News Digest — 3/4/26
Iran Taps Khamenei’s Son As Supreme Leader
Iranian clerics voted Wednesday (4th) to appoint Ayatollah Moijtaba Khamenei as Iran’s new Supreme Leader, days after his father, the previous leader was killed in an airstrike in Tehran. Iran’s Assembly of Experts, a council of 88 Shi’ite religious leaders, selected the 55-year-old Khamenei, Iran International reported Wednesday (4th) morning in a secret vote.
Long seen as the likely successor of his father, Moijtaba was selected despite fears among the Assembly of Experts that the move could lead to the ayatollah’s assassination by either Israel or the U.S.
According to Dr. Erric Mandel, Director of the Middle East Political and Information Network (MEPIN), Moijtaba Khamenei has been seen as one of the “architects of the regime’s repressive policies.
Israel announced on Wednesday (4th) that it would target whoever was tapped to replace Khamenei.
“Any leader appointed by the Iranian terror regime to continue leading the plan to destroy Israel, threaten the U.S. and the free world, and the countries of the region, and oppress the Iranian people, will be an unequivocal target for elimination,” said Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz.
“It does not matter what his name is or where he hides,” Katz added. “We will continue to act with full force, together with our American partners, to dismantle the regime’s capabilities and create the conditions for the Iranian people to overthrow and replace it.”
Israeli warplanes struck the Tehran Headquarters of the Assembly of Experts on Tuesday (3rd) in an airstrike to eliminate Iran’s top religious leaders.
The Assembly of Experts, instead of meeting in a building, met online twice in order to deliberate on a successor to Ali Khamenei.
IDF Chief: Israel Will Remove The Entire Shi’ite Axis Threat Of Iran, Hezbollah
Israel will remove the entire Shi’ite axis threat led by Iran and Hezbollah IDF Chief of Staff LTG. Eyal Zamir said Tuesday night (3rd) during a visit to an IDF air defense command center.
During a visit with Air Defense Chief BG.. “K” to battalion 947 of the air defense apparatus, Zamir said that the current conflict has morphed from seeking regime change in Iran to also finishing off Hezbollah as a decades-long threat to Israel.
“This is one axis, a Shiite axis,” he emphasized. “For decades, and even more intensely since 2017, Iran sought to encircle Israel with a ‘ring of fire’ to weaken and possibly destroy it.”
But now Zamir said Israel is strong enough to fight on two fronts to bring the two most dangerous pieces of the ring of fire and the anti-Israel Shiite axis to their knees.
As part of this battle, Zamir said that the IDF’s stellar air defense and resilient and general public are critical.
Only by avoiding major harm to the home front can the IDF continue to take apart Iran’s regime and Hezbollah’s source of power that remained with it following the 2023-2024 conflict with the Lebanese terror group.
Israeli Special Forces Operating Inside Iran
Recent reports have claimed that Israel’s Special Forces, including operatives from the Mossad Intelligence Agency, conducted ground operations inside Iran during part of the broader ongoing conflict known as Operation Roaring Lion.
Saudi Arabia’s Al-Arabiya on March 2nd, reported that “non-Iranian ground elements” were identified by local sources near IRGC command centers in Kermanshah (Western Iran).
They suggested these teams are working in tandem with the Iranian Kurdish opposition (PDKI), who are reportedly crossing the border from Iraq to exploit the chaos created by the airstrikes.
Israeli officials have down-played the ground operations report.
An IDF spokesperson described the Al-Arabiya claim as “unlikely”emphasizing that deploying ground troops to Iran would be “impractical” given the distance and risks involved.
But recently IDF Chief of Staff LTG. Eyal Zamir publicly acknowledged that commando forces operated inside Iran during the 12-day war in June 2025, marking a rare confirmation of commando operations.
If Israeli commandos were operating on the ground in Iran amid the current conflict, their missions would likely focus on high-value precision tasks that airpower alone cannot fully achieve
These elite units potentially, from Sayeret Matkal, Shayetet 13, or Mossad’s Kidon division,would prioritize sabotage of remaining air-defense radars, missile launchers, or command nodes that have evaded airstrikes.
They might plant explosive or laser-designate targets for incoming fighter jets to ensure accurate hits on hardened underground facilities, such as residual ballistic missile sites or IRGC bunkers near Tehran or western province.
Other plausible activities include gathering real-time intelligence on leadership movements, assessing damage to nuclear-related infrastructure like Natanz remnants, or disrupting communications to sow confusion in Iran’s fragmented chain of command following the reported deaths of senior figures.
Small teams could also conduct limited raids to capture equipment, documents or personnel for analysis or neutralize threats like mobile missile batteries preparing retaliatory launches.
Such operations would rely on Stealth-insertion – possibly via border regions or pre-positioned assets; extreme caution to avoid detection in hostile territory; and rapid exfiltration to minimize risk in a vast country with active security forces.
These actions align with Israel’s historical emphasis on special operations to complement overwhelming air superiority, as seen in past covert efforts, though no official Israeli confirmation exists for the present claims.
Huckabee Advises U.S. Citizens In Israel To Evacuate Via Egypt, Noting ‘Limited Options’
U.S. Ambassador To Israel Mike Huckabee on Tuesday (3rd) advised U.S. citizens in Israel wishing to leave the country to do so via Egypt, hours after the U.S. urged all of its citizens in the Middle East to evacuate the region amid the fighting with Iran.
In a video posted to social media Tuesday (3rd), Huckabee said the Tourism Ministry is providing bus services from Herzliya, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem to Taba, just across the border in Egypt. From there, he said limited flights were available from the Taba International Airport, or ground transportation could be taken to Cairo, “where the airport is operating normally and efficiently.”
Israel’s airspace has been shut since Saturday (2/28) when it launched its pre-emptive strikes on Iran, and –unlike the June 2025 war – flights from neighboring Jordan have also been limited by Iranian retaliatory strikes.
“The options are fairly limited,” Huckabee noted, a day after the U.S. issued an urgent call for all of its citizens to evacuate all of the Middle East, including Egypt, “due to serious safety risks”
“We hope that all of this will be over soon,” Huckabee added in the video But how grateful we are to have an amazing country and a great president who has decided that after 47 years of the hostile actions against the United States from Iran, that we are joining together, not just with Israel, but now it appears the rest of the Middle East is saying “enough is enough.”
It is estimated that there are at least 200,000 American citizens in Israel, and potentially up to a million across the Middle East.
Purim Parties Shift To Bomb Shelters As Israelis Celebrate Under Iran War Threat
The Purim holiday is usually marked with boisterous street parades and costume parties to celebrate the Jewish victory over an ancient Persian ruler.
This year, the celebrations moved into fortified bomb shelters as the country waged war against Iran’s modern-day leaders.
In Tel Aviv on Monday (2nd), people of all ages, costumed for the holiday, streamed into a mall’s underground parking lot that also functions as a bomb shelter for the traditional reading of the Purim story, followed by music and dancing.
“It’s all about choosing happiness, choosing to be joyful, no matter what is going on,” said Mariel Margulis, a Tel Aviv resident who set up a tent and lived there for the past few days with her husband and six-month-old son.
The story of Purim, told in the Book of Esther, follows Haman, an advisor to King Ahashverosh, as he plans to exterminate the Jews of the kingdom.
The plan is foiled by Queen Esther and her cousin Mordechai. The story takes place in Shushan, Persia in what is now, in modern day, Iran.
“It feels biblical in proportion to what is happening right now, and we’re doing the little bit we can to be calm and stay joyful,“ said Mariel.
Purim, a holiday beloved by both religious and secular Jews, began in the rest of the Jewish world on Monday evening (2nd), but in Israel, a day earlier, on Sunday evening (1st).
In quieter times, families in colorful costumes throng downtown streets while children eat copious amounts of traditional triangular cookies called hamantashan.
Massive parties were planned this year after a two-year period of the Israel-Hamas war. But celebrations were once again disrupted by war.
With most Purim celebrations canceled, families planned their Purim events hopscotching between easy access to shelters.
“This just feels surreal,” said one resident, looking over the celebrations, as hundreds of people gathered and danced under the parking lot’s fluorescent lights.
“It’s not the most optimal conditions – we’re used to our synagogue, but we’re here together with all of the nation of Israel,” said GabiGrinshtain, a 39-year-old environmental consultant. “These are important days, and the setting is less important.”
The Anti-Israel Mob Is Twisted Beyond Belief – Brendan O’Neill
In North London, once again a mob of anti-Zionist imbeciles roughed up a newly opened branch of Gail’s, an upscale market bakery chain. It was instantly besieged by the usual keffiyeh clowns yelping about Israel’s “genocide.” The foolish of the cult of Islamophobia gathered outside the bakery to unfurl a vast banner saying, “Boycott Israel for Genocide and War Crimes in Gaza.” What does a bakery in North London have to do with Israel’s war against the anti-Semites of Hamas?
Gail’s was founded by the Israeli baker Gail Melia, who is not associated with the business anymore. But I’m not sure that that would make a blind bit of difference to the frenzied Israel haters. The very fact that Gail’s was founded by someone from the Jewish state they love to hate would be enough to condemn it as toxic, morally unclean, and a chain that all good people must boycott. To rage against a bakery on the basis that a citizen of the Jewish nation founded it, is to make a spectacle of your own swirling prejudices and irrational hatreds.
We see students fuming like a medieval mob whenever an Israeli representative is invited to their campus. And hotheads wearing the Palestinian flag smashing Israeli produce in the supermarket aisles.
Making moral cleanliness dependent on one’s willingness to boycott Israel is twisted beyond belief. The old fascists wanted to make Europe Judenfrei – while the new lot wants to make it Israelfrel. Different words, same vile bigotry.
The U.S. Is Finally Responding Decisively To Decades Of Aggression – Prof. Eugene Kontorovich
President Trump campaigned on ending “forever wars”. The current operation fulfills that promise by finally responding decisively to decades of aggression against America and its allies. The Constitution doesn’t forbid launching a surprise attack on a rare meeting of the enemy high command.
The U.S. attacks have a clear legal and practical justification. Iran has sponsored numerous lethal attacks on U/S. troops throughout the Middle East. Its proxies have attacked international shipping and funneled drugs to America. In recent years, Tehran tried to assassinate former President Trump and former senior officials from his first administration.This isn’t a war to protect Israel, which has done an excellent job of protecting itself. For the first time, the U.S.and Israel are fighting side by side. While America’s other major allies decided to sit this one out and even deny the use of all bases on their soil – Israel has proved itself a peer partner that makes it possible for America to achieve its strategic goals at far less risk to its own forces.
The writer is a professor at the George Mason University Law School and a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
(wsj.com)
