“If Iran attacks, that is the third Iran war.” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that on Monday, and he gave a timeline: the fighting “could happen within two days.”
Speaking to reporters, Katz said he has told the Israeli Defense Forces to get ready for a “blue-and-white operation in Iran,” a term for a mission led by Israel and not by the United States. The National Security Journal read that as confirmation that Israel is prepared to act alone against Iran when it judges it necessary.
Katz did not say Israel plans to start anything. His point was that Iranian missiles or drones aimed at Israeli territory would be enough to restart the war, whatever the memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran or the Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire might say. “There is no reality in which Israel will allow missile fire at its territory without responding with force,” he said.
Preparing for both defense and attack
He described a scenario in which President Donald Trump decides the negotiations have failed and that strikes are the only option left. Even so, Katz said he does not want to disrupt the talks between the White House and Tehran. Defending Israel is a separate question, he said, and he will accept no “compromises” in Lebanon or Iran.
The IDF, he said, is “prepared both defensively and offensively.” In his words: “The IDF is prepared to repel and attack. If necessary, we will put the home front on alert as we did in the last confrontation. We will not hesitate to do so based on the IDF’s recommendations.”
The National Security Journal noted that none of this departs from Israel’s established position. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said since the memorandum was signed that it does not limit Israel’s ability or willingness to act wherever Iran or Iran-backed groups threaten it. Katz himself has long argued that Israel must keep total operational freedom in Lebanon and against Iran, regardless of where negotiations stand.
Netanyahu in southern Lebanon
On Monday Netanyahu visited southern Lebanon and told troops that Israel would stay until Hezbollah no longer poses a threat. “As long as Hezbollah is here, armed, threatening us, we will remain,” he said. He also said Israel had “taken the Iranian axis and begun to crush it,” and had attacked Iran itself and “removed an existential threat.”
Doha and the diplomacy
Katz spoke while Washington was trying to keep its negotiations with Iran going, with meetings planned in Doha. Reports so far say US officials will meet mediators, while Iranian officials refuse to attend and cite alleged violations of the memorandum. The US makes a similar accusation against Iran, pointing to drone attacks on the merchant vessel Ever Lovely in the Strait of Hormuz last week.
Iran said on Monday that no meeting had been scheduled after a weekend of missile fire from both sides. Trump confirmed that Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, was being sent to Qatar along with envoy Steve Witkoff. Iranian officials were also sent to Qatar this week, but Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said their visit had “no relation” to the American negotiators’ presence.
Trump did not sound as if he expected a breakthrough. He said the US is “winning militarily” and that the Doha meeting “is going to be perhaps important, perhaps not.”
Israel is not a formal party to the US-Iran talks, though any eventual agreement would affect its security. Jerusalem has kept its distance from the deal and has carried out military operations against Lebanon, even after Trump insisted the ceasefire would stop strikes between Lebanon and Israel.
