When Israel carried out what Jerusalem described as a “preemptive strike” against Iran early Friday local time, it also capped a long-running foreign policy battle being waged within President Donald Trump‘s inner circle.
The winner was Fox News host and MAGA acolyte Mark Levin, who has repeatedly called for the Trump administration to abandon nuclear talks with Tehran and give Israel the green light to strike Iran.
The Context
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Thursday that the country is under “a special state of emergency” after the Iran strike and warned of potential drone and missile attacks against Israeli civilians.
An Israeli military official told Newsweek that the strikes were part of what’s been dubbed “Operation Rising Lion,” carried out in response to intelligence Israel says it has indicating Iran has enough material to produce up to 15 nuclear bombs.
The operation was said to involve dozens of strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities and military sites, commanders and personnel. Iranian state media confirmed later Thursday that General Hossein Salami, head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was killed in the strikes, along with at least four senior officials.
What To Know
Levin took a victory lap on Fox News’ eponymous show Hannity after Israel announced its strikes, telling host Sean Hannity: “The Iranians are about to get their asses kicked and it’s been coming since Jimmy Carter.”
“They think this is Joe Biden‘s administration, that they would get away, get nuclear weapons and then the world would sit there, wouldn’t know what to do about it,” he said, adding that Israel “is not going to sit there and take it.”
Iranian officials have repeatedly denied seeking a nuclear weapon, while Israel has neither confirmed nor denied already possessing nukes. In recent days, Iran has threatened to unveil a trove of documents allegedly related to Israel’s nuclear weapons program.
“Thank God we have Donald Trump as President of the United States,” Levin told Hannity on Thursday night. “Thank God Israel has Benjamin Netanyahu as the prime minister.”
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy who was in charge of the nuclear talks, was Levin’s biggest foil leading up to the strike.
The Mark Levin Show host has not only called Witkoff a “fifth column isolationist,” but also mocked Witkoff online, writing on X, formerly Twitter: “Nobody believes war is the only way. We wait with great interest to see the deal you’re negotiating with the warmonger Iranian terrorist regime.”
“In the meantime, rather than sloganeering against patriotic Americans who love our country, use your name-calling for the terrorist regime that has murdered Americans, tried to assassinate our president, chants ‘death to America,’ and has lied its way toward a nuclear bomb,” he added.
“There is zero credible intelligence that suggests Iran is anywhere near building a bomb, or has plans to. None,” former Fox News host Tucker Carlson posted to X.
According to Politico, Levin also had a private lunch with Trump on June 4, when he told the president that Iran was days from developing a nuclear weapon, contradicting U.S. intelligence.
Hours after the reported lunch, Levin received blowback from staunch isolationist Carlson, who wrote on X: “So why is Mark Levin once again hyperventilating about weapons of mass destruction? To distract you from the real goal, which is regime change — young Americans heading back to the Middle East to topple yet another government.”
What People Are Saying
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a statement Thursday: “Tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran. We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region.”
Rubio added: “Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense. President Trump and the Administration have taken all necessary steps to protect our forces and remain in close contact with our regional partners. Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel.”
Trump posted to Truth Social on Thursday: “We remain committed to a Diplomatic Resolution to the Iran Nuclear Issue! My entire Administration has been directed to negotiate with Iran. They could be a Great Country, but they first must completely give up hopes of obtaining a Nuclear Weapon. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Israel Defense Forces posted to X on Thursday: “The IDF launched a preemptive, precise, combined offensive to strike Iran’s nuclear program. Dozens of IAF jets completed the first stage that included strikes on dozens of military targets, including nuclear targets in different areas of Iran.”
The post continued, “Today, Iran is closer than ever to obtaining a nuclear weapon. Weapons of mass destruction in the hands of the Iranian regime are an existential threat to the State of Israel and to the wider world. The State of Israel has no choice but to fulfill the obligation to act in defense of its citizens and will continue to do so everywhere it is required to do so, as we have done in the past.”
The post With Israel Strike, Mark Levin Wins MAGA Battle Over Trump’s Iran Policy appeared first on Newsweek.
