The Trump administration has watered down U.S. global leadership to coercive deal-making. The dangerous contours of a world in crisis are now coming into stark relief.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee about the agreement, and told lawmakers that Israel participates in intelligence and other areas where it can offer capabilities and advantages.

TEL AVIV: Even as Mideast tensions escalate, with new Israeli strikes on Syria over the weekend and Iran exceeding international limits on enriched uranium, no less a figure than the director of Mossad sees a historic opportunity for peace. Why? Because Iran’s escalating aggression — especially attacks on its neighbors’ economic lifeline, oil exports —… Keep reading →

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wants to establish a 20-country coalition to protect commercial shipping in the Middle East. But the US already leads a 33-country coalition doing just that.

Both sides are claiming they stepped back from the edge over the past 24 hours, unwilling to see the loss of life. Tensions in the Gulf haven’t diminished however.

The Global Hawk was downed after two earlier shots at US drones in the region, and attacks on commercial shipping.

Israeli sources expressed alarm that neither Israel, the US, nor allied Arab nations picked up any advance warning of what appear to have been well-planned, well-executed, and increasingly destructive attacks by Iranian and proxy forces.

A day after two commercial tankers are hit in the Gulf of Oman, reports emerge the Houthis are firing — and hitting — US aircraft.

As troops and hardware are on the move in the Gulf, diplomats signal that no one is eager for war.

CNO John Richardson said Monday that, essentially, the Persian Gulf deployment was business as usual. “The Abraham Lincoln Strike Group was planned to deploy for some time now,” he told the SeaAirSpace conference.