{"id":534689,"date":"2026-07-10T13:17:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T13:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/534689\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T13:17:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T13:17:17","slug":"eyal-hulata-whats-next-in-the-war-against-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/534689\/","title":{"rendered":"Eyal Hulata: What’s next in the war against Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to The Times of Israel\u2019s Lazar Focus<\/a>. Each Friday, join host\u00a0diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman<\/a> for a deep dive into what\u2019s behind the news that spins the globe.\n<\/p>\n

A few short weeks ago, US President Donald Trump signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran that was widely panned, especially in Israel. The bizarre agreement met none of the US or Israel war aims, extracted no concessions from Iran, and even gave it effective control over the fighting in Lebanon.\n<\/p>\n

Predictably, the MOU hasn\u2019t led to anything like peace. This week, Iran launched attacks on civilian ships in the Strait of Hormuz, leading to US strikes, followed by Iran launching drones and rockets at Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan.<\/p>\n

Is the Trump MOU dead? If it\u2019s not, how should Israel ensure that its goals are met, even if returning to war in the short term is not possible? And what does this mean for Israel\u2019s fight against Iranian proxies on its borders?<\/p>\n

WATCH the full episode here:<\/p>\n

Dr. Eyal Hulata, a veteran of Israel\u2019s security services, served as National Security Adviser in the previous government under Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid. As the figure who led Israel\u2019s inter-agency effort to confront the Iranian threat, Hulata is uniquely positioned to discuss Israel\u2019s long fight against the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n

He said that Israelis should be proud of the effectiveness and accomplishments of the two air campaigns against Iran, which pushed back the Iranian nuclear program significantly.<\/p>\n

However, said Hulata, as long as the regime controls Iran, it will be almost impossible to solve the Iranian problem.<\/p>\n

Even though the US and Israel failed to topple the regime, Hulata stressed that the country is being led by new figures, and it is too early to say whether they will be more hardline than their predecessors.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the disappointing way the campaign ended, Hulata noted, what is important now is to look toward the next phase of the struggle against the Iranian threat. Iran\u2019s military and defense industry were badly degraded, but those achievements will be temporary if they are not followed up by ongoing pressure, sanctions, and intelligence operations.<\/p>\n

Israeli intelligence must remain intensely focused on Iran\u2019s nuclear sites, he said, in order to detect any attempts to return to nuclear enrichment. Israel will have to respond to such a development, Hulata emphasized.<\/p>\n

Ballistic missiles will continue to not only be a threat to Israel, but also to Iran\u2019s Arab neighbors. Israel must ensure that Iran\u2019s missile stockpile doesn\u2019t become too large for Israeli multi-layered air defenses, said Hulata.<\/p>\n

Any deal reached between Trump and Iran, even if that is unlikely, must not give Iran anything they don\u2019t have right now, said Hulata. Iran has not been able to enrich uranium for over a year, he noted, and should not be permitted to do so in an agreement.<\/p>\n

However, Iran will not make any concessions unless pressured into doing so, Hulata emphasized.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t buy into this narrative that they have won in this military conflict,\u201d said Hulata. \u201cThey\u2019ve suffered unprecedented amounts of damage, direct losses and indirect losses. The only way that they can recover from this is through the waivers that an American president will give them in exchange for a negotiated agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is why it is important that this negotiated agreement demands substantial outcomes,\u201d he continued. \u201cOtherwise we\u2019ll just be kicking the can down the road and this will not be good in the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turning to Lebanon, Hulata said the agreement signed with Beirut is the right approach, though Israel should not give anything up that compromises its security. The Lebanese government understands the Hezbollah threat, he said, but lacks capacity. For it to succeed, Beirut needs to commit to pushing back militarily against Hezbollah, with the firm backing of international partners. At the same time, Iran\u2019s financial support for Hezbollah must be cut off.<\/p>\n

On Syria, Hulata said that while Ahmed al-Sharaa is a jihadist, he shares the Israeli interest in reducing Iran\u2019s influence in Syria. At the same time, Turkish influence there is a serious problem, and Israel needs to keep a close eye on a growing threat from Ankara.<\/p>\n

Hulata said that while Israel could have done much more to break Hamas rule in Gaza, its best move now is to stick with Trump\u2019s 20-point plan, while bringing in partners like the UAE and Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

\u201cHamas is way weaker than it was before,\u201d Hulata said. \u201cHamas is disconnected from external lifelines of support. There is an ability to have a civilian rule in Gaza that would take power from Hamas and push it away.\u201d<\/p>\n

That would take creating safe civilian areas in the Israeli-controlled parts of Gaza to create new conditions there.<\/p>\n

Lazar Focus can be found on all podcast platforms. This episode was produced by Gabriella Jacobs and video edited by Ari Schlacht.<\/p>\n

Check out last week\u2019s Lazar Focus:<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\tWe can’t do this work alone.\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident \u2013 ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded \u2013 I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.<\/p>\n

There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.<\/p>\n

As a Times of Israel reporter, I\u2019m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit\u2019s. But my colleagues and I can’t do this alone. If you value work like this, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Stav Levaton, military reporter<\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tYes, I’ll join\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tYes, I’ll join\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to The Times of Israel\u2019s Lazar Focus. Each Friday, join host\u00a0diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman for a deep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[190560,190507,243793,42,56943,72927,202385,43,965,21664,202386,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-534689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-2026-israel-hezbollah-conflict","tag-2026-us-israel-war-with-iran","tag-eyal-hulata","tag-headlines","tag-israel-lebanon-border","tag-israel-lebanon-relations","tag-lazar-focus","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-southern-lebanon","tag-times-of-israel-podcasts","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}