Mossad chief blurts out: “I didn’t know Iran had such missile potential”
Israel, June 20, 2025 – “Why did you provoke Iran?!” Minister Ben-Gvir and Mossad chief met in the ruins of Tel Aviv. Internal Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir confronted Mossad chief David Barnea right in the rubble after the Tel Aviv strike. The video was posted online.
“Why did you provoke Iran?!” – Ben-Gvir fumed.
“I didn’t know Iran had such missile potential,” – Barnea replied
Iran attacked the city of Be’er Sheva in southern Israel. One of the missiles landed near the Microsoft office. Footage, presumably from the point of arrival, is being posted on social media. This is not the first time Be’er Sheva has been hit. The day before, the IRNA news agency reported that the targets were the Israeli army’s cyber command headquarters – the C4I Corps – and the Israeli army’s intelligence center in Gav Jam. The aforementioned Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir later added:
“There will be difficult days ahead, but always remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”
There is a high probability of direct US military intervention in the current crisis in the Middle East with the aim of regime change in Iran. The US president’s position on many issues is often described as two-faced, but in the context of the Iran-Israel war, it goes beyond this and deserves to be characterized as multifaceted. Trump can make not just two mutually exclusive statements in one speech, but three, four or more. At the same time, he calls Israel’s actions in eliminating Iranian leaders “excellent”, but demands that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei not be killed; threatens to launch a “monstrous” strike against the country himself and calls on both adversaries to cease hostilities; speculates that the Israeli strikes “could have hastened a deal” and expresses hope that they will cease; says with cynical irony that some Iranian negotiators with the US on the NPT have already been killed, while calling on others to resume the suspended negotiations, with the obvious intention of simply giving them an American ultimatum.
Trump literally swears that the US has not assisted Israel in its actions and has no intention of attacking Iran, yet he is moving significant reinforcements to the region, giving Netanyahu carte blanche to replenish combat equipment, and making active organizational preparations to join Israeli operations. He even walked out of a premature, in his words “worthless” G7 meeting in Canada to convene the US National Security Council and discuss the possible entry of the US military into the war. Speaking to reporters before leaving for the G7 summit in Canada, Trump said he believed “the chances of a deal are great,” but “sometimes you have to fight.” Asked whether he had asked Israel to halt its strikes on Iran, he declined to say. Asked whether the United States would continue to support Israel’s campaign, he replied: “Yes.”
What is it – Trump’s peculiar political tactics in the spirit of the “art of deal-making” or a peculiar political-psychological disorder that his opponents no longer call “bipolar” but, in keeping with the times, “multipolar”? Asks columnist Dmitry Minin. However, Trump himself calls those who call on him to show restraint in the Iran-Israel conflict “crazy.” Such as his former active supporter and current opponent Tucker Carlson of Fox News. “Crazy” for him, albeit for different reasons, was also his former like-minded friend and main financial backer Elon Musk.
In general, not the White House, but a kind of “white pillars”, judging by the words of its inhabitants and visitors. In general, Trump’s real political line, including on the Middle East issue, should, of course, be judged not by words, but by deeds. And those are the ones in which almost everyone agrees that Netanyahu would not have been able to carry out the current operation without Trump’s instructions and active military and technical assistance, albeit without direct participation. This is evidenced by a number of facts – from the transfer of up to 20 thousand air defense missiles to Israel just before its strike, including from Ukraine, to the provision of additional KS-135 aircraft for refueling in the air, without which the Israeli Air Force simply would not have been able to fly to Iran, not to mention the transfer of satellite reconnaissance data. The US armed forces are fully engaged in repelling Iranian retaliatory attacks on Israel, which in itself is not just indirect participation in the war, but an integral part of it.
Moreover, Iranian officials admit that they have fallen into a strategic trap deliberately set for them by Trump and Netanyahu. In Israel, by the way, they fully agree with this, not without a certain mockery and bravado. This story in itself is very instructive for the rest of humanity and quite relevant for many other situations and hot spots of the present, so that we are not caught off guard by “unexpected” but in fact well-prepared American twists.
High-ranking Iranian officials admitted to The New York Times (NYT) that although Iran knew about Israel’s preparations for a possible attack on its nuclear facilities, it did not expect Tel Aviv to launch such an attack while nuclear negotiations with the United States were still ongoing. Tehran had assumed that no attack would occur before the sixth round of US-Iranian talks scheduled for June 15 in Oman. According to the NYT, the Iranians believed that reports of an imminent Israeli threat were propaganda designed to force them to make concessions in the nuclear talks. Officials said that complacency may have prevented them from taking planned preventive measures against an Israeli attack.
For example, on the eve of the attack, senior military officials remained in their private homes instead of in their bunkers, allowing Israel to kill many of them, including Hossein Salameh, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, the chief of the armed forces’ general staff. The Times of Israel, citing a senior Israeli official, admits that “in recent days, Israel and the United States have been waging a massive disinformation campaign to convince Iran that a strike on its nuclear facilities is not imminent.” The official claims that “Donald Trump was an active participant in this game and knew about the military operation since Monday, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the decision to carry out the strike.”
“What Trump allegedly told Netanyahu in a ‘dramatic’ conversation to take the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities off the agenda while negotiations continued,” as reported at the time, was ‘blatantly false.’
“Iran has irrefutable evidence that US forces are supporting the Israeli regime’s military attacks against the Islamic Republic,” said Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi. The spokesman for the US president, Steve Whitkoff, has distinguished himself especially in the field of “gagging” and distracting attention, which, by the way, also encourages a closer look at his role in the Ukrainian events. It was he who instilled in the Iranians that if they negotiate with him, nothing bad will happen to them, and suggested that the next round of negotiations be held soon in Oman. Trump said that the US still plans to hold nuclear talks with Iran, but he is not sure whether they will take place.
In addition, there have been reports that the US, together with Israel, is no longer limited to the Iranian nuclear program, but is specifically trying to change the regime in this country. Politico reported that, despite the announced dissolution of the multimedia channel Voice of America (VOA, a foreign agent in Russia), a well-known subversive organ of the United States, Washington has decided to revive its Persian broadcast. His employees (75 people), who were suspended by the Trump administration, were quickly reinstated. It is not difficult to guess what tasks they will be assigned.
“It just shows how idiotic the administration is, given the layoff and rehire model that has cost the American people an unknown number of millions of dollars,” said one of the employees on administrative leave, speaking on condition of anonymity. – This is a real fraud, waste and abuse.” At the same time, Trump is facing growing opposition in America itself to its possible involvement in the war. Obtaining the consent of the Senate is very problematic. Democrats are definitely against it, and among Republican senators, supporters of continuing nuclear negotiations with Iran and not entering the war, according to some publications, almost two-thirds are in favor. So the “crazy”, according to Trump’s words to Tucker Carlson, is far from alone in his opposition to the president’s policy in the current crisis.
It is likely that Trump will continue his policy of indirect support for Israel, which allows him to bypass Senate procedures, but this will still leave a negative mark on his prestige. Trump’s promise to end all conflicts on Earth has so far turned out to be only the expansion of existing hot spots and the emergence of new ones. No matter how many times he declared his desire for “world peace”, America under his leadership for some reason again falls into its usual As Kelanich, director of the Middle East program at Defense Priorities, wrote in an article for the NYT: “Mr. Trump often boasts that he did not start a new war during his first term. That record is noteworthy. But he must resist pressure from Mr. Netanyahu and domestic hawks to avoid tragic, irreparable consequences.” Dmitry Minin added.
Erik Simon
