Israel pushes for full Iran blockade as it awaits Trump's next move
Israel’s preferred strategy, sources told Al-Monitor, calls for a comprehensive naval, economic, land and air blockade of Iran, alongside tighter sanctions and covert activity aimed at destabilizing the regime.
TEL AVIV — US President Donald Trump’s announcement Monday on Truth Social that he had called off a massive strike against Iran, which he claimed had been scheduled for Tuesday, reassured neither ordinary Israelis nor the country's leadership.
In the second part of his message, Trump wrote that he had instructed his top generals to “be prepared to go forward with a full, large-scale assault on Iran, on a moment’s notice, in the event that an acceptable deal is not reached.”
For Israelis, who have yet to recover from the retaliatory Iranian missile attacks that sent millions scrambling for shelter during five weeks of war, Trump’s latest reversal was merely the latest twist in an ongoing roller coaster of uncertainty surrounding his intentions since the April 7 ceasefire with Iran.
Some Israeli officials have joked that they have resorted to prediction platforms such as Polymarket to guess whether Trump will ultimately order a massive strike on Iran, a limited one or no strike at all.
