On the Iranian front, Israel did everything it could, and the achievements are significant, even if not decisive. But on Israel's northern border, it looks as though we are heading toward a historic missed opportunity. Instead of forcibly freeing the Lebanese state from Iranian control, including by targeting its leaders, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu folded under pressure from the US administration, yielded to Iran and entered negotiations with Beirut's puppet regime.

The three red lines Israel cannot give up on are uranium, centrifuges and the Strait of Hormuz. Any concession on even one of them in negotiations with Iran will, in the short term, lead to a third war.

Israel Hayom has learned that contacts and message exchanges between Israel and the Lebanese government continued for many months, for more than a year, and included coordination over dealings with Hezbollah. Since the start of the current conflict, the pace of the contacts has increased. A Lebanese source told Reuters that Beirut wants a temporary ceasefire in order to hold direct dialogue with Israel.

For years, Israel assumed the Palestinian demand for a right of return was little more than rhetoric. But behind it lies a coherent doctrine. A new book by Israel Hayom journalist Nadav Shragai sheds light on how that idea shaped events before, during and after the Hamas terrorist organization's massacre. Excerpts from the book are published here for the first time.

Relations between the Vatican and the US administration have come close to a public clash over the past month. While Secretary of War Pete Hegseth delivered military briefings infused with overtly religious language, the pope spoke out against the war. Tensions had been building for months and peaked in an extraordinary meeting at the Pentagon, where a senior US official hinted to the Vatican ambassador at a threat rooted in a 14th-century precedent.