The Iranian regime is reportedly nearing an interim deal with Oman and the United States for a new security model in the Strait of Hormuz. History—including recent events—shows that the Iranian regime will almost certainly attempt to violate this proposed deal, as well as any future ones. However, that’s just one part of the problem, JINSA President & CEO Michael Makovsky, PhD argued in an August 6 interview with Fox News Radio.

Dr. Makovsky stressed that, in his view, constantly seeking negotiations with Iran “comes with a cost” of its own, including repercussions reaching far beyond the Middle East. The indefinite U.S. pursuit of diplomacy, not military pressure, has “weakened our credibility,” including in the eyes of “the Chinese and the Russians,” Dr. Makovsky stated.

Therefore, Washington needs an Iran policy reset, according to Dr. Makovsky. That should involve America conducting large-scale military operations against Iran’s nuclear facilities, anti-ship capabilities, internal energy sites, and other high-value targets to threaten the Iranian regime’s existence.

The post JINSA President & CEO Michael Makovsky: Fruitless Iran Talks Hurt U.S. Deterrence Against China and Russia appeared first on JINSA.

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Almost three years after the devastating October 7, 2023, attack, the Board of Peace announced that Hamas had agreed to give up its weapons and relinquish any role in Gaza’s governance and security. The achievement of a deal with Hamas was shared by President Donald Trump on July 30, who wrote that “the Board of Peace reached a HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza.” 

Yet the Board of Peace’s Roadmap for moving to Phase II of Trump’s Comprehensive Plan for Gaza also calls for Israel’s eventual full military withdrawal from the territory. Its text is at best ambiguous as to whether Israel’s phased withdrawals should begin before or after Hamas is completely disarmed. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top spokesman said on August 3 that Israel has shared a number of “serious security concerns” with the White House over the agreement. In addition, how the deal will be implemented is far from clear. Hamas under stress has long dangled cooperation in a bid to relieve pressure and gain time, only to breach its commitments. It almost certainly will seek to do so again.

To assess the deal, and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, JINSA hosted a webinar featuring JINSA Distinguished Fellow IDF MG (ret.) Yaakov Amidror, Atlantic Council Senior Fellow Ahmed Alkhatib, and JINSA Randi & Charles Wax Senior Fellow John Hannah.

JINSA Research Associate, Rena Gabber, moderated the discussion.

IDF MG (ret.) Yaakov Amidror IDF Major General (ret.) Yaakov Amidror is a Gemunder Center for Defense and Strategy Distinguished Fellow. General Amidror was formerly the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of Israel, as well as the head of the National Security Council, from 2011-2013. Click here to read full bio

Ahmed Alkhatib Ahmed Alkhatib is a Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Middle East programs and leads Realign for Palestine, an Atlantic Council project that challenges entrenched narratives in the Israel and Palestine discourse and develops a new policy framework for rejuvenated pro-Palestine advocacy. Click here to read full bio

John Hannah John Hannah is JINSA’s Randi & Charles Wax Senior Fellow. He served as former Vice President Dick Cheney’s National Security Advisor from 2005-2009 and as Vice President Cheney’s Deputy National Security Advisor for the Middle East from 2001-2005. Click here to read full bio

Rena Gabber Rena Gabber is a Research Associate for JINSA Senior Fellow John Hannah. She formerly worked as a Research Assistant at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, focusing on Arab-Israel relations. Click here to read full bio

The post Watch Webinar – A Better Future for Gaza? Challenges, Risks, and Opportunities for the Gaza Roadmap appeared first on JINSA.

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The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East are converging. Iran has supplied Russia with drone technology battering Ukrainian cities while threatening U.S. forces and partners across the Middle East—and the connection runs deeper: Russia has provided Iran with satellite imagery and targeting intelligence, including the locations of U.S. warships and aircraft, enabling more precise Iranian strikes against American forces in the region.

Ukraine has begun striking back, hitting Iranian and Russian cargo vessels in the Caspian Sea on July 25 to disrupt Iran-Russia supply lines. Days later, both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were in Washington for separate meetings with President Donald Trump—and the two spoke in person with one another for the first time in three years. Separately, Ukraine has emerged as the world’s leading laboratory for drone warfare and countermeasures—experience increasingly relevant to Israel, which has struggled to adapt to the fiber-optic drone threat now deployed by Hezbollah in Lebanon that was first pioneered on the Ukrainian battlefield.

The convergence raises urgent questions for U.S. strategy: how should Washington coordinate across two theaters increasingly shaped by the same adversary network? Can Ukraine and Israel translate their shared interest in countering Iran into meaningful coordination? And what does effective deterrence look like when the Iranian threat spans both fronts simultaneously?

To discuss the growing links between the Middle East and Ukraine wars and the implications for U.S. policy, JINSA hosted an exclusive webinar featuring JINSA Generals & Admirals Program Participants Gen Philip Breedlove, USAF (ret.), former Commander, U.S. European Command, and Lt Gen Thomas Bergeson, USAF (ret.), former Deputy Commander, U.S. Central Command.

JINSA Associate Director of Foreign Policy Ari Cicurel moderated the webinar.

Gen Philip Breedlove, USAF (ret.) Gen Philip Breedlove, USAF (ret.) is the former Commander of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe. He participated in JINSA’s Generals and Admirals program in 2018. Click here to read full bio

Lt Gen Thomas W. Bergeson, USAF (ret.) Lt Gen Thomas W. Bergeson is the former Deputy Commander, U.S. Central Command. He participated in JINSA’s Generals and Admirals program in 2023. Click here to read full bio

Ari Cicurel

Ari Cicurel has been Associate Director of Foreign Policy at JINSA since January 2025.

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The post Watch Webinar – Iran’s Two Fronts: Growing Links Between the Middle East and Ukraine Wars appeared first on JINSA.

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At the NATO summit in Ankara on July 7–8—the alliance’s first summit hosted by Turkey since 2004—Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pressed his case as an indispensable partner, and President Donald Trump delivered. On the summit’s opening day, President Trump announced he would lift U.S. CAATSA sanctions imposed on Turkey after its 2019 acquisition of Russia’s S-400 missile defense system, and indicated he would move toward readmitting Ankara to the F-35 program.

Now, reports suggest Turkey may transfer the S-400s to the United Arab Emirates—a move that, if confirmed, would represent Ankara’s attempt to clear the remaining legal obstacle to F-35 program access. The announcement came after the Trump administration had notified Congress in June of its intention to sell Turkey more than $700 million in F110 jet engines for its KAAN fighter program, drawing bipartisan objections from lawmakers and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The accommodations, however, risk rewarding behavior that NATO should be deterring. Turkey retains the S-400, has threatened allies Greece and Cyprus through expansive maritime claims, maintained ties with Hamas, and is now exploring a Turkish-led Sunni security framework outside NATO’s orbit. Erdoğan has also overseen a sweeping crackdown on Turkey‘s domestic opposition—behavior that sits uneasily with NATO’s foundational commitment to democracy, individual liberty, and the rule of law. The central question coming out of Ankara is whether President Trump’s personal rapport with Erdoğan has overridden allied concerns—and what the summit’s outcomes mean for the alliance’s coherence and credibility.

To assess the outcomes of the recent NATO summit in Ankara and their implications for U.S.-Turkey relations and alliance cohesion, JINSA hosted a webinar featuring Alan Makovsky, member of JINSA’s Benjamin Gettler Project for East Med Security, and Svante Cornell, JINSA Scholar and Director of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program.

Blaise Misztal, JINSA’s Vice President for Policy, moderated the discussion.

Svante E. Cornell Svante E. Cornell is a JINSA Scholar, the Director of the American Foreign Policy Council’s Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, and a co-founder of the Institute for Security and Development Policy, Stockholm. His main areas of expertise are security issues, state-building, and transnational crime in Southwest and Central Asia, with a specific focus on the Caucasus and Turkey. He is the Editor of CACI’s Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst and Turkey Analyst, the Center’s electronic publications, and of its Silk Road Papers series of occasional papers. Click here to read full bio

Alan Makovsky Alan Makovsky is a senior fellow for National Security and International Policy at the Center for American Progress. From 2001 to 2013, he served as a senior professional staff member on the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he covered the Middle East, Turkey, and other related issues. At the State Department, from 1983 to 1994, Makovsky variously covered southern European affairs and Middle Eastern affairs for the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. Click here to read full bio

Blaise Misztal Blaise Misztal is the Vice President for Policy at JINSA. Misztal previously was a Fellow at the Hudson Institute, and has held roles as the Executive Director of the Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States and Director of the National Security Program at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Click here to read full bio

The post Watch Webinar – Erdogan’s Turkey: NATO Host or Hazard? appeared first on JINSA.

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This week marks a gruesome milestone: 1,000 days will have passed since Hamas infiltrated southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing approximately 1,200 people and taking over 250 mostly civilian hostages. It also marks 1,000 days of war for Israel, on seven fronts, its longest war. In that time, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has dismantled Hamas’ control of Gaza, returned the hostages home, severely degraded Hezbollah, contributed to the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria, and taken the fight, alongside the United States, directly to the regime in Iran. While Israel’s military maintains buffer zones in Gaza, southern Lebanon, and Syria, Iran and its proxy network remain poised to rebuild themselves and resume their aggression.

To discuss the dramatic changes in Israel and the rest of the Middle East over the 1,000 days since October 7, 2023, JINSA hosted a webinar featuring JINSA Distinguished Fellow and former National Security Advisor to Israel’s Prime Minister, IDF MG (ret.) Yaakov Amidror, and JINSA’s Julian (z”l) and Jenny Josephson Senior Vice President for Israeli Affairs, IDF MG (ret.) Yaacov Ayish.

The discussion was moderated by JINSA VP for Policy Blaise Misztal.

IDF MG (ret.) Yaakov Amidror IDF Major General (ret.) Yaakov Amidror is a Gemunder Center for Defense and Strategy Distinguished Fellow. General Amidror was formerly the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of Israel, as well as the head of the National Security Council, from 2011-2013. Click here to read full bio

IDF MG (ret.) Yaacov Ayish IDF MG (ret.) Yaacov Ayish is the Julian and Jenny Josephson Senior Vice President for Israeli Affairs at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA). MG Ayish served in the IDF for 36 years and retired in 2016, concluding an accomplished career during which he attained the rank of Major General. In his last position, MG Ayish served for four years as Israel’s Defense and Armed Forces Attaché to the United States in Washington, D.C. Click here to read full bio

Blaise Misztal Blaise Misztal is the Vice President for Policy at JINSA. Misztal previously was a Fellow at the Hudson Institute, and has held roles as the Executive Director of the Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States and Director of the National Security Program at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Click here to read full bio

The post Watch Webinar – 1,000 Days of War appeared first on JINSA.

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In retaliation for Operation Epic Fury, Iranian forces launched thousands of missiles and drones at Gulf countries hosting U.S. military bases. These devastating attacks caused servicemember fatalities and injuries, destroyed aircraft, and took strategic radars offline, revealing the vulnerabilities of the broader U.S. military posture in the Middle East. 

Two years ago, JINSA Hertog Distinguished Fellow and former Commander of the United States Central Command General Frank McKenzie, USMC (ret.) sounded the alarm about the vulnerabilities of current U.S. basing posture in his report U.S. Bases in the Middle East: Overcoming the Tyranny of Geography where he notably warned that “the United States will not be able to maintain these bases in a full-throated conflict, because they will be rendered unusable by sustained Iranian attack.” While urging the United States to re-examine its basing posture, he also emphasized the critical need for U.S. basing in Israel.

JINSA hosted a webinar with General McKenzie to discuss U.S. basing posture in the Middle East and its status in the aftermath of the Iran War.

JINSA’s Fellow for American Strategy Jonathan Ruhe moderated the discussion.

Gen Frank McKenzie, USMC (ret.) Gen Frank McKenzie, USMC (ret.) is the Hertog Distinguished Fellow at JINSA and also oversees national security research at the University of South Florida. He previously served as Commander, U.S. Central Command, and, prior to that, served as Commander, U.S. Marine Forces Central Command. He also spent several years serving as the Director for Strategic Planning and Policy at the Pentagon. Click here to read full bio

Jonathan Ruhe Jonathan Ruhe is Fellow for American Strategy at JINSA. Before joining JINSA, he held positions as Senior Policy Analyst at the Bipartisan Policy Center’s National Security Program and as Research Associate at the Hudson Institute. He has been cited in Congressional testimony and his commentary has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and many other leading media outlets. Click here to read full bio

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The post Webinar – U.S. Basing Posture in the Wake of Epic Fury appeared first on JINSA.

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The United States and Iran have reached a deal. Nearly 70 days after a temporary ceasefire halted full-scale war, President Donald Trump announced in a June 14 Truth Social post that “the Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete,” with formal signing slated for June 19. According to President Trump, the deal ends all maritime shipping restrictions and the U.S. blockade. It also reportedly extends the current ceasefire for 60 days, during which time negotiations will continue.

Beyond that, as a recent JINSA infographic highlighted, little is publicly known about the deal’s contents or implementation. Media reports vary widely, and U.S. and Iranian officials are publicly contradicting each other on critical issues like sanctions relief, the Iranian nuclear program, and the Lebanese front. But both what reportedly is in the deal—including limitations on U.S. regional force posture and Israel’s freedom of action against Hezbollah—and is not—constraints on Iran’s missile program and proxy funding—have raised concerns about the deal itself, and the state of U.S. leverage going forward.

To discuss the deal and what it portends for the future, JINSA held a webinar featuring JINSA Distinguished Fellow IDF MG (ret.) Yaakov Amidror, former National Security Advisor to the Israeli Prime Minister; JINSA Iran Policy Project member Elliott Abrams, former U.S. Special Representative to Iran and former U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor; and JINSA’s Vice President for Policy Blaise Misztal.

JINSA’s Associate Director for Foreign Policy Ari Cicurel moderated the discussion.

IDF MG (ret.) Yaakov Amidror IDF MG (ret.) Yaakov Amidror is a Distinguished Fellow at JINSA. Prior to joining JINSA, MG Amidror was the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of Israel, as well as the head of Israel’s National Security Council. MG (ret.) Amidror also has served as Director of Israel’s Intelligence Analysis Division. Click here to read full bio

Elliott Abrams

Elliott Abrams a member of JINSA’s Iran Policy Project and the former U.S. Special Representative for Iran, as well as the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs.

Click here to read full bio

Blaise Misztal

Blaise Misztal is the Vice President for Policy at JINSA. Misztal previously was a Fellow at the Hudson Institute, and has held roles as the Executive Director of the Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States and Director of the National Security Program at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Click here to read full bio

Ari Cicurel

Ari Cicurel has been Associate Director of Foreign Policy at JINSA since January 2025. His prior roles at JINSA include as Assistant Director of Foreign Policy from 2023-2025, Senior Policy Analyst from 2020-2023, and Policy Analyst from September 2018-January 2020.

Click here to read full bio

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The post Webinar – U.S.-Iran Deal Reached appeared first on JINSA.

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Representative Elise Stefanik (NY-21) gained national attention for her questioning of Ivy League university presidents at a hearing on campus antisemitism. When Rep. Stefanik asked the presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated their schools’ codes of conduct, each refused to say yes. Harvard’s then-President Claudine Gay infamously claimed it “depends on the context.”

Rep. Stefanik has just released a new book, Poisoned Ivies: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America’s Elite Universities, examining in greater depth how university leaders’ “failure to address antisemitic conduct on campus” are an indication that “our institutions of higher education have fundamentally lost their way.” She details the main lessons from her time investigating campus antisemitism in Congress, including her insights into what has gone wrong at elite universities, and why—and what Americans and their political leaders can do to fix it.

Rep. Stefanik joined JINSA for an exclusive conversation about her new book and the future of U.S. higher education. Michael Makovsky, PhD, JINSA President and CEO, moderated the discussion.

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Rep. Elise Stefanik Rep. Elise Stefanik (NY-21) is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Education and the Workforce, and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. 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 is a senior Pentagon official and a leading expert on U.S.-Israel defense ties, U.S. policy in the Middle East, and the role of energy in U.S. national security policy. Click here to read full bio

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The post Webinar – Poisoned Ivies: Book Talk With Rep. Elise Stefanik appeared first on JINSA.

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After weeks of near-constant Hezbollah drone and rocket attacks targeting northern Israeli communities, on June 7, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) struck Hezbollah’s Dahiyeh stronghold outside Beirut. Iran, which had threatened that Israel striking Dahiyeh would trigger a response, then fired several ballistic missiles at Israel’s north. President Donald Trump condemned the attack on Israel, urging Iran to return to the negotiating table.

Not long after, Israel forcefully responded, striking Iranian missile production sites, air defenses, and petrochemical facilities. Iran once again retaliated, accompanied by a Houthi missile launch targeting Israel. President Trump announced that Iran and Israel would be moving towards deescalation, but with Iran vowing further strikes if Israel continues operating against Hezbollah in Lebanon—something Israel has already vowed to pursue—this seems in doubt.

To discuss the recent Middle East attacks, JINSA hosted a webinar featuring JINSA Distinguished Fellow IDF MG (ret.) Yaakov Amidror, former National Security Advisor to Israel’s Prime Minister, and JINSA Distinguished Scholar Amb. Eric Edelman, former Ambassador to Turkey.

Blaise Misztal, JINSA’s Vice President for Policy, moderated the discussion.

IDF MG (ret.) Yaakov Amidror IDF MG (ret.) Yaakov Amidror is a Distinguished Fellow at JINSA. Prior to joining JINSA, MG Amidror was the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of Israel, as well as the head of Israel’s National Security Council. MG (ret.) Amidror also has served as Director of Israel’s Intelligence Analysis Division. Click here to read full bio

Amb. Eric Edelman Amb. Eric Edelman is a Distinguished Scholar at JINSA and the co-chair of JINSA’s Iran Policy Project. Amb. Edelman is the former U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and a former member of the U.S. Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee. He also served as America’s ambassador to Finland and Turkey. Click here to read full bio

Blaise Misztal Blaise Misztal is the Vice President for Policy at JINSA. Misztal previously was a Fellow at the Hudson Institute, and has held roles as the Executive Director of the Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States and Director of the National Security Program at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Click here to read full bio

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The post Webinar – War Back On? appeared first on JINSA.

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Ceasefire agreements have not pacified the Iranian regime and its proxy Hezbollah. Since the temporary Lebanon ceasefire began less than 50 days ago, Hezbollah has ​launched over 1,100 drones and rockets — including several attacks following President Donald Trump’s June 1 claim that Hezbollah had pledged to “not attack Israel.” In recent days, the Iranian regime has attacked Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, and ships in international waters. Diplomatic progress is also in doubt, with Iranian state media giving conflicting reports about the regime’s willingness to continue talks.

In addition, Iran has linked the two fronts at the negotiating table, further complicating matters. Following Tehran’s insistence that Israeli operations against Hezbollah were impeding a deal, President Trump berated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a tense June 1 call. Then, on June 3, Israel agreed to a full ceasefire with Lebanon and committed to withdraw its forces from certain geographic zones. However, there is no guarantee that Israel’s conditions for upholding the ceasefire—Lebanese forces filling the vacuum and Hezbollah halting its attacks—​will be met.

To discuss the latest developments and the potential path forward, JINSA hosted a webinar featuring JINSA Distinguished Fellow IDF MG (ret.) Yaakov Amidror, former National Security Advisor to Israel’s Prime Minister.

Blaise Misztal, JINSA’s Vice President for Policy, moderated the discussion.

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IDF MG (ret.) Yaakov Amidror IDF MG (ret.) Yaakov Amidror is a Distinguished Fellow at JINSA. Prior to joining JINSA, MG Amidror was the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of Israel, as well as the head of Israel’s National Security Council. MG (ret.) Amidror also has served as Director of Israel’s Intelligence Analysis Division. Click here to read full bio

Blaise Misztal Blaise Misztal is the Vice President for Policy at JINSA. Misztal previously was a Fellow at the Hudson Institute, and has held roles as the Executive Director of the Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States and Director of the National Security Program at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Click here to read full bio

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The post Webinar – The Fog of Ceasefire: Escalation and the Uncertainty Ahead appeared first on JINSA.