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New Book Details Iran’s Path to a Nuclear Bomb
A satellite image shows airstrike craters over the underground centrifuge halls of the Natanz Enrichment Facility, following US airstrikes amid the Iran-Israel conflict, in Natanz County, Iran, June 22, 2025. Photo: Maxar Technologies/Handout via REUTERS
Edwin Black’s new book, Israel Strikes Iran: Operation Rising Lion – The 20-Year Backstory, is a must-read. Don’t let the fact that you are unlikely to understand the details (unless you are a defense analyst or a nuclear weapons specialist) deter you.
The lessons are in plain English.
- Iran’s intention to enrich uranium and build nuclear weapons was clear long before the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
- Iran’s scientists were pretty good. With the help of other countries, plus funding by the West in the form of “sanctions relief” or waivers, or by ignoring violations of sanctions, the Iranian scientists created weapons and plans.
- Iran cheated before, during, and after the JCPOA.
- A lot of people knew that — and didn’t act on what they knew.
- But there were other people, and we should be forever grateful to them.
Black, the award-winning investigative journalist and New York Times (NYT) bestselling author, has been watching and writing about Iranian nuclear progress for decades.
The introductory chapter, “The Twenty-year Wait,” is Black’s timeline, putting forward bits and pieces of information that culminated in Operation Rising Lion. He notes, “Israel Strikes Iran has been almost ready to publish for years … I wrote all but the final chapter material back in 2021 and 2022.”
Yes, it is a bit self-aggrandizing, but he’s more than entitled. Author of a dozen books — including the terrifying IBM and the Holocaust and equally terrifying Financing the Flames — Black is the master of the back story.
You know the Russian S-300 air defense system, right? But did you know that in 2008, Greece, which owned S-300s, held joint Air Force exercises with Israel? The NYT reported on them, but Black added, in The Cutting Edge News (TCEN) in July of that year, “Pivotal information … has remained below the radar. By swarming its jets into the S-300s massive electronics, Israel was able to record invaluable information about defeating, jamming and circumventing the Russian system.” Oh.
The article outlines Israel’s leaps in air superiority, but notes that Israel presumed heavy Iranian retaliation. “Israel considers itself to be in a no-win situation because years of sanctions and intense diplomacy have not stopped Iran’s cyclonic nuclear progress…More than one Israeli official has stated that the only thing worse than attacking Iran is not attacking Iran.”
Then his 2025 update.
Iran’s home-built air defense system, Bavar, was rushed to deployment. Israel’s air defense systems surpassed all prior understanding and, Iran’s April 2024 barrage of 30 cruise missiles, 120 ballistic missiles, and 170 drones managed to injure a seven-year-old Bedouin girl in Arad. Israel’s retaliation was much more effective.
Israel eliminated Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, carried out the pager attacks on Hezbollah operatives on September 17, and then took out Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut on the 27th. Iran responded and Israel responded.
Now you start to see how this works.
Chapter Two is the story of the development of the Massive Ordnance Perpetrator (MOP) bunker buster, which began in 2004, as Black reported in a TCEN story in September 2009. You don’t need to understand the details to understand their success.
But in the 2025 update, you will get the details, and — as hard as it is to imagine — discover that hundreds, if not thousands, of DOD personnel, government officials, and staffers kept their mouths shut about it for more than 20 years. Spoiler alert: Jump to the last chapter and read the paean to our people by General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The result: “Operation Midnight Hammer played out as one of the most sophisticated and synchronized military operations since WWII… within the space of minutes, twelve MOPS dropped on Fordow, two MOPs plunged into the Natanz facility, and the Tomahawks pounded Isfahan.”
The development of Iran’s bomb is Chapter 3, starting with an article in The Times of Israel in 2012. The article also shows the development of the Shehab-3 missile. The chapter starts with Pakistan, but it is actually a timeline on Israel’s ops inside Iran — from stealing the nuclear archive in 2018, to the assassination of Iranian scientists, to sabotage of facilities across the country. It details American policy toward Iran — from Obama through Trump 1 through Biden and into Trump 2. For 12 of those years (guess which), the US doesn’t look too good. But remember, during all that time, the military establishment was improving MOPs and plans — silently.
As you read on, you get a comforting feeling, actually, that people in the US and Israel were determined to protect us all.
Chapters Four and Five don’t require much technical knowledge. They are the best chapters and maybe should have come first — we know the end of the story. But as you read them, everything you read before comes into focus. All the groundwork, the science, the diplomacy and lack thereof, the activities carried out in secret and in public, the coordination and cooperation between the United States and Israel becomes the stage on which Operation Rising Lion and Operation Midnight Hammer played out.
Don’t cheer yet. Black is nothing if not a realist, ending with a cautionary note: “The most important warning of this book is contained not in the text written above, but the text yet to be written below … Our destiny paragraph is yet to be written.”
Wait for it.
Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of The Jewish Policy Center and Editor of inFOCUS Quarterly.
The post New Book Details Iran’s Path to a Nuclear Bomb first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Some 800,000 Palestinians Evacuate from Gaza City as Israeli Defense Minister Says Operation to Ramp Up
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that more than 750,000 Palestinian residents of Gaza City have fled to safe areas as the IDF ramps up its operation against one of the last major Hamas strongholds in the enclave. The military subsequently revised the figure up to 800,000.
Katz said Israel ramped up the attacks, proceeding to what he called the “decisive” phase of its operation.
“Autonomous explosive-laden military vehicles are being deployed in advance of the troops to defuse explosives, and the fire cover to protect the troops from the air and ground is heavy and strong,” he posted to his account on the X platform.
“Gaza City is emptying because its residents realize the military operation is escalating and move south for their own safety,” said Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman.
The Israeli military was in control of over half of Gaza City, sources familiar with the matter told Israeli media on Saturday.
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Trump Says ‘We Will Get It Done’ in the Middle East
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
US President Donald Trump expressed optimism on Sunday about reaching a deal to end the war in Gaza, saying there is “a real chance for greatness in the Middle East,” ahead of talks on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump did not provide specific details of a prospective ceasefire-for-hostages agreement in Gaza, but Vice President JD Vance told “Fox News Sunday” that top US officials are immersed in “very complicated” negotiations with Israeli and Arab leaders.
“We have a real chance for Greatness in the Middle East. All are on board for something special, first time ever. We will get it done,” Trump said in a Truth Social post that was issued as he rode in his motorcade to his suburban Virginia golf club.
Trump will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday at the White House with the aim of reaching a framework for a deal, according to administration officials.
Trump said on Friday talks on Gaza with Middle Eastern nations were intense and that Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants were aware of the discussions, which he said would continue as long as required.
Vance described himself as “cautiously hopeful” about reaching a deal.
“I feel more optimistic about where we are right now than where we have been at any point in the last few months, but let’s be realistic, these things can get derailed at the very last minute,” he said.
He said the plan has three main components: Returning all hostages, ending the Hamas threat to Israel, and escalating humanitarian aid in Gaza.
“So I think we’re close to accomplishing all three of those objectives,” Vance said.
When international leaders gathered at the United Nations in New York this week, the US unveiled a 21-point Middle East peace plan to end the nearly two-year-long war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
That plan calls for the return of all hostages, living and dead, no further Israeli attacks on Qatar and a new dialogue between Israel and Palestinians for “peaceful coexistence,” a White House official said.
Israel angered Qataris by launching an airstrike against Hamas targets in their capital Doha on September 9.
A Hamas representative said on Saturday that the group had not seen the US plan.
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Hamas Says It Lost Contact with Two Hostages as Tanks Thrust Deeper into Gaza City
A mobile artillery unit fires towards Gaza near the border, in Israel, September 28, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Hamas said on Sunday it had lost contact with two Israeli hostages held in Gaza City, and called on Israel to pull troops back and suspend air strikes for 24 hours so fighters could retrieve the captives.
The fate of the two hostages, which has strong domestic resonance in Israel, could cast a shadow over a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump on Monday.
Israel has launched a massive ground assault on Gaza City, flattening whole districts and ordering hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee to tented camps, in what Netanyahu says is a bid to destroy Hamas once and for all in its final bastion.
Nevertheless, the past few days have seen increasing talk of steps towards a diplomatic resolution to the nearly two-year-old war. Trump said on Friday that a deal on Gaza seemed likely.
HAMAS SAYS IT HAS NOT RECEIVED NEW PEACE PROPOSAL
Hamas said earlier on Sunday that it had not yet received a new proposal to end the war. Netanyahu says Hamas must lay down its arms or be defeated. The militant group has so far said it will never give up its weapons as long as Palestinians are struggling for a state.
The Hamas military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, called on the Israeli military to pull troops back from the Sabra and Tel Al-Hawa districts southeast of Gaza City’s center, and suspend flights over the area for 24 hours from 1500 GMT so it could reach the two trapped hostages.
The Israeli military did not directly comment on the request but made clear it had no plans to halt its advances, issuing a statement ordering all residents of parts of Gaza City including the Sabra district to leave. It said it was about to attack Hamas targets and raze buildings in the area.
Gaza residents and medics said Israeli tanks pushed deeper into Sabra, Tel Al-Hawa and nearby Sheikh Radwan and Al-Naser neighbourhoods, closing in on the heart of the city and western areas where hundreds of thousands of people are sheltering.
RESCUERS UNABLE TO REACH TRAPPED RESIDENTS
Local health authorities said they had been unable to respond to dozens of desperate calls from trapped residents.
Gaza’s Civil Emergency Service said late on Saturday that Israel had denied 73 requests, sent via international organizations, to let it rescue injured Palestinians in Gaza City. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
The families of the two hostages identified by Hamas have requested that their names not be published by the media.
Hamas precipitated the war when it attacked Israeli territory in October, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages. Forty-eight hostages are still in Gaza, of whom Netanyahu says 20 are believed still alive.
The Israeli military says that Hamas, which ruled Gaza for nearly two decades, no longer has governing capacity and that its military force has been reduced to a guerrilla movement.
The Israeli military launched its long-threatened ground offensive on Gaza City on September 16 after weeks of intensifying strikes on the urban center.
Over the past 24 hours, the air force had struck 140 military targets across Gaza, including militants and what it described as military infrastructure, the military said.
The World Food Program estimates that between 350,000 and 400,000 Palestinians have fled Gaza City since last month, although hundreds of thousands remain. The Israeli military estimates that around a million Palestinians were in Gaza City in August.