Israel Continues to Pound Iran; Air Corridor Opened to Tehran

Reports indicate Israel is also hitting the terror regime’s nuclear sites. Times of Israel: Israel on Sunday attacked dozens of sites in Iran — including energy sites, radar systems, and ballistic missiles and their launchers — and killed Iran’s top intelligence officers on the third day of its ongoing campaign against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The Israel Defense Forces also bombed an Iranian refueling plane at Mashhad Airport in northeast Iran, some 2,300 kilometers (1,430 miles) from Israel, marking what it said was the most distant strike since the beginning of the operation (Times of Israel). Jerusalem Post: Surface-to-surface missile sites in central Iran have been struck by the IDF overnight between Sunday and Monday, the military said. Saudi state-owned news source Al-Arabiya reported that Israeli forces had struck targets in the area of the city of Natanz in central Iran. Other initial reports stated Israeli forces were simultaneously carrying out large-scale attacks on other nuclear sites across Iran…. Hours before the Israeli strikes, a 2.5 magnitude earthquake was reported in the Qom Province near the Fordow nuclear facility, according to the Iranian Seismological Center. Around the same time, Iranian media reported Israeli airstrikes at the Fordow nuclear facility (Jerusalem Post). Meanwhile: Iran is targeting civilian centers in Tel Aviv: Where is the international community? (X)

Israel’s Masterful Opening Act

In a war that has just begun—but could well re-shape the Middle East and strike a crushing blow to Islamist terror. Zeneb Riboua: On June 13, the Islamic Republic of Iran experienced a strategic collapse that altered the balance of power in the Middle East. Israel eliminated key Iranian military and scientific personnel, degraded the country’s missile infrastructure, and neutralized its early-warning systems. But more consequentially, Israel’s strike—dubbed Operation Rising Lion—shattered the Iranian regime’s confidence in its own security apparatus. This outcome was the result of years of sustained intelligence preparation, real-time intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) dominance, and deep operational infiltration. Israeli planners achieved full-spectrum disruption by dismantling Iran’s command and control networks, severing high-level communications, and injecting uncertainty into the regime’s decision-making processes. By the time Tehran could react, the damage was already done. Its upper command was dead, its defensive systems were disabled, and its internal threat assessments were in disarray. Crucially, Israel did not rely on cross-border operations. It had pre-positioned remote-activated strike platforms inside Iran and deployed them with surgical precision…. Operation Rising Lion demonstrated how modern warfare is shaped by perception, disruption, and initiative. Israel dismantled core elements of Iran’s command structure, eliminated key personnel tied to nuclear development, and exposed the gaps in Iran’s internal defenses. More critically, it disrupted the strategic logic that underpins Iran’s regional posture. Tehran had assumed that escalation could be delayed, that its territorial depth provided insulation, and that Israel would remain constrained by political and diplomatic pressures. On June 13 those assumptions collapsed (Hudson; Riboua).

Trump Restores American Leadership

On Iran, he said what we meant, he meant what he said: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. In relation to Israel and Netanyahu, he quarterbacked, he shepherded and he did what you want the leader of the free world to do: Advance American interests. Lee Smith: At last, an American president kept his word. He was very clear about it even before his second term started: Iran can’t have a bomb. Trump wanted it to go peacefully, but he warned that if the Iranians didn’t agree to dismantle their program entirely, they’d be bombed. Maybe Israel would do it, maybe the United States, maybe both, but in any case, they’d be bombed. Trump gave them 60 days to decide, and on day 61, Israel unleashed Operation Rising Lion… So has Operation Rising Lion enhanced America’s peace? If it ends Iran’s nuclear weapons programs, the answer is absolutely yes. Further, when American partners advance U.S. interests, it adds luster to American glory. For instance, in 1982, in what is now popularly known as the Bekaa Valley Turkey Shoot, Israeli pilots shot down more than 80 Soviet-made Syrian jets and destroyed dozens of Soviet-built surface-to-air missile systems. It was a crucial Cold War exhibition that showed U.S. arms and allies were superior to what Moscow could put in the field. Israel’s attacks on Iran have not only disabled a Russian and Chinese partner but also demonstrated American superiority to those watching in Moscow and Beijing. Plus, virtually all of Iran’s oil exports go to China. With the attack last night, Trump brought an end to a particularly demoralizing and dispiriting era in U.S. history, which began nearly 50 years ago with the hostage crisis. In that time, U.S. leadership has routinely appeased a terror regime sustained only by maniacal hatred of America, while U.S. elites from the worlds of policy and academia, media and culture, have adopted the style and language of perfumed third-world obscurantists. All it took was for an American president to keep his word (Tablet).

Netanyahu’s Nerves of Steel: A Victory for the West

“Bibi does not chicken out.” Reuel Marc Gerecht: Jerusalem might have saved the Middle East from an imminent nuclear-arms race by giving nonproliferation what it’s been lacking—teeth. Beyond the bomb, Russia and China, who have been back-stopping the Islamic Republic, will likely re-evaluate the utility of Iranian power in the Middle East. The axis will likely survive—anti-Americanism is a powerful binding agent—but Tehran has become even more of a supplicant and less of a partner. There is no downside to this revisionist axis weakening (Wall Street Journal). Niall Ferguson—who has framed our period of history as Cold War II: One better way to look at what we are watching is simply that Netanyahu is fulfilling his historical mission. He long ago vowed to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons on the grounds that this would be the precursor to a second Holocaust. Few believed he would actually resort to war to deliver on this vow. But he has. But widen the aperture beyond Israel. It is illuminating to put this latest Israeli coup in the broader context of the global war we’ve been in since 2018: Cold War II. As we have seen more than once in the past year, Bibi Does Not Chicken Out. And that means that, whether it was intended or not, the United States and its principal Middle Eastern ally have today taken a vital first step toward restoring the credibility of the West. Of course, the final outcome of Cold War II will not be decided at Natanz and Fordow, any more than it will be decided at Pokrovsk and Novopavlivka, where fighting has been raging between Russian and Ukrainian forces this week. The decisive battle will be fought—or not—over Taiwan. The ultimate verdict on the grand strategy of Donald Trump, if such a thing exists, will therefore depend on how successfully he contends with the Chinese challenge to American primacy. For now, however, those who have criticized the president for his erratic trade policy—myself included—must admit our misjudgment. The trade war has turned out to be a phony war. This is the real thing. And so far, at least, our side is winning (Free Press).

Political Assassination Leaves Minnesotans Reeling; “Is this really who we have become?”

Military Parade Celebrating Army’s 250th Birthday Turns Out to Be Just That: A Parade Celebrating the Army

It was as advertised: A parade honoring all those who served and sacrificed so much for our freedom for a quarter of a millenium. Elite media had been trying to say it was all about Trump, that Trump was putting himself us as a new king. Erick Erickson—not a man from the MAGA right: I was reliably told this was going to be all about Trump. And this is all about the Army — the group that actually made sure we have no kings here (Erickson). Roger Kimball: Sclerotic legacy outlets like The Atlantic (“The Shame of Trump’s Parade”) and The New York Times are throwing one of their signature snits about the parade. It’s just like military displays in the Soviet Union and other authoritarian states, they say. I take the opposite view. I think the parade is both a salutary celebration of the army and a condign expression of American national pride. As the commentator Irving Kristol put it in the 1990s, “There is nothing like a parade to elicit the proper respect for the military from the populace.” I agree (American Greatness).

The Irony in “No Kings Day”

Wall Street Journal summarizes the events of a day that was clearly designed to sew seeds of unrest: Crowds of demonstrators gathered around the country on Saturday, protesting what they called President Trump’s overreach. The rallies, many of which were organized as part of the “No Kings Day” movement, took place in cities including New York, Atlanta, Philadelphia, San Diego and Miami. Organizers reported boisterous but nonviolent crowds whose numbers surpassed attendance projections. Protesters and police clashed Saturday night in downtown Los Angeles and the city declared another curfew (Wall Street Journal). Don’t miss a key irony of the whole “No Kings Day” protest: The party of the left who put forward a political nominee that did not receive a single vote in party’s nomination process went on the hunt for President Trump, who won 2,291 of the 2,429 delegates awarded in the primary. He also won 49 out of 50 states. Nikki Haley took Vermont and the District of Columbia (Wall Street Journal). So: Who is it that has a problem with democracy? With Independence Day on us, the right has an opportunity to flip the theme or the meme and own it. Harmeet Dhillon—our Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division: “No Kings” day is July 4. Pass it on! (Dhillon).

Following the Money on “No Kings Day”

Mike Flynn: American taxpayers are unknowingly bankrolling these protests. How? Through federal grants to NGOs that flow downstream to groups like CHIRLA and others. A viral X post on June 12, 2025, laid it out plain: an interactive map showing how your hard-earned dollars end up in the hands of organizations pushing the “No Kings” rally. One example? The Department of Health and Human Services distributes millions in grants to nonprofits under the guise of “community development,” and some of that money ends up with groups tied to these protests. It’s a slick setup; your taxes fund the very people trying to tear down the system…. The “No Kings” protests are a symptom of a bigger disease, a coordinated effort by globalist elites and their NGO foot soldiers to erode our sovereignty and silence the American people. These groups don’t care about your rights or your freedoms. They want power, and they’ll use every trick in the book to get it. So, what do we do? First, get informed. Check out sites like nokings.org and see who’s listed as “partners.” Dig into their tax filings on ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer. Follow analysts like @DataRepublican on X for real-time updates. Second, speak out. Third, call your representatives and demand transparency on how federal grants are being spent. This is our country, folks. We don’t bend the knee to kings, but we also don’t bow to NGOs playing puppet master (Mike Flynn). More on CHIRLA from Jennifer Van Laar: (Red State).

UK Set to Embrace Abortion Bill That Would Legalize Full-Term Abortion

A macabre future for the West if we don’t see a course correction. Telegraph: Women will be able to abort their pregnancies for any reason at any point up to birth without facing prosecution under law changes to be considered by MPs on Tuesday, according to a legal opinion. In the biggest proposed changes to the abortion law for nearly 50 years, two rival amendments would enable women to terminate their pregnancy on the basis of the sex of the foetus without the risk of prosecution, the legal opinion claimed… In his legal opinion on Ms Antoniazzi’s amendment, Mr Rose said it “would not be illegal for a woman to carry out her own abortion at home, solely on the basis that the foetus is female”. However, it would remain illegal for a doctor to assist. On Ms Creasy’s amendment, he said: “The effect of the amendment is that a woman who terminated her pregnancy solely on the basis that she believed the child to be female would face no criminal sanction in connection with that reason, or at all.” (Telegraph). Right to Life UK: Catherine Robinson, of @RightToLifeUK, said: “The abortion lobby is pushing to decriminalise abortion to cover up the disastrous effects of its irresponsible pills-by-post scheme, which endangers women by removing the requirement for in-person consultations” (Right to Life).

New York Times Chooses Father’s Day to Publish an Editor’s Hit Piece on Her Dad

Mark Hemmingway: Progressive America has a clear misandry problem they won’t acknowledge or address, even as they wring their hands about losing male voters (Hemmingway). Susannah Meadows—a senior staff editor for the Times: My father gave me his freckly skin and, like him, I had melanoma. He gave me asthma and protruding elbows that are identical to his own. He gave me reddish hair that’s kindly reluctant to go gray. He gave me an aversion to drinking by not having one himself. He did not give me the seat next to him at a San Diego Chargers game. He had season tickets when I was a kid, but I only found out about it years later. He gave me the ability to talk to anyone because I couldn’t stand the awkward silences that he provided. He gave me really nice houses to grow up in, but we moved a lot for his work, and things never seemed to be going well, so he gave me financial anxiety, too (New York Times).