gulf to bases further west.
• Further capitalize on Israel’s 2021 shift from the European Command’s Area of Responsibility (AOR) to the Central Command’s AOR by examining Israel’s potential role in alternative basing structures.
• Continue to enhance air and missile defense cooperation with friendly Arab states, including working to forge an understanding of what sensor information to share and how to share it.
• Devote the necessary resources and craft messaging to deter Iran and its proxies from continuing to undertake deadly attacks across the region.
• Adopt a posture that allows the United States to rebase rapidly and frequently based on regional developments.

Click here to read the analysis.
Click here to read the press release.

The post U.S Bases in the Middle East: Overcoming the Tyranny of Geography appeared first on JINSA.

It is vital that the United States have a comprehensive strategy for blunting Iranian transgressions in all their forms. Congress can help develop and bolster the credibility of such a strategy by approving conditional Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMFs) to prevent a nuclear Iran and deter its further attacks.

The credible threat of military force has been the only tool to effectively and repeatedly convince Iran to back down. Israel’s 2012 nuclear redline, President Donald Trump’s 2020 strike on Quds Force commander Major General Qassem Soleimani after Iranian proxies killed an American, and President Joe Biden’s August 2024 regional force build up in the face of a threatened direct Iranian attack on Israel are all examples of the United States and its partners threatening to punish Iran if it continued its malign behavior—and Iran changing course rather than risk confrontation. Similarly, by now signaling a credible commitment to hold Iran responsible for continued aggression—whether advancing its nuclear program or attacking U.S. troops, citizens, and interests with its proxies—the United States can increase the credibility of consequences for its worst transgressions. A cost-free yet meaningful means of convincing Tehran that it will face consequences for its aggression is for Congress to pass AUMFs against Iran: one explicitly authorizing military strikes against Iran’s nuclear program, and the other authorizing force against the designated foreign terrorist organizations backed by Iran, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and possibly the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Compared to other alternatives, this is an immediate option for bolstering deterrence, reining in Iranian escalation, and slowing Iranian nuclear advances. While effective, maintaining two carrier strike groups in the Middle East for the foreseeable future is both costly and untenable given competing requirements in the Indo-Pacific. Increased sanctions enforcement would take time to bite, and Iran has repeatedly rebuffed American diplomatic overtures when it has perceived there would be no consequences for its intransigence. Meanwhile, congressional passage of AUMFs against Iran would send a clear, unmistakable, and prompt signal to Tehran, without requiring further immediate U.S. action. Nor would an AUMF make U.S. use of force more likely than it currently is. Both Presidents Trump and Biden have struck at Iran-linked targets citing their Article II constitutional authorities without an AUMF. But by giving the president approval to use force, Congress would communicate to Tehran the determination of all branches of power and both political parties to hold it accountable. Contrary to arguments that the only alternative to diplomacy is war, the threat of force against Iran is the best means for avoiding the use of force—both by the United States and Iran.

Taking up an AUMF would have the further salutary effect of restoring the Congress’ constitutional role in national security matters. Members have in recent years repeatedly sought to reclaim their war powers by seeking to rescind existing AUMFs. On March 29, 2023, the Senate voted to repeal the 2002 and 1991 Iraq AUMFs. The Republican-led House of Representatives has yet to consider similar legislation during this Congress but, under Democratic leadership, previously voted to repeal the 2001 AUMF against Al Qaeda passed in the wake of 9/11. Yet as threats around the world rise, Congress cannot claim to be fulfilling its constitutional national defense responsibilities if it only rescinds AUMFs yet shirks away from proactively providing the president with clear, legal authorities for the U.S. military to respond to urgent dangers.

While the president already has authority under Article II to act against the twin threats of Iran’s nuclear program and proxy networks, the president will act with maximum authority with Congress’ affirmative blessing. Specifically, we recommend that:

• Congress does not repeal the 2001 or 2002 AUMFs unless they are replaced by new measures that strengthen the president’s ability to protect U.S. forces and interests in the Middle East.
• Congress pass a new, tailored, and conditions-based AUMF for the elimination of Iran’s nuclear program.
  • Conditions that trigger the AUMF could include determination from the intelligence community that Iran is pursuing a nuclear breakout of enrichment and/or weaponization activity.
• Congress pass a new AUMF or an addition to the 2001 or 2002 AUMFs that specifically authorizes military strikes against Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, other Iranian proxies, and Iranian forces involved in funding, organizing, or equipping terrorist groups.

Click here to read the analysis.

The post AUMFs Against Iran’s Terror Proxies and Against Its Nuclear Program Would Bolster Deterrence appeared first on JINSA.

The best hope to prevent an Iranian breakout is to advertise a firm but not overly precise red line. This should only be issued if it is accompanied by a clear track record of kinetic action against Iranian provocations, demonstrating the credibility of U.S. threats, and ideally bolstered by public deliveries of advanced munitions and equipment to the region and Israel and more public bilateral military exercises between the United States and Israel. Additional steps to augment a red line include the passage by Congress of an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Iran’s nuclear program and securing a public statement of support from European allies for any U.S./Israeli efforts to prevent a breakout.

Click here to read the analysis.

The post Blocking the Breakout: Red Lines and the Iranian Nuclear Program appeared first on JINSA.

	Click here to read the report. Click here to read the report summary.

Opening Remarks by:

Amb. Yousef Al Otaiba United Arab Emirates Click to read full bio	Amb. Shaikh Abdullah Bin Rashid Al Khalifa Kingdom of Bahrain Click to read full bio	Amb. Michael Herzog Israel Click to read full bio

Panel Discussion moderated by Jennifer Griffin, FOX News:

Jennifer Griffin Jennifer Griffin currently serves as a national security correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC) and is based out of the Washington D.C. bureau. She joined the network in October 1999 as a Jerusalem-based correspondent. Click here to read full bio

VADM (ret.) Kevin Donegan, USN Fmr. Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and U.S. Fifth Fleet Member, JINSA Abraham Accords Policy Project Click to read full bio	VADM (ret.) Mark Fox, USN Fmr. Deputy Commander, U.S. Central Command Member, JINSA Abraham Accords Policy Project Click to read full bio	Ambassador Eric Edelman Fmr. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and Ambassador to Turkey Counselor, JINSA Gemunder Center for Defense & Strategy Click to read full bio

The Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) is dedicated to educating Congressional, military and civilian national security decision-makers on American defense and strategic interests, primarily in the Middle East, the cornerstone of which is a robust U.S.-Israeli security cooperation. JINSA believes that a strong American military and national security posture is the best guarantor of peace and the survival of our values and civilization.

The post Watch: JINSA Abraham Accords Report Release appeared first on JINSA.

Featuring:

IDF BG Effie Defrin
Head of the International Cooperation Division; JINSA’s 2019 IDF Brigadier Generals Military Leadership Education Program participant

Charles B. Perkins
Director for U.S.-Israel Security Policy

The post Watch Webinar with IDF BG Effie Defrin on Current Gaza-Israel Fighting appeared first on JINSA.

Featuring:

IDF MG (ret.) Yaakov Amidror
JINSA Distinguished Fellow

IDF BG (ret.) Michael Herzog
International Fellow, Washington Institute

Erielle Davidson
JINSA Senior Policy Analyst

The post Watch Webinar with IDF Gens Yaakov Amidror and Mike Herzog on Recent Attacks Against Israel appeared first on JINSA.

Featuring:

Michael Makovsky, PhD
JINSA President & CEO

Nikos Christodoulides
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Cyprus

The post Watch Opening Remarks by Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides on U.S.-Cyprus Relations/Eastern Med Security appeared first on JINSA.