Just minutes after Shabbat began in Israel, sirens sounded, sending Israelis back to their shelters to await the next salvo in their country’s new war with Iran.

Roughly 100 missiles were on their way from Iran, officials warned, teeing up a repeat of an April 2024 attack that marked the first direct exchange of fire between the two countries. Soon, projectiles fell across the country’s center, injuring dozens of people.

Less than 24 hours had passed since Israel launched a dramatic and apparently successful strike against Iran, pummeling nuclear sites in multiple cities and assassinating a number of top military and nuclear leaders. Israelis had learned about the attack, which leaders said could go on for days, when sirens sounded in the middle of the night.

All day, Israelis had stayed close to home in accordance with guidance from the IDF’s Home Front Command. Large gatherings were canceled, including Tel Aviv’s iconic Pride celebration, and many rabbis urged people to stay home from synagogue over Shabbat. But stores bustled and in cities along the coastline, families snuck out to the beach during a period of calm.

“The second they said we could leave the area close to a protected space we went with the kids to the sea,” Dalia Magnezi, a resident of Jaffa, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “It was fun. But I prepared them that if there is a siren what to do — to back against the wall.”

Magnezi’s family’s experience reflected a well known dynamic in Israel, of seeking to carry on with regular life even amid rising tensions and fears. Videos of neighbors dancing in their buildings’ bomb shelters appeared on social media. A baby was born in a hospital that had moved all of its operations underground. And Pride celebrants found other ways to party. 

“I just got back to the hotel from a spontaneous pool party that everybody remaining from the trip at the Sheraton put together,” Dillon Perez, in town from New York City on a Pride trip organized Jewish Federations of North America, said in the afternoon. “[A DJ] played pretty much all the songs that we would have heard at any of the Pride parties this weekend. We just did them at the pool.”

A picture posted on social media showed Caitlyn Jenner, the transgender U.S. celebrity who was selected to helm Tel Aviv Pride, drinking wine in a hotel bomb shelter. 

Beneath the bravado, though, unease had set in. The barrages of missiles ignited frightful scenes over central Israel, with explosions dotting the night sky and sending Israelis scurrying from their home safe rooms to more fortified bunkers in their buildings or neighborhoods.

The country’s airport was closed, with even its national carrier, El Al, famous for flying when other airlines will not, canceling all flights in the coming days and moving its fleet abroad. Anyone in the country was stuck. Anyone hoping to travel from overseas was stranded. 

Alerts told Israelis they could leave their safe rooms but should not travel far from them. Already, the country’s most influential rabbis had exhorted Israelis to follow the instructions to avoid large gatherings, indoor and outside, until at least 8 p.m. on Saturday, a period covering Shabbat.

“While communal prayer represents an ideal, preserving life takes precedence over Shabbat observance,” Rabbi David Stav, who chairs the Tzohar rabbinical organization, told Israel Hayom.

In the Diaspora, rabbis retooled their Shabbat plans to account for the wrenching scenes playing out in Israel. Some rewrote their sermons. Others announced that they would add new prayers and poems to their community’s liturgy, calling for peace, wisdom and divine protection for those endangered by the war and carrying it out.

At the Reform congregation Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan, Senior Rabbi Josh Davidson said that he would draw on the week’s Torah portion, which describes Israel’s foes being vanquished, to advocate against those who might criticize Israel’s preemptive attack.

“I think that Israel’s detractors will no doubt challenge the legitimacy of the strike as the actions of a misguided Israeli government with which they already disagree over the war in Gaza and Israel’s own domestic agenda. And I want to strongly caution against such cynicism,” said Davidson. But he added, “I’ll say that even while I recognize the legitimacy of Israel’s military action, nonetheless, I pray it end quickly.”

Soon after, Iran sent a fresh barrage of missiles toward Israel. Sirens blared anew and the sky lit up again with explosions. It was 1:30 a.m.

Before Israel struck Iran’s nuclear program, tensions were showing in U.S. lawmakers’ attitudes toward Israel.

Democrats were increasingly critical of Israel’s war conduct in Gaza, with only a single Democratic senator reliably taking Israel’s side in public discourse.

An anti-interventionist bent within the Republican Party, meanwhile, was putting pressure on the party’s long-reliable support for Israel.

But in the hours after the strike, many of those tensions receded — though did not vanish. Recent critics of Israel expressed support for the strike and for aiding in Israel’s defense against retaliation. And few advocates of a hands-off foreign policy were openly making that case. Still, some on the extremes in each party continued to press their views.

Here’s what you need to know about how U.S. lawmakers are responding to the strike and the resulting turmoil in the Middle East.

Much of the Republican caucus in both Congressional chambers exulted in the Israeli attacks and their ostensible success. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson defended the attack, posting a tweet on X declaring: “Israel IS right — and has a right — to defend itself!” Senate Majority Leader John Thune warned Iran that it “should heavily consider the consequences before considering any action against Americans in the region.” The Republican Jewish Coalition enthusiastically reposted GOP members praising Israel, and suggested that Trump was in on the planning.

Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Congressional X feed told the tale of a growing number of Republicans who favor staying out of foreign wars, but also take pride in their devoted support of the president. “Thank you President Trump!” Greene tweeted shortly before the strikes, quoting a Trump social media post expressing commitment to a diplomatic resolution. She added that “the American people aren’t interested in foreign wars.”

Her next tweet, posted Friday morning, was more muted. “I’m praying for peace. Peace. That’s my official position,” she said. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who has increasingly broken with Trump, stuck to his isolationist bona fides, tweeted: “No war with Iran. The Neocons’ latest plan must be opposed.”

The top two Democratic congressional leaders stressed the need to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, while also emphasizing the need for a diplomatic path forward. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both of New York, stressed the need for a diplomatic solution, with Schumer also stating that “the United States’ commitment to Israel’s security and defense must be ironclad as they prepare for Iran’s response.”

But several other leading Democratic senators criticized Israel’s decision to strike. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement, “Israel’s strikes against Iran represent an escalation that is deeply concerning and will inevitably invite counterattacks. This risks not only U.S. negotiations with Iran, but the safety of American service members, diplomats, their families and ex-pats around the region.” Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee issued a statement that accused Israel of endangering U.S. forces in the region, calling the attacks “a reckless escalation that risks igniting regional violence.”

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, who serves on both committees, issued a statement criticizing Israel for striking now, “knowing high level diplomatic discussions between the United States and Iran are scheduled for this weekend.” And Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a top member of the caucus, sounded a similar theme arguing on X that Netanyahu was trying to “destroy” diplomacy. “How do we know?” Murphy tweeted. “They reportedly targeted and killed Iran’s chief negotiator with Trump.”

Pro-Israel Democrats and the Democratic Majority for Israel posted close to 20 statements in Israel’s support. “Our commitment to Israel must be absolute and I fully support this attack,” Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania tweeted, adding, “Keep wiping out Iranian leadership and the nuclear personnel. We must provide whatever is necessary—military, intelligence, weaponry—to fully back Israel in striking Iran.” (Later, he joked on social media, as he has before, about Israel’s successful beeper attack on Hezbollah last year.)

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schulz of Florida, too, made the case against Iran. “I stand firmly behind Israel’s right to defend itself. Iran has long funded terror groups who killed Americans and has moved to develop nuclear weapons to aim at Israel,” she tweeted. ”If Israel’s strikes set back Iran’s nuclear program, we’ll all be safer.”

And Rep. Richie Torres of New York, on his personal X account, rebuffed those who immediately called for deescalation. “The charge of ‘escalation’ is reserved exclusively for Israel, not for a threshold nuclear power openly calling for its destruction,” he wrote. “The double standard is unrelenting.”

Even as many Democratic lawmakers criticized Israel, the Jewish Democratic Council of America criticized Secretary of State Marco Rubio for insufficient support of Israel’s actions. The first official U.S. statement in the wake of the attack, by Rubio, did not praise Israel’s success and emphatically sought distance, calling it “unilateral” and saying that it did not coordinate with Israel. (By contrast, the Biden administration praised Israel’s attacks on Iran last year and emphasized coordination.)

Halie Soifer, the CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, another pro-Israel Democratic aligned group, posted criticism of Rubio for distancing himself from Israel in his initial statement – and got slammed by Republicans accusing her of hypocrisy and progressives who wondered why she was embracing Israel’s actions.

In an interview, she would not comment directly on criticisms of Israel from Democratic lawmakers, but said she agreed with them that diplomacy was the best path forward. She refused to accept that Trump’s post-facto enthusiasm for Israel’s strikes was anything but cynical, noting a number of actions he has taken in recent weeks that appear to have cut out Israel, including a visit to the region that included Qatar, which backs Hamas, and not Israel, and a deal with the Houthi militias in Yemen that spared U.S. targets from their attack – but left out Israel.

“If there was any doubt about this President’s support of Israel, it should have been clear to all last night when Secretary Rubio, put out a callous statement that essentially indicated that an end of America’s historic support of Israel,” she said.

This is a developing story.

Multiple Iranian missiles fell in and around Tel Aviv on Friday night and Saturday morning amid multiple barrage responding to Israel’s early-morning attack on Iran’s nuclear program.

Hundreds of missiles were sent toward Israel, officials said, and several appeared to strike despite the country’s air defense systems. Interceptors also generated explosions near the ground as they fired to shoot missiles out of the sky. Sirens sounded across the entire country.

Dozens of people were injured in the first round of missiles, some severely. Videos showing the impacts circulated on social media but many were deleted quickly amid exhortations by Israeli leaders to shield location data that could aid in the Iranian attack.

The impacts came as Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, gave a televised address. “Today, we must give a strong response to the evil, despicable, terrorist Zionist identity,” he tweeted simultaneously. “God willing, we will respond with strength, and will show no mercy to them.”

Israeli authorities had warned that it was possible that some missiles and drones could evade the country’s air defense systems, which have largely deflected missiles sent on earlier occasions by Iran and more recently and regularly by Iran’s proxies in the Middle East.

Israel was the first target of retaliatory attacks by Iran after Israel launched a massive military campaign against its nuclear program on Friday. But security officials are warning that Israelis and Jews abroad could also face consequences from the beleaguered regime.

Iran has a long track record of sowing violence against Jewish and Israeli targets abroad, including over the last two years as its proxies in the Middle East have battled Israel on the ground.

Among the many examples: Swedish teens who tried to attack the Israeli embassy in Stockholm last year were acting on Iranian instructions, Swedish police said, while authorities cited Iran links in a shooting at a German synagogue and planned attacks at Jewish sites in Cyprus in recent years.

On Thursday, as the Iran attack began, Jewish security groups immediately began reiterating calls for vigilance, while emphasizing that they did not have information about specific threats. And Jewish sites including schools and synagogues were once again shoring up and adjusting their security plans to reflect the heightened risk, even as uncertainty prevailed over Iran’s remaining capacity to guide attacks abroad.

The Secure Community Network urged Jewish communities in North America to “remain on heightened alert and maintain robust security measures” in a post on X.

“SCN stresses that, while there is currently no credible or specific threat against the Jewish community, this development occurs amid an already intensified threat environment,” the post read.

“This environment is fueled in part by Iranian-linked actors, designated foreign terrorist organizations, violent extremists, and politically motivated groups – entities which continue to incite violence globally, including against Jewish civilians and communal facilities, often under the pretext of perceived grievances related to Israel’s war with Hamas and related military or political developments,” the post continued.

The Community Security Service also called on the U.S. Jewish community to increase “situational awareness,” “report any suspicious behavior to law enforcement,” “consider connecting with law enforcement” and review security protocols ahead of events in a post on x.

Iran has a particular track record of exacting revenge on Jewish targets abroad after suffering military setbacks on its home turf.

In one of the most searing examples, after Israel assassinated the secretary-general of Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy in Lebanon, in early 1992, Hezbollah responded by bombing the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires the next month, killing 29.

Two years later, 84 people died when the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires was bombed, in an attack also attributed to Hezbollah with Iran’s backing. (In a twist, Argentina’s current president, Javier Milei, has pushed to hold Iran responsible and is in Israel now after receiving an award in part for those efforts.)

Iran was seen as having stepped up its targeting of Israeli sites abroad after the 2020 assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the nuclear scientist that western intelligence agencies believed to be behind Iran’s nuclear weapons program, in a daring operation widely attributed to Israel.

In 2023, the Jewish Chronicle of London reported that a source had conveyed that Iranian officials had begun “mapping” Jewish targets abroad to prepare for potential attacks. (The report came from a Jewish woman who claimed to have infiltrated the Iranian regime and has not been matched by other publications.)

Iran’s strategies have shifted over time. Last year, the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism reported that Iran had begun using existing criminal networks rather than developing its own terror cells abroad. In one case, German media reported that a drug trafficker wanted in Europe had been given sanctuary in Iran — in return for helping plan attacks on Jewish and Israeli targets.

The attacks abroad were seen as falling under the mandate of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a military division that the United States considers a terrorist group. The IRGC regularly calls for Israel’s destruction, and it backs terrorist groups and insurgents around the world with money, training and guidance.

The IRGC’s leader for the last six years, Hossein Salami, was among the Iranian officials killed in the first wave of Israel’s attack on Friday morning.

In ordering a preemptive strike aimed at significantly setting back Iran’s nuclear program, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was following in the footsteps of two of his predecessors. Menachem Begin ordered an attack in 1981 that destroyed Iraq’s nuclear reactor. And a quarter-century later, Ehud Olmert gave the green light in 2007 to destroy a nuclear reactor in its last stages of construction in northeastern Syria.

But Israel was not in fact the first country in the Middle East to take aim at an enemy’s nuclear facilities.

That distinction belongs to Iran.

On Sept. 30, 1980, just eight days after Iraq invaded Iran, Tehran ordered a surprise airstrike of its own on the same Iraqi nuclear facilities that Israel would destroy a little more than eight months later. Dubbed Operation Scorch Sword, the attack featured four Iranian Phantom jets and setback construction of the nuclear reactor for several months.

Iraq claimed the French-built reactor was being built strictly for civilian purposes. While some experts before and after the strikes backed up this view, both the Israelis and Iranians believed Iraq was clandestinely committed to developing nuclear weapons and starting to take steps in that direction.

The combination of Iraq’s military aggression and intelligence about its nuclear activities convinced the new Iranian regime to act in 1980. Fast forward almost 45 years, and Israeli leaders are essentially making the same case for their country’s attack on Iran, insisting Tehran was close to “the point of no return” in its pursuit of a nuclear weapon.

“The Iranian regime has been working for decades to obtain a nuclear weapon, the Israeli military said in a statement. “The world has attempted every possible diplomatic path to stop it, but the regime has refused to stop.”

This week’s Israeli strikes come the same day a United Nations watchdog group announced that Iran had not been abiding by its earlier promises to constrain its nuclear program — spurring a promise by Iran to ramp up the program even more.

President Donald Trump is pressing forward in seeking a nuclear deal with Iran following a massive wave of Israeli attacks on the country’s nuclear program.

Trump, who has built his public persona around a verve for making deals, addressed his now-weakened negotiating partner in a post on Truth Social on Friday morning, several hours after the Israelis began carrying out a daring and apparently successful mission in Iran that took aim at the places and personnel involved in the country’s effort to develop a nuclear weapon.

Trump said in the post he had warned Iran that not making a deal would “be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told.”

He also implied that U.S. weapons had been used in the attack and that the United States would continue to supply Israel with weapons to attack Iran. Israel’s perceived need for U.S. bombs that could penetrate underground had been seen as an obstacle to an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program.

“The United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR,” Trump said in his post, adding, “Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come – And they know how to use it.”

Trump declined to comment on whether the United States had played a role in the attack in an interview with ABC News on Friday morning. But he praised the attack and warned of more.

“I think it’s been excellent,” he said in the interview. “We gave them a chance and they didn’t take it. They got hit hard, very hard. They got hit about as hard as you’re going to get hit. And there’s more to come. A lot more.”

Trump had said when opening talks with Iran in April, in a move that was seen as against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s preferences, that if the talks failed, there would be severe reprisals. The United States would not be led into war, Trump cautioned, but would head there willingly if needed.

On Friday morning, as Israel launched another wave of attacks, Trump urged Iran to come to the negotiating table — saying in all caps in his Truth Social post that the cost of not doing so would be high.

“There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end,” Trump wrote. “Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire. No more death, no more destruction, JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini, did not offer any public acquiescence on Friday. Instead, he posted a threat of his own on X: “With this crime, the Zionist regime has prepared for itself a bitter, painful fate, which it will definitely see.”

The last time Israel hit Iranian targets, in October 2024, the White House expressed understanding and conveyed that the attack had been coordinated.

This time, the statement issued by the U.S. secretary of state in the immediate aftermath of the attacks smacked of distancing.

“Tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran,” Marco Rubio said late Thursday in a statement.

“We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region,” he said. “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.”

The differences between the two responses underscore a question that has loomed since Donald Trump retook the White House in January: Will he come to Israel’s defense as Joe Biden did?

That question became pressing on Friday morning as Iran sent drones toward Israel in the first wave of its anticipated response. The IDF said it was working to shoot the drones down.

Trump said shortly beforehand that the United States would respond to protect its own interests and Israel if Iran retaliated. Israeli officials said they believed that the United States was working to reform a coalition that helped defend Israel against Iranian missiles last year. But both the terms and tenor of the response were starkly different.

Back in October, Israel was planning a retaliatory attack after Iran sent missiles toward Israel, which U.S. forces helped knock out of the air. As signs of an imminent Israeli attack heightened, the Biden Pentagon posted photos of combat aircraft landing in Germany, and John Kirby, then the National Security Council spokesman, addressed them during a press conference.

“Our commitment to Israel’s security remains ironclad, and that means, as appropriate, making force changes posture that we think need to be made to help Israel defend itself,” Kirby said then.

After the attack, a senior Biden official made clear that the United States was not directly involved and warned Iran not to retaliate against U.S. targets — but the official also said that the Biden White House was pleased with Israel’s action. Instead of declaring Israel’s attack “unilateral,” the official emphasized coordination.

“The president and his national security team, of course, worked with the Israelis over recent weeks to encourage Israel to conduct a response that was targeted and proportional with low risk of civilian harm, and that appears to have been precisely what transpired this evening,” the official said then.

Trump offered little in the way of support before or after Israel’s attack on Iranian nuclear sites early Friday morning.

Beforehand, he conveyed openly that he did not want it to happen. He began pulling personnel out of the region, not sending them in.

“As long as I think there is [the prospect of] an agreement, I don’t want them going in because that would blow it,” Trump told reporters at the White House hours before the attack, referring to his negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.

Hours before the attack, he reiterated the position. “We remain committed to a Diplomatic Resolution to the Iran Nuclear Issue!” Trump said on Truth Social, the social media platform he owns, hours before Israel launched the attacks. “My entire Administration has been directed to negotiate with Iran.”

Even after the attack, he said he hoped Iran would return to the negotiating table.

The situations were different in key ways: October’s attack was a retaliation, and Friday’s was preemptive. Biden asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to target nuclear sites or oil refineries to avoid an escalation, and Netanyahu complied. Timing was also key: Vice President Kamala Harris, days away from an election in October, was eager to tamp down questions about her commitment to Israel.

Perhaps the biggest change, however, is in who occupies the White House. The Israelis preferred Trump in last year’s U.S. election, believing him to be a stauncher ally as support for Israel appeared to be on the declined in the Democratic Party.

Netanyahu started the second Trump presidency projecting public confidence in his belief that Trump would get out of his way in a way that Biden, who sought to moderate Israel’s conduct of the Gaza war, would not.

“When Israel and the United States don’t work together, that creates problems,” Netanyahu said in February at his first meeting with Trump this presidency. “When the other side sees daylight between us — and occasionally, in the last few years, to put it mildly, they saw daylight, then it’s more difficult.”

Such barely veiled digs at Biden infuriated Biden administration alumni. Biden flew to Israel in the days after Hamas massacred Israels on Oct. 7, 2023 – the first president who visited Israel in war time. He stood by the country as increasing numbers of Democrats recoiled at Israel’s war conduct.

Trump appears to have given Netanyahu much of the carte blanche in Gaza he had sought from Biden. But Iran is a different story.

Insiders recognized prior to the election that Trump’s famous fickleness and aversion to war could pose challenges for Israel, and signs of daylight between Trump and Netanyahu have piled up in the five months since Trump reentered the White House.

Netanyahu was visibly taken aback on April 7 at his second Oval Office meeting with Trump, when the president announced, “We’re having direct talks with Iran,” which were to commence a few days hence.

Trump loathes intervention: The Gaza conflict is one Israel can handle by itself. War with Iran, with multiple U.S. interests in the region susceptible to Iranian attack and with Israel’s expectation of U.S. backing, is not in his playbook.

Shira Efron, the research director of the Israel Policy Forum who has advised a number of Israeli ministries, said in an interview before the attacks that Israeli officials have genuinely been taken aback by Trump’s coolness on the Iran issue.

“This was the sentiment here when Trump was elected, when Netanyahu visited, when he came back from Washington visit number one,” she said. “I mean, this whole thing was like, ‘Oh, the Americans are with us, and that’s it. We’re going to do whatever we want.’ And slowly, we’re seeing that it’s not necessarily happening,”

Israeli officials would have been wiser to pay attention to how markedly different the second Trump presidency was from the first, Efron said. Gone were the hawks who guided his hand then, and those hawks who made it in this time around were out within months, chief among them his national security adviser, Mike Waltz. One factor in Waltz’s removal was a report — denied by Waltz — that he was coordinating closely with Netanyahu on Iran.

“Others who have listened carefully to what Trump said and to trends in the United States and MAGA, and clearly this idea that they don’t want a war,” she said. Trump’s vice president, J.D. Vance, is an isolationist. His director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, this week posted reminiscences of a visit to Hiroshima, the Japanese city devastated by a U.S. bomb widely believed to have ended World War II, with a thinly veiled warning.

“Warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers,” she said.

Tucker Carlson, who is close to Trump’s son, Donald Jr., and who has advised Trump on hiring, last week took aim at his fellow broadcaster, Mark Levin, who has been outspoken in advocating against any diplomatic concessions to Iran.

“Why is Mark Levin once again hyperventilating about weapons of mass destruction?” Carlson said on June 4 on X. “To distract you from the real goal, which is regime change — young Americans heading back to the Middle East to topple yet another government.”

Pro-Israel Trump acolytes say they believe he will at the end of the day stick by the country, recalling his far-reaching Israel policies in his first term: moving the embassy to Jerusalem recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, freezing out the Palestinians and pulling out of the first Iran nuclear deal.

“Trump has never identified with the isolationists,” Levin said on X just hours before Israel launched strikes. “Their projection changes nothing. He said repeatedly Iran must never get a nuclear weapon. Those who voted for him heard him. He was and is abundantly clear.  What did the isolationists think he meant? He’s not one of them. He never has been. His first term further demonstrated this.”

But other Israel-watchers said Trump, who has clashed over the years with Netanyahu, whom he does not see as sufficiently loyal, could turn on Israel in a way Biden, with his decades of affection for the country, never would. Republican support for Israel is falling, polls show, but that might not even matter.

“For Trump, alliances really mean nothing,” said Barbara Slavin, a fellow at the Stimson Center who has written extensively on the U.S.-Iran relationship. “He has always seen Israel as a tool, for his own interests, political and otherwise.”

Trump is no longer seeking reelection, she said. “He doesn’t need Israel anymore, you know, he really doesn’t.”

Israel’s strike on Iran starting early Friday morning followed a dizzying 24 hours in which the international community rebuked Iran for its nuclear malfeasance, Iranian officials said they would retaliate by accelerating nuclearization and signs piled up of a potentially imminent strike — along with warnings that Israel could be simply rattling sabers at a pivotal moment.

In the hours before the attack, experts in the region said they thought Israel’s aggressive posture — which prompted the United States to begin moving some personnel out of the Middle East — could have been meant to extract concessions from Iran in its nuclear talks with the Trump administration. They noted that while tensions are rising between Iran and the West over Iran’s failure to abide by past nuclear agreements, no one is yet taking concrete measures against Iran.

But the situation was fluid enough to worry longtime observers of the region. The threat of military pressure can take on a life of its own, Shira Efron, the research director for the Israel Policy Forum who has advised Israeli governments on defense issues, said before Israel made its move.

“We can argue that the Israeli kinetic threat to attack Iran, could be pressuring the sides to come to an agreement” that Israel favors, which would be the total dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program, she said. The problem with such pressure is that Israel can’t control the outcomes, she said.

“I would advise Israel to sit aside, let the U.S. try to take their time in terms of trying to reach an agreement,” she said. She switched to Hebrew to cite a rabbinic saying: “The work of the righteous is done by others.”

President Donald Trump on Thursday said talks with Iran to forge a deal on its nuclear capabilities were still ongoing. His top envoy negotiating conflict de-escalation, Steve Witkoff, was due in Oman early next week to continue talks with Iran.

“We remain committed to a Diplomatic Resolution to the Iran Nuclear Issue!” Trump said on Truth Social, the social media platform he owns, on Thursday. “My entire Administration has been directed to negotiate with Iran.”

He’d said the same thing earlier in the day. “I’d love to avoid the conflict,” Trump said at a press conference, asked about the prospects of an Israeli attack. “Iran’s going to have to negotiate a little bit tougher, meaning, they’re going to have to give us some things they’re not willing to give us right now.”

Witkoff is seeking a deal that would allow Iran and other countries access to uranium enriched to non-weaponization levels at an offshore facility. Iran is insisting that such a facility be in Iran.

Trump’s oft-stated lack of enthusiasm for military action appeared to put a cramp on any Israeli plans to strike Iran; Israel by most estimations needs U.S. backup to carry out an effective strike.

But Israel has increasingly been seeking to show that it can act alone. And Israeli officials have told their U.S. counterparts that Israel is ready to strike, CBS reported on Thursday, citing unnamed officials.

Asked about the imminence of an Israeli strike, Trump said, “I don’t want to say ‘imminent,’ but it looks like it’s something that could very well happen.”

Here’s what you need to know about where the situation stood before Israel shook it all up with its preemptive strike.

What was happening in terms of pressure on Iran and its nuclear program?

A majority of member nations of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, on Thursday voted to censure Iran for its noncompliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, of which it is a signatory. Iran, the IAEA said, was not allowing inspectors to reach key sites.

That could lead member nations to refer Iran’s noncompliance to the U.N. Security Council, which could snap back sanctions suspended in 2015, when the United States, under President Barack Obama, brokered a sanctions-relief-for-nuclear-rollback deal between much of the world and Iran.

Trump exited the deal in 2018, saying it was worthless, but a number of nations are still parties. Some, especially in Europe, are itching to reimpose the sanctions. European nations, eager a decade ago to come to a deal with Iran, are furious with the country for allying with Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. Britain, France and Germany have set a deadline of August for Iran to comply, or they will start the snapback process.

Iran immediately bared its teeth, saying it would enhance its enrichment capabilities, launching a new site and replacing aging centrifuges.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has no choice but to respond to this politically motivated resolution,” the foreign ministry said. “Additional measures are also being planned and will be announced in due course.”

Separately, Iran’s defense minister told reporters that if a breakdown in talks results in a conflict Iran “will target all U.S. bases in the host countries.”

Trump on Wednesday confirmed that he ordered the removal of U.S. non-essential personnel within striking range of Iranian missiles. “They are being moved out because it could be a dangerous place, we’ll see what happens,” Trump said, stopped by reporters as he entered the Kennedy Center. “We’ve given notice to move out and we’ll see what happens.”

Earlier this week, CENTCOM commander Gen. Erik Kurilla told Congress he had laid out for Trump and his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, a “wide range” of military actions should talks fail.

But no one had referred the IAEA censure to the Security Council, so sanctions snapbacks were not yet on the table before the attack began.

So it looks like war. Is the United States involved?

Trump has set multiple deadlines for a deal, but these have come and gone without consequence. One expires this week which may explain the order to pull non-essential personnel from the region and Kurilla’s tough talk in Congress.

But in their most recent call on Monday, Trump told Netanyahu he prefers to wait out talks, Axios reported. And without U.S. backing, Israeli strike options have long been seen to be limited.

Israel would likely need American air cover in a strike on nuclear facilities, powerful U.S. bombs required to breach nuclear facilities buried deep beneath mountains, and American military assistance to repel a counterattack.

Israeli officials immediately put the entire country on high alert for a counterattack early Friday, warning of a barrage of missiles targeting civilians that could be expected.

The Biden administration rallied to Israel’s side when Israel struck Iran last year in retaliation for Iranian backing for its enemies in its war against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah and for an intense barrage of Iranian missiles on Israel.

The same pattern is not guaranteed under Trump, said Joel Rubin, a national security analyst who was Obama’s top liaison with Congress during the Iran deal. He noted that Trump recently brokered a deal with Houthi militias in Yemen that ended strikes on U.S. ships traversing adjacent waters — but allowed the militias to keep striking Israel.

“The debate inside [Israeli] military circles is, if Israel were to strike without American support, A, would it be effective in any meaningful way? And B, what would Iran’s reaction be regionally?” said Rubin. “And based upon the fact that Trump was willing to walk away from protecting Israel from Houthi missiles, I think there’s a reason to believe that he would not come to Israel’s defense, like Joe Biden did.”

Walla, an Israeli online news site, reported on Thursday evening that the Trump administration relayed to Netanyahu that it would not directly assist Israel in an attack on Iran. It was not clear if indirect assistance, such as refueling planes, was off the table, said the news site, which quoted two American officials.

It was unclear in the immediately aftermath of the attack what kind of strike Israel had conducted. Jason Brodsky, the policy director at United Against a Nuclear Iran, a group that for years has been advocating for the country’s denuclearization, said beforehand that Israel could carry out a limited strike that could send a message.

“What they might do and what Trump might be more comfortable with, instead of a strike taking out the entirety of the nuclear program, they might aim for a more limited strike to send a message to the Iranians that, you know, ‘this is what we’re capable of. It’s going to get worse for you if you continue to reject our overtures,’” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is otherwise politically unpopular, may nonetheless have the backing of a nation still rattled by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre of hundreds of people inside Israel, which sparked the current Gaza war.

“That triggered Israelis to be much more risk ready,” Brodsky said, adding that Israel may be emboldened by its successes in decapitating the leadership of Hamas and Hezbollah, Brodsky said. For years, Hezbollah’s massive presence in Lebanon was a deterrent to Israeli action against the terrorist group’s principal backer, Iran.

“This is a unique window of opportunity for Israel, given that Hezbollah is so defanged,” he said.

What happens next?

Israel’s attack is likely to do damage to Iran’s military program, but none of its previous strikes have been seen as making substantial inroads against Iran’s nuclear program.

And Iran is unlikely to back down from opposing total denuclearization, said Barbara Slavin, a fellow at  the Stimson Center whose expertise is in the U.S.-Iran relationship. Non-weaponized nuclear power is considered a national prerogative.

“This is really wrapped up in the whole notion of independence, which was so central to the Iranian Revolution, and it’s one of the few aspects of the revolution that I still think has resonance for ordinary Iranians who are otherwise furious with their regime,” she said.

Netanyahu’s sine qua non has been total denuclearization, and Israel and its American backers will not back away from it soon.

“Iran cannot be trusted to abide by international norms,” the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerhouse lobby which led advocacy against Obama’s Iran deal, said in a tweet. “No enrichment. Complete dismantlement.”

Mark Dubowitz, the CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, an influential think tank that has advocated for Iran’s containment, said removing enrichment capabilities was a must.

“The real sunset clause is January, 2029, when Trump leaves office,” he said in a text message. “If Iran keeps its enrichment [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei will wait him out and sprint for the bomb when American power looks weak again. And let’s be honest: The next president, Republican or Democrat, won’t scare him nearly as much as Trump does.”

The problem for Iran regime opponents is that they are no longer preeminent in the Trump administration, as they were in Trump’s first term. Trump has in recent weeks sacked an array of Iran hawks from top National Security Council positions, and leans toward the isolationism embraced by his vice president, J.D. Vance.

“They’re not driving the bus, but they have an influence,” said Trita Parsi, the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, a leading think tank that advocates against military intervention. “They’re not in the lead any longer, because on fundamental issues, Trump sees that they’re not on the same page.”

Nothing could have emphasized the point more than when Israeli fighter jets lifted off early Friday morning, flying to Iran to stage an attack in direct contravention of Trump’s preferences.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Israel announced that it has launched a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities and has warned Israelis to prepare for a potential counterattack.

“Following the State of Israel’s preemptive strike against Iran, a missile and drone attack against the State of Israel and its civilian population is expected in the immediate future,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. Sirens blared across the country, telling Israelis to seek shelter.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had chosen to strike because of intelligence that he said showed Iran was preparing a nuclear bomb imminently. He said the operation could take several days.

“We struck at the heart of Iran’s nuclear enrichment program,” he said in a videotaped statement. “We struck at the heart of Iran’s nuclear weaponization program. We targeted Iran’s main enrichment facility in Natanz. We targeted Iran’s leading nuclear scientists working on an Iranian bomb. We also struck at the heart of Iran’s ballistic missile program.”

The development came early Friday morning Israel time and followed several days of increasing tensions, during which the United States pulled some personnel out of the region and U.S. President Donald Trump told Netanyahu not to strike because he preferred seeking a deal with Iran to constrain its nuclear ambitions.

Trump’s top negotiator who had been working to strike such a deal, Steve Witkoff, reportedly warned Senate Republicans last week that an Iranian response to an Israeli strike could result in mass civilian casualties in Israel.

Last year, Israel struck military facilities within Iran and Iran responded with a barrage of missiles that Israel mostly shot down with the help of its allies, including the United States.

Walla, an Israeli online news site, reported on Thursday evening that the Trump administration relayed to Netanyahu that it would not directly assist Israel in an attack on Iran. It was not clear if indirect assistance, such as refueling planes, was off the table, said the news site, which quoted two American officials.

Nobody puts Brooklyn in a corner.

The heyday of the Jewish Catskills may have come and gone, but this summer, New Yorkers have the chance to party Borscht Belt-style — without time-traveling or enduring a long, traffic-y drive on Route 17. 

On Tuesday, June 17, The Neighborhood: An Urban Center for Jewish Life, is bringing the spirit of the Borscht Belt to Brooklyn with “Catskills, BK: Dirtier Dancing,” a rooftop party at the Moxy Hotel in Williamsburg. 

The evening — which is partially inspired by “Dirty Dancing,” the 1987 hit film that takes place at Kellerman’s, a fictional Borscht Belt resort, in the summer of 1963 — will feature live klezmer and swing music played by a big band led by clarinetist Michael Winograd, DJ sets, a “make-your-own egg cream station” from the Brooklyn Seltzer Museum and a drag show.

There will also be “thematic” cocktails and food — think latkes, bagels and the like — from Chef Eli Buliskeria, who’s the executive chef at the Moxy Williamsburg (which is also home to Mesiba, the Israeli restaurant that lives up to its name, which means “party” in Hebrew). 

“We wanted to really think about something that felt like summer, and Jewish, and the Borscht Belt is that, right?” said Rebecca Guber, the founding director of the Neighborhood, about the origins of the event. “We’re harkening back to a certain nostalgia, but also trying to make it feel part of Brooklyn. And then bringing in a movie [“Dirty Dancing”] that we feel really embodies that time and is still fresh and funny and awesome.”

Guber’s love of the Jewish Catskills is an authentic one — she and her family summer at Rosmarin’s Bungalow Colony, which is one of the region’s last remaining bungalow colonies geared toward secular Jews. “I feel extremely close to this community,” she said.

Roughly 90 miles north of New York City, New York’s Catskill Mountains became an extremely popular vacation destination for Jewish families in the mid-20th century. In its prime, the Catskills boasted some 500 hotels and resorts that catered to mostly Jewish New Yorkers fleeing the hot and crowded city. 

The Borscht Belt, as the region came to be known, was famous for its generous servings of American and Ashkenazi-inspired fare, as well for its legendary entertainment, helping launch the careers of legends like Mel Brooks, Sid Caesar, Danny Kaye and Joan Rivers.

As such, Tuesday’s party — which is presented in partnership with FLAMINGGG, which creates “intentionally Jewish nightlife experience for queer adult Jews,” the Borscht Belt Museum and the Brooklyn Seltzer Museum — will include entertainment, too. 

There will be games of the sorts that were played at Borscht Belt resorts — think “Simon Says” and conga lines — a vintage photo booth, and dancers who will recreate “key scenes” from “Dirty Dancing,” Gruber said. 

“In the Borscht Belt era, Jews weren’t the only ones who needed a place to go and weren’t allowed in mainstream vacation [spots],” Gruber said. “The Catskills were home to other marginalized groups as well, including Black and Cuban and Puerto Rican communities … In a certain way, I think that is showing the allyship that was happening then, and now.”

Gruber added that organizers were “especially inspired” by Casa Susanna, a 1960s destination in the Catskills’ Greene County for cross-dressing men and transgender women. Being Pride Month, partygoers can expect a “queer twist” on some “Dirty Dancing”-inspired activities. 

As with many events hosted by the Neighborhood, Guber expects “a really multi-generational crowd” at the party, and is optimistic that the “welcomingness” of the Borscht Belt will translate to a Williamsburg rooftop. 

Will you have “the time of your life”? There’s only one way to find out!

Tickets to “Catskills, BK: Dirtier Dancing” at the Moxy Williamsburg (353 Bedford Ave.) start at $50 and include entertainment, nosh and one drink. Click here for tickets and more information.