The US is preparing to invest over $3.5 billion to restore its arsenal following operations connected to Israel, Bloomberg reported. Budget files completed by mid-May and reviewed by Bloomberg show allocations both for replacing interceptors – including at least $1 billion for RTX-produced missiles used against Iranian strikes – and for tasks such as radar upkeep, naval repair work, and munitions transport. Nearly all US-specific expenditures are labeled as "emergency budget requests."

The plan is tied to the 2024 Israeli Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, which set aside $14 billion to rebuild US stockpiles and expand Israel's interceptor supply. According to Bloomberg, the Pentagon said these expenses cover missions by US Central Command either responding to "the situation in Israel" or to hostile activity from it, including combat "executed at the request of or in coordination with Israel for the defense of Israeli territory, personnel or assets during attacks by Iran" or allied groups.

The documentation cites US actions during Iran's April 2024 attack, which included more than 110 ballistic missiles, 30-plus cruise missiles, and over 150 drones. Bloomberg noted that the replenishment requests, which date back to late 2023, are distinct from the $4.2 billion in weapons already supplied to Israel from October 2023 through May 2025, as tracked by the Center for International Policy in an Aug. 7 report.

The largest single line item is about $1 billion to replace RTX's Standard Missile interceptors, especially the advanced "SM-3 IB Threat Upgrade" model costing $9 million to $12 million each. These were first launched from US Navy ships during the April 2024 missile barrages. Bloomberg also reported that $1.4 million was requested for a special flight mission that delivered fresh SM-3 IB interceptors to replace expended rounds.

In June, the USS Arleigh Burke and USS The Sullivans fired SM-3s to protect Israel, a US official said. A separate official told Bloomberg that a US Army unit in the area simultaneously deployed THAAD interceptors against Iranian missiles.

The second-largest request is $204 million for Lockheed Martin's THAAD interceptors, which cost about $12.7 million each to produce. Another $9.2 million is sought for delayed maintenance of the THAAD TPY-2 radar, requiring replacement of eight power engines and alternators. Budget files further describe the radar costs as stemming from an "unplanned THAAD deployment" at a new site, in addition to the unit the Pentagon previously confirmed deploying to Israel last October.

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A new animated documentary short film on the Netflix streaming service tells the remarkable tale of a group of German Jews who fled Nazi Germany and signed up to serve in the US military. Instead of exacting their revenge, though, they were sent to a secret military base near Washington where they were told to keep Nazi prisoners of war happy.

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Arno Mayer thought he was on the side that was going to "beat the s**t out the Germans," he explains in the newly released Netflix documentary Camp Confidential: America's Secret Nazis.

Peter Weiss also expected to do battle but instead was sent to something called PO Box1142. The soldiers realized they would not be sent to Europe, but a military installation near Washington that looked like a club and had tennis courts and a swimming pool. As Weiss described it, "It didn't seem real."

In the 36-minute documentary short, directed by Daniel Sivan and Mor Loushy, footage of the men being interviewed is juxtaposed with animated re-enactments. The soldiers learned they would have to obtain information on German rocket systems as part of a top-secret mission.

Rudolph Bins noted the Germans looked like they had just left the battlefield, with no other clothes. He said the Germans has come from every unit, including some SS officers.

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"It was not the most comfortable feeling," says Henry Kolm. "Some of them were real Nazis, and they might have killed you on the spot if they could. You know, I'm Jewish, and they knew it, too."

The prisoners included Germany's top scientists. With Germany's V-2 rockets claiming over 50,000 lives in London and elsewhere at the time, there was concern the rockets would soon be able to reach New York or Washington, something that would have changed the course of World War II.

Eventually, they learned enough information to discover a site where Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was building the V-2 rockets in a secret underground factory based on interrogations, and the US Army bombed it.

Helping America in the Cold War Against Russia

Since the US government wanted scientists on the German side to aid with America's rocket program, they decided to stay on the good side of some 300 scientists, chief among them lead scientist Wernher von Braun, one of the developers of the V-2 rocket.

Nazi rocket scientists that were crucial to the German war effort were now crucial to the American war effort, explains Weiss. They received newspapers, magazines, whiskey, and were interrogated as they played volleyball, tennis, or horseshoes. Those who cooperated were even allowed to go to the movie theater.

The US also wanted to use the scientists to obtain intelligence on Russia during the Cold War.

According to the film, America was able to become the first country to land a man on the moon in part due to the work of naturalized German scientists whose families were also brought stateside. In total, around 1,600 German scientists arrived in the United States and were either hired by NASA or the CIA. PO BOX 1142 was later destroyed, documents were classified, and the Jewish soldiers were sworn to secrecy.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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During his Senate confirmation hearing, Defense Secretary General Lloyd Austin gave an ominous description of how he viewed the Pentagon's mission. He began his statement blandly enough.

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"The job of the Defense Department is to keep America safe from our enemies," he said.

He immediately added however, "But we can't do that if some of those enemies live within our ranks."

Upon entering the Pentagon a week later, Austin issued a 60-day stand-down order to all units in the US Armed Forces to enable commanders to deal with "the enemies within our ranks."

Those were the days of hysteria that followed the so-called "insurrection" or "occupation" of the Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump on Jan. 6. The protesters were castigated as "domestic terrorists" who pose an "existential threat" to America as a constitutional republic. Thousands of National Guard troops were mobilized to protect the Capitol. And America's "People's House" took on the appearance of a military base or a prison as barbed wire fencing went up to protect it from the people.

The protesters who entered Capitol Hill on Jan. 6 were hunted down and arrested by federal authorities. Most of those arrested remain incarcerated to this day despite the fact that they haven't been tried, many haven't been indicted, none are accused of serious violent crimes and most have no criminal record.

The only person who died a violent death on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6 was a protester. Air Force veteran Ashli Babbit was shot to death by an undercover Capitol Police officer. The officer's identity has never been revealed. The investigation of his actions was closed without any disciplinary or legal action against him.

Although all of these facts lend to the sense that the rantings about an "insurrection" were entirely wrong, Austin and his generals insist that the events of Jan. 6 were every bit as terrible and dangerous as they were touted to have been by the media and Nancy Pelosi.

Although no evidence has been presented indicating the protesters were at the Capitol to advance a white supremacist agenda, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley intimated in Congressional testimony that the Capitol Hill protest was informed by white supremacy.

Austin, Milley and their colleagues are using the misrepresented events of that day as an ongoing justification of their efforts to purge the US military of the "enemies within the ranks."

A key component of the purge is indoctrination. Officers and enlisted soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines are now compelled to study and internalize progressive texts and other materials that are aligned with Critical Race Theory. As army veteran Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.), defined the term in an article in National Review, "Critical race theory repudiates the principle of equality under the law that is articulated in the Declaration of Independence and that has motivated civil-rights reformers for generations. It claims that this American ideal is a sham used by the white majority to oppress racial minorities, and consequently that America is racist to its core. The theory concludes that the only way to end perceived discrimination against racial minorities is to systematically discriminate on their behalf."

Amidst the public outcry following the Joint Chiefs' decision to compel servicemen and women to undergo CRT training, Cotton and Rep. Dan Crenshaw set up a "whistleblower hotline," for service members who feel assaulted by the indoctrination.

In a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee last month, Cotton presented some of their findings to Austin. The hundreds of complaints the two lawmakers and veterans have received read like testimony from Stalin's purges or Mao's Cultural Revolution.

Required "anti-extremism" training includes segregating soldiers and officers by their skin colors and genders. White men are required to apologize for their physical attributes to those of different races and genders. Senior officers instruct their soldiers that "the US Army is a racist institution."

Soldiers are taught that police forces are systemically racist and violently inclined against minorities. They are taught that whites enjoy "privilege" by dint of their pigmentation and as a consequence, they must take a back seat to non-whites and willingly accept discrimination against them in the interests of "equity."

The indoctrination isn't limited to training sessions. It extends as well to reading lists for service members. Admiral Michael Gilday, the Chief of Naval Operations, distributed a reading list to all naval personnel that includes books calling for the eradication of capitalism and the prohibition of interracial adoption, among other things. The books on Gilday's list castigate the United States as inherently and irredeemably racist and evil. Required reading lists for or cadets at military academies include similar texts.

Cotton told Austin that as a result of the widescale political indoctrination, "We're hearing reports of plummeting morale, growing mistrust between the races and the sexes where none existed just six months ago, and unexpected separations and retirements based on these trainings alone."

Unfortunately, nothing happens in a vacuum. While the Joint Chiefs wage their war against their political enemies within their ranks, America's actual enemies are becoming increasingly aggressive, and emboldened.

This week a Chinese government-controlled magazine published a three-stage plan for invading and conquering Taiwan. This was the second war plan for invading Taiwan published by a Chinese government publication in the past year. Even though US power in the Pacific is predicated in large part on America's commitment to an independent Taiwan, the Pentagon has no clear strategy for defending the island democracy. It also lacks a strategy for enabling Taiwan to defend itself.

America's allies in Asia are increasingly open in expressing their concern about America's lassitude. In a stunning address before the Hudson Institute last month, Japan's Deputy Defense Minister Yasuhide Nakayama warned his audience that the hour is late and that the US must work with Japan to develop a strategy to defend Taiwan. He concluded his remarks by half begging, "Wake up. We must wake up."

Precisely what is it that the US needs to wake up to notice? Among other things, the Chinese navy. Earlier this week, Democrat Congresswoman Elaine Luria, a retired naval commander noted in the Wall Street Journal that whereas in 2010, the US Navy had more ships that China, today, the Chinese navy is larger than the US Navy. Rather than bridge and surpass the divide, the navy continues to retire ships far faster than it procures them. Luria warned that there is no correlation between the Pentagon's procurement plans for the Air Force and Navy and their strategic mission of defending the US from China.

Luria criticized Milley's efforts to downplay the seriousness of China's offensive plans in relation to Taiwan noting that Adm. John Aquilino, the Pacific combatant commander views the situation with much greater urgency than Milley.

Last month Milley told Congress, "I think the probability [of a Chinese assault on Taiwan] is probably low, in the immediate, near-term future."

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Aquilino in contrast said China could be prepared to attack Taiwan in the next six years. "We've seen things that I don't think we expected, and that's why I continue to talk about a sense of urgency," he said.

China is not the only US enemy the Pentagon is not taking seriously. This week, Austin and Milley withdrew all US forces form Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Bagram has been the most important US base throughout the long US war in that country. While secrecy may have been called for to protect the retreating troops, the Americans didn't inform their Afghan counterparts of their plans. The Afghan commander had no opportunity to organize to take control of the base – and the massive amount of military equipment the Americans left behind. As a result, as soon as word got out that the US forces had abandoned the post, mobs of looters descended on Bagram and stole everything in sight.

From a strategic standpoint, the US withdrawal from Bagram left Afghan forces without support, without the requisite training or capacity to defend either the base or themselves. Unsurprisingly the Taliban took the move as a sign that they have won. And they wasted no time running to the real boss in Afghanistan for instructions.

After word broke of the US withdrawal from Bagram, Taliban leaders flew to Tehran to meet with the commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The US's deterrent posture in the Middle East has sunk to new lows since Joe Biden entered office. In response to attacks on US forces in Iraq by Iranian-controlled militias, Biden ordered airstrikes along the Iraqi-Syrian border on two supply bases that serve the militias. As Dalia al-Aqidi noted in Arab News, the faraway bases have little impact on the militias' operational readiness or capabilities. Bombing them was little different from bombing empty buildings.

Iran and its proxies wasted no time demonstrating that the US airstrike left them undaunted This week has seen a cascade of attacks against US forces, allies and installations in Iraq and Syria. Missile and drone strikes on US forces in Erbil were followed by similar attacks against the US Embassy in Baghdad. On Tuesday, US forces guarding the oil fields in northeastern Syria and US forces in Basra were attacked on Wednesday and Thursday. The suspected perpetrator of the bombing of the tanker in the port of Dubai that rocked the city Wednesday evening is Iran's Yemeni Houthi proxy.

All this points to the conclusion that Iran is certain that the US will not lift a finger to defend itself fearing that doing so will jeopardize its efforts to realign its policies towards Iran.

The day after he ordered the bombing of the militia bases along the Iraqi-Syrian border, Biden met with Israel's outgoing President Reuven Rivlin for a farewell visit. In their joint Oval Office appearance, Biden read all of his talking points from cue cards he held in his hand, including the greeting, "I want to thank the President for being here."

Biden also read, "Iran will never get a nuclear weapon on my watch."

A few days after Rivlin's visit, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken withdrew economic sanctions the Trump administration placed on three Iranian nationals involved in the regime's ballistic missile program. The administration also acknowledged to reporters that it is considering removing the sanctions the Trump administration placed on Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei following the Iranian downing of a US drone in the Persian Gulf.

As for Israel, whereas a couple weeks ago, Blinken was telling Foreign Minister Yair Lapid that the administration would account for Israeli concerns about the nuclear deal in its nuclear talks with the Iranians, on Wednesday Haaretz reported that a senior US official admitted Israel has no influence on US negotiating positions in relation to Iran and its nuclear program.

The Bennett-Lapid government's assumption that it can trust the US to defend Israel's strategic interests in relation to Iran and other regional issues is the anchor of its strategic calculations. Given the Pentagon's current priorities and its strategic disarray in the region, the government would be well advised to revisit that assumption.

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US President Donald Trump is expected to cut a significant number of US troops in Afghanistan and a smaller number in Iraq by the final days of his presidency, US officials said Monday. The plan would run counter to military commanders' advice over the past year.

The decision comes just days after Trump installed a new slate of loyalists in top Pentagon positions who share his frustration with the continued troop presence in the war zones. But the expected plans would leave 2,500 troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan, meaning that President-elect Joe Biden would be the fourth president to grapple with the still-smoldering conflicts launched in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

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US officials said military leaders were told over the weekend about the planned withdrawals and that an executive order is in the works but has not yet been delivered to commanders. Officials cautioned that there could always be changes. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

There are 4,500 to 5,000 troops in Afghanistan and more than 3,000 in Iraq.

As news broke about the plan, Republican leaders on Capitol Hill issued stark warnings about making any hasty exit from Afghanistan that could jeopardize the peace process and undermine counterterrorism efforts.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Trump administration has made tremendous headway against terrorist threats, but warned against a potentially "humiliating" pullout from Afghanistan that he said would be worse than former President Barack Obama's 2011 withdrawal from Iraq and reminiscent of the US departure from Saigon in 1975.

Rep. Michael McCaul, Republican leader on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said of the plans for Afghanistan, "We need to ensure a residual force is maintained for the foreseeable future to protect US national and homeland security interests and to help secure peace for Afghanistan."

Under the planned order, the troop cuts would be completed just five days before Biden takes office on Jan. 20. Military commanders have expressed less concern about the reduction in Iraq, where the Iraqi forces are better able to maintain their nation's security.

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Trump's new Pentagon chief, Christopher Miller, hinted at the troop withdrawals over the weekend in a carefully worded message to the force.

"We remain committed to finishing the war that al-Qaida brought to our shores in 2001," he said, and warned that "we must avoid our past strategic error of failing to see the fight through to the finish."

But Miller also made it clear that "all wars must end."

"This fight has been long, our sacrifices have been enormous. and many are weary of war -- I'm one of them," he said. "Ending wars requires compromise and partnership. We met the challenge; we gave it our all. Now, it's time to come home."

The accelerated withdrawal, however, goes against the longstanding advice of Trump's military leadership, including Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, top US commander for the Middle East. But officials suggested that commanders will be able to live with the partial pullout, which allows them to keep counterterrorism troops in Afghanistan and gives them time to remove critical equipment from the country.

McKenzie and others have repeatedly argued that a hasty withdrawal could undercut negotiations to finalize ongoing peace negotiations between the Taliban and representatives of Afghan society, including the Afghan government. And they also warn that US forces should remain in the country to keep Islamic State terrorists in check.

Biden has sounded less absolute about troop withdrawals. He has said some troops could stay in Afghanistan to focus on the counterterrorism mission. In response to a questionnaire before the election, he said: "Americans are rightly weary of our longest war; I am, too. But we must end the war responsibly, in a manner that ensures we both guard against threats to our homeland and never have to go back."

The expected order, first reported by CNN, adds to what has been a litany of muddled White House and Pentagon messages on troops withdrawals from both Afghanistan and Iraq, only exacerbating what has been an emotional roller coaster for the troops and their families. Adding to the confusion: The Pentagon has historically failed to count up to hundreds of troops actually on the ground, including some special operations forces and personnel on temporary duty for only a few months. Often that is due to political sensitivities in those countries and in the US.

The Pentagon was already on track to cut troops levels in Afghanistan to about 4,500 by mid-November. US military leaders have consistently said that going below that number must be based on conditions on the ground, including a measurable reduction in attacks by the Taliban on Afghan troops. And they insist they have not seen that yet.

America's exit from Afghanistan after 19 years was laid out in a February agreement Washington reached with the Taliban. That agreement said US troops would be out of Afghanistan in 18 months, provided the Taliban honored a commitment to fight terrorist groups, with most attention seemingly focused on the Islamic State group's affiliate in the country.

Military officials also have warned that there is a large amount of critical, classified equipment in Afghanistan that must be removed, but it will take time. They also say that any full US withdrawal needs to be coordinated with other coalition allies that have troops in the country.

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The officials, who cautioned the death toll may rise given the severity of some of the injuries, said it was too soon to assign blame. Any indication that Iran-backed militias were responsible could spark a new round of confrontation between the United States and Iran.

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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke with British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and they "underscored that those responsible for the attacks must be held accountable," the State Department said.

One of the officials said five service members were seriously wounded and evacuated from the base and seven others were still being evaluated. Buildings on the base were in flames.

Army Col. Myles Caggins, a US military spokesman in Iraq, confirmed that three personnel from the US-led coalition were killed and about 12 were wounded, but did not provide details about what country they were from. The US military said that the names of those killed would be released after family notifications.

Caggins, in a statement, said that about 18 107mm Katyusha rockets struck the base and that Iraqi Security Forces found a rocket-rigged truck a few miles from Camp Taji. Such Russian rockets have been used in the past by Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq.

Another US official said that as many as 30 rockets were fired from the truck launcher, but 18 hit the base.

Officials did not say what group they believe launched the rocket attack, but Kataib Hezbollah or another Iranian-backed Shiite militia group is likely.

Camp Taji, located just north of Baghdad, has been used as a training base for a number of years. There are as many as 6,000 US troops in Iraq, training and advising Iraqi forces and conducting counterterror missions.

Kataib Hezbollah was responsible for a late December rocket attack on a military base in Kirkuk that killed a US contractor, prompting American military strikes in response.

That, in turn, led to protests at the US embassy in Baghdad. They were followed January 3 by a US airstrike that killed Iran's most powerful military officer, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a leader of the Iran-backed militias in Iraq, of which Kataib Hezbollah is a member.

Kataib Hezbollah been designated a "foreign terrorist organization" by the US State Department since 2009.

Later on Wednesday, Syrian opposition activists and a war monitor reported an airstrike that targeted Iranian militia positions along the Iraq-Syria border.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 10 airstrikes carried out by three unidentified aircraft that targeted pro-Iran militias in the Al Bukamal region in eastern Syria, near the border with Iraq. The Britain-based Observatory, which monitors the Syria war through a network of activists on the ground, said at least 10 explosions were heard and that at least 26 militia fighters with the Iraqi paramilitary group Hashed al-Shaabi were killed.

US officials said the strike was not related to the Taji base strike at all. But it was not immediately clear who conducted the attack.

The Washington Post cited an anonymous US official as saying that while the strike did happen, US fighter jets were not part of the attack.

Syrian activist Omar Abu Layla said the unidentified airstrike targeted Iranian militia positions in the Al Bukamal region.

Syrian state-run media also reported an aerial attack in the Al Bukamal region near the Iraqi border that caused material damage.

Israel has repeatedly warned Iran that it would not let it use Syria's civil war as cover for expanding its regional influence. According to reports, Israel's "campaign between wars," in which it has attacked bases and forces affiliated with Iran, has included attacks in the Al Bukamal region.

Israel is determined not to allow Iran to build drone bases, missile factories and proxy terrorist networks with which to threaten its citizens, and the Israeli Air Force operates around the clock to monitor and disrupt emerging threats.

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The Israel Defense Force's International Cooperation Unit (ICU), which handles the military's external relations with other militaries, has been hard at work ensuring freedom of maneuver for Israel in the increasingly packed maze of Middle Eastern military operations.

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Brig. Gen. Erez Maisel is the outgoing commander of the ICU. In an interview, he explained how the unit has handled relations with a variety of other militaries, including the Russian Armed Forces (Israel's "new neighbor" in Syria), the Lebanese Armed Forces, and Israel's No. 1 strategic ally, the US military.

"It is clear that our neighborhood is very crowded – in the air, at sea and on land," he said. "This requires the IDF to take action on this issue as well and to address the question of how to coordinate all of this."

The unit was reformed in 2016, after the scope of regional changes made it clear to Israeli military planners that a change was in order.

The ICU functions at three levels of activity when it comes to working with other militaries: notification, coordination, and cooperation.

Military diplomacy (which falls under the notification category) is the most basic level of activity, and it includes giving briefings and working with foreign military attachés.

The intermediate level of coordination includes working together with others to avoid unintended confliction in crowded battlespaces.

Active cooperation, including joint training and force build-up activities, represents the highest – and rarest – level of cooperation. Examples include combat drills with American, Greek, and Cypriot armed forces, or hosting other air forces and navy ships for joint drills and visits.

"The campaign between wars is taking place. The IDF is fighting Iran and all of the things Iran knows how to bring to this region – the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and the Quds Force. And, of course, Hezbollah," stated Maisel.

"Many others are here as well, who are not our enemies. Some are partners. And we have to figure out how to deal with all of this. Our objective is to enable room for maneuver for the IDF."

In that context, Israel and Russia have been managing a deconfliction mechanism, designed to prevent mishaps between the air forces of both countries in and around the Syrian arena. "Both are active here, and neither want anything to happen," said Maisel.

Russia entered the Syrian conflict in 2015 due to a range of considerations – from seeking to prevent jihadist elements from spreading to the Caucus region, to economic and wider strategic considerations of reestablishing Russia as a great power player in the Middle East.

"Practically, they are here, activating air power," noted Maisel. That necessitated the creation of a deconfliction channel that allows each side to conduct its missions without harming one another. The channel has been active for two years, he added, and it is based on two separate phone lines.

One line is dedicated for air-safety messaging; the second is for more strategic communications.

"We don't want to exchange strategic messages on the line meant for air safety," said Maisel. Israel's military attaché in Russia, who is due to stay on his role for a fourth year, and Russia's own attaché in Israel play important roles in this coordination. Every few months, a high-level Israeli military working group, headed by Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, head of the IDF Operations Directorate, meets with Russian counterparts.

"Phone lines are not enough. We have to discuss things at greater length," said Maisel.

From borders to boardrooms

In recent years, the ICU has noticed a globalization of Israel's environment due to the fact that a range of global actors have become interested in, and active within, the region. The result is that events in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, or Jordan are linked to wider global developments, said Maisel.

One example is the international community's battle against ISIS in Syria. Another is the lack of stability and fast-paced changes in the international arena, which have found expression in neighboring countries.

To translate this understanding into operations, the ICU focuses on its methodology in response to developments, he said. "We understand that our officer working in [the Upper Galilee Kibbutz] of Misgav Am, who is building a security barrier, also has to be coordinated with strategic processes in Washington DC," he said.

"We call this the ICU spectrum. It stretches from borders to boardrooms. One cannot disconnect from the spectrum. As an organization, we have to see the whole picture. We connect between the international and the regional."

Another example of this is the ICU's ongoing work with the UN Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL), the 10,500-strong peace support force made up battalions from around the world.

The ICU must be in touch with individual contributing countries to deal with specific issues since UNIFL's battalions are under the command of their respective governments.

"It is not enough to talk to the UNIFIL Commander, even though he is a top-quality officer who is highly professional. I have to talk to the contributing countries, such as Italy, France, and Spain, which influence the directive of the force," said Maisel. This can be achieved by maintaining good contact with the military attachés from contributing countries and making Israel's perspective clear to them.

On Aug. 31 – a day before Hezbollah fired a Kornet missile that narrowly missed an IDF ambulance, fired in retaliation for an alleged Israeli drone strike on advanced missile-production equipment in Beirut – UNIFIL's Italian commander, Maj. Gen. Stefano Del Col, was visiting IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi in Tel Aviv.

The visit, arranged by the ICU, demonstrated to the Lebanese Forces (LF), Lebanon's official military, that UNIFIL is highly accessible to Israeli senior command – a message that was important for the IDF to send during a period of high tension.

The photo of Del Col and Kochavi was seen on the Lebanese side, just as the IDF needs to know that UNIFIL is accessible to senior Lebanese military commanders, said Maisel. In fact, despite Israel lacking formal relations with Lebanon, Maisel meets with senior Lebanese generals every few weeks at UNIFIL's border base south of the Lebanese town of Nakura. The meetings are designed to prevent mishaps and try to maintain some stability in the area, where Hezbollah lurks and builds up its force.

UNIFIL's Italian battalion secures the Nakura base, and Israeli and Lebanese military officials hold trilateral meetings (together with UN representatives). During such meeting, explained Maisel, Israel informed the Lebanese Forces of its plans to engineer an artificial cliff and new security barrier. The Lebanese Forces have been able to prevent military friction on their side as Israel proceeded with its defensive engineering project over the past couple of years.

The barrier is designed to stop Hezbollah from deploying its elite Radwan Force into Israel during future conflicts. Hezbollah's previous plan of inserting thousands of Radwan operatives into northern Israel via underground offensive tunnels was wrecked by the IDF's discovery and demolition of those tunnels during Operation Northern Shield in December 2018 and January 2019.

"When we started working on the engineering barrier, the Lebanese army knew. There were no surprises," said Maisel. "The Lebanese Forces entered their area and went to the fence; Hezbollah had been there as well. The communications limited misunderstandings, which is the main goal here."

Asked about frequent criticisms of UNIFIL regarding its inability to stop Hezbollah's force build-up in southern Lebanon, in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, Maisel argued that UNIFIL's rules of engagement were drawn up by the United Nations in New York, not by the battalions themselves. "If someone is unhappy with the directives, there's no sense in going to the UNIFIL battalion commander. These are the professional officers. The complaints should be directed to [the United Nations in] New York," he said.

'A dialogue of senior managers'

Meanwhile, in Syria, the IDF has helped the 1,000-strong UN Disengagement Observation Force (UNDOF) return to its base on the Syrian Golan Heights. UNDOF's directive is to ensure that the demilitarized zone in southern Syria remains free from violations – a mission that it struggles to meet due to the presence of Hezbollah and Iranian proxies in Syria.

That challenge speaks to a wider problem faced by international forces that were designed for keeping 20^th -century state militaries apart. Such forces find it difficult to deal with 21^st-century nonstate armed actors, which are part-military, part-terror organizations and part-guerilla forces, known in military circles as "hybrid threats."

"In general, peace support operations are challenged by hybrid threats," affirmed Maisel. "This was a key designed for a problem, and the problem has changed."

Still, the IDF supports UNDOF's return, he stressed, and its presence allows Israel to pass on messages into Syria. "The UN presence on the Golan Heights is important. Do they receive our support? Definitely. Hence, we reopened the Quneitra Border Crossing gate."

The ICU is critical for maintaining the IDF's partnership with the US military on multiple levels, including Israel's close working relationship with the US's European Command (EUCOM), which Israel is designated to.

"We have had a deep connection with EUCOM since the 1970s," said Maisel. Annual missile-defense exercises, during in which EUCOM's commander and other senior officers arrive in Israel, are a part of that connection.

At the same time, the United States' Central Command (CENTCOM), which handles American military operations in the Middle East, also views cooperation with the IDF as being highly important. On a regular basis, officials from both CENTCOM and EUCOM arrive in Israel to assess the region and look at the latest situation.

"We hold a dialogue to understand one another better. That's partnership," said Maisel. "We hear one another. This is a dialogue of senior managers. From there, we can push forward."

That communication extends to enabling US-led coalition flights over Israeli territory. "For those from the West, Israel is on the way to the East. They don't have to fly over us. The fact that they do is because we are a partner. For us, that is a right and a privilege," said Maisel. "We are a silent but significant partner."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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The declassified, grainy, black-and-white aerial videos from Saturday's raid showed US special operations forces closing in on the compound and US aircraft firing on terrorists nearby.

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The most dramatic video showed a massive, black plume of smoke rising from the ground after US military bombs leveled Baghdadi's compound.

"It looks pretty much like a parking lot, with large potholes," said Marine General Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of US Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East.

McKenzie, briefing Pentagon reporters, said the idea of destroying the compound was at least in part "to ensure that it would not be a shrine or otherwise memorable in any way.

"It's just another piece of ground," he said.

Baghdadi, who rose from obscurity to declare himself "caliph" of all Muslims as the leader of Islamic State, died by detonating a suicide vest as he fled into a dead-end tunnel as elite US special forces closed in.

McKenzie said he brought two young children into the tunnel with him – not three, as had been the US government estimate. Both children were believed to be under the age of 12 and both were killed, he said.

He portrayed Baghdadi as isolated at his Syrian compound, just four miles from the Turkish border, saying fighters from other militant groups nearby probably did not even know he was there. McKenzie suggested it was unlikely that Baghdadi used the Internet or had digital connections to the outside world.

"I think you'd find [he was using] probably a messenger system that allows you to put something on a floppy or on a bit of electronics and have someone physically move it somewhere," he said.

McKenzie said Islamic State would likely try to stage some kind of retaliatory attack.

"We suspect they will try some form of retribution attack. And we are postured and prepared for that," he said.

Whimpering and crying?

McKenzie did not confirm or deny Trump's dramatic account of Baghdadi's final moments, which the president delivered during a televised address to the nation on Sunday. Trump said Baghdadi "died a coward – crying, whimpering, screaming."

Asked about Trump's account, McKenzie said: "About Baghdadi's last moments, I can tell you this: He crawled into a hole with two small children and blew himself up as his people stayed on the ground."

"So you can deduce what kind of person he is based on that activity... I'm not able to confirm anything else about his last seconds. I just can't confirm that one way or another," he added.

On Monday, Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also declined to confirm Trump's account, saying he presumed Trump got that information from his direct conversations with members of the elite unit that conducted the operation. Milley had not yet spoken with them, he said.

McKenzie suggested the US military had secured a large amount of intelligence about Islamic State's activities during the raid.

"While the assault force was securing the remains, they also secured whatever documentation and electronics we could find, which was substantial," McKenzie said, declining to provide further details.

McKenzie said Turkey's incursion into Syria this month, and the US pullback from the border, was not a factor in deciding the timing of the raid. Instead, McKenzie pointed to a host of other factors, including the amount of moonlight.

"We struck because the time is about right to do it then, given the totality of the intelligence and the other factors that would affect the raid force going into and coming out," McKenzie said.

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Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford said the Pentagon has developed a specific plan and that he believes it will be clear within a couple of weeks which nations are willing to join the effort.

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Mark Esper, the acting secretary of defense, raised the issue last month with allied officials at NATO headquarters, but no nations were ready to commit to participating. Esper said at the time that the plans would have to be further refined.

Dunford said he discussed the matter Tuesday with Esper and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and that plans are coming together.

"We're getting ready now to move out," Dunford told a small group of reporters at Fort Myer, Virginia. "We have a pretty clear concept of what we want to do."

He suggested that the project could begin with a small coalition.

"This will be scalable. So, with a small number of contributors we can have a small mission and we'll expand that as the number of nations that are willing to participate identify themselves," he said.

He said the US military's main role would be to provide "maritime domain awareness" – intelligence and surveillance information – to the ships of coalition partners that would conduct patrols in vulnerable waterways, such as the Strait of Hormuz, which separates the Persian Gulf from the Gulf of Oman, as well as the Bab el Mandeb, a heavily trafficked strait between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa.

Any escorting of commercial ships would be done by military ships sailing under the flag of the commercial vessel, he said.

The initiative was triggered last month by Trump administration concerns that Iran was behind recent attacks on commercial ships in the Persian Gulf region.

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The initiative, organized by Hillel at Baruch College in New York City and launched this past semester, is also organizing trips for American vets to visit Israel, as well as Shabbatons for Jews and non-Jews to interact with one another – all with the goal of battling anti-Semitism by cultivating pro-Israel activists, says Ilya Bratman, executive director of the Baruch Hillel and a US Army veteran.

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"We hope to engage hundreds of non-Jewish veterans and student leaders in this project, so they go out in their community and become advocates for truth," Bratman, 41, explained. "They tell the real story of Israel. This program is part of this bigger effort to showcase what Israel is about and what the Jewish community is about."

He added, "Now dozens of non-Jewish US veterans can go home and say, 'I know Jews, they're my friends. They're my brothers. They're my brothers in arms.' The hope is not just to build a community on campus, but to create advocacy much greater, much bigger. They can really dispel rumors and become advocates for the Jewish community and the State of Israel."

Hillel organizes the events and panel discussions – engaging hundreds of students on the quad at Baruch College – in order to build relationships with students from all around the world, including the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, China and Korea, who have now become advocates for Israel after spending time with Jewish students and the Jewish community.

"Brave" recently held its third subsidized trip to Israel for US veterans and non-Jewish student leaders. Of more than 300 applications a year, they accept less than 10%.

'The most powerful moment in my life'

Among them is retired Army Staff Sgt. Trent Coyle, 36, a Baruch alum who says he used to be an atheist, but whose participation in Hillel and travel to Israel inspired him to convert to Judaism. Coyle met Bratman through Baruch College's Student Veterans Association when Coyle was serving as vice president. He went to Israel for the first time in the winter of 2017 on a student leadership trip led by Bratman.

Coyle later studied abroad in Beersheba and participated in another trip to Israel with the Zionist Organization of America. He is now in the middle of the conversion process, saying he decided to convert to Judaism "almost immediately" after visiting the Western Wall for the first time. He called the experience "without question the most powerful moment in my life."

"Ilya has been of great help on my own journey, whether it's helping me with my Hebrew homework, handling questions of faith or introducing me to rabbis in my desire to convert to Judaism," he told JNS. "Both of us have worked hard to help the Jewish community within Baruch create lasting relationships within the veteran community; I think that's what has proven to be most impressive."

Coyle had very little, if any, exposure to Jewish life or individuals before becoming active in Hillel and the "Brave" program. He said the Jewish community at Baruch always welcomed him "with open arms," and he has also seen other US veterans become close to Jewish students and IDF veterans with Hillel's help.

"The more students going with Hillel to Israel or the more events we were doing together, there became a real understanding that there were shared values, and there was just a lot of commonality between the Jewish students and veterans," he said. "What I heard again and again [from the veterans] was that there was just a real sense of togetherness. Initially, it wasn't just go to Hillel and talk about Israel. It was just hanging out, and eventually, the conversation started coming organically."

As US veterans, he continued, "we understand what it means to serve – loyalty, duty, all these things – the same as the IDF veterans, and so we feel that there's an honest and real connection between these two communities."

Coyle said before his trip, he knew little about Israel beyond "some of the vague things that you read in the news, typically negative."

That changed after his visit, where he recognized similar values cherished by Americans, such as the sense of community, the importance of family and tremendous respect held for veterans from all countries.

"It completely was not what I thought it would be," he said. "It was a wonderful experience. It really opened my eyes."

'Like a firsthand kind of baptism'

Steven D'Souza, 38, another alumnus of Baruch College and a veteran of the US Marines, said he, too, had never interacted with Jews before getting involved in the project.

D'Souza, who is Christian, took part in the 2018 trip and subsequently became vice president of Baruch's pro-Israel club, YOFI. He said being part of "Brave" resulted in him finding "a sense of kinship" with the Jewish community. He even wound up taking some Hebrew classes and studied a little Talmud.

And he recently returned from leading a trip to Israel for non-Jewish college students, including some veterans, organized by a program that Hillel partners with.

"There are a lot of misconceived notions or just an ignorance about the Jewish religion, community, and faith," he said. "By meeting people and getting to know their story instead of reading about it somewhere, it's like a firsthand kind of baptism in getting to know Jewish people, and getting emerged in the Jewish culture and language."

"One of my favorite moments about the Jewish community is Shabbat," he said, noting that during dinner, "you get a chance to talk. I think spending a meal with one another and getting to know one another is the best way that people can learn about Israel and know about what's going on there, and learn about Jewish faith and the similarities, and not just focus on the differences."

"There can never be enough conversations" about Israel, he added.

Coyle insisted that "people need those facts about Israel. Engage with as many people as possible and understand that there's more to Israel than just the army and other things. There are actual people behind all of this, and once people can relate to that, it becomes a great way of understanding."

Bratman also reiterated the importance of building personal relationships between non-Jewish college students and those within the Jewish community, especially while they are still on campus.

"This is the final frontier, where we can talk to students before they become adults before they go out to the greater community. This is an opportunity … to tell people about the reality of the situation. We have literally dozens of veterans and non-student leaders who have become our family, and they will always stand with us, with the Jewish community and with the State of Israel."

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