On February 12, Isaac Herzog—Israel’s current president and a former leader of the Labor party—gave a speech about the ongoing public debate over judicial reform, affirming the legitimacy of both sides’ concerns and urging leaders to find a lasting compromise. Such an intervention was an unusual step in a country where the president is for the most part a figurehead, expected to stay above the political fray, and indeed Herzog did his best to express himself in nonpartisan terms. Haviv Rettig Gur believes the speech had significant effects:

The speech didn’t spark a mad rush to compromise, but the political vocabulary changed instantly. Politicians who’d spent weeks showcasing their partisan bona fides now declared their eagerness for dialogue. . . . Justice Minister Yariv Levin [one of the architects of the proposed reforms], made a point of welcoming dialogue even as he explained why he wouldn’t slow the pace of legislation. . . . Under the public gaze directed his way by the president, he suddenly understood he needed to show he was rational and open to compromise.

On the center-left, the process was much the same. The demand to cancel the plan outright transformed into a demand for a temporary pause—[the opposition leader] Yair Lapid called for a 60-day freeze—to allow for serious negotiations.

There’s a reason Herzog’s speech had that effect, and it points to a surprising new role he has carved out for the Israeli presidency in his twenty months in the position, a role probably unprecedented in Israeli history. . . . One obvious example was his role in the revival of diplomatic ties with Turkey. In March 2022, Herzog traveled to Ankara for a state visit. He was received with unusual warmth by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a sharp change in tone from the years when Turkey was the de-facto leader of an anti-Israel, Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated axis in the region.

The visit was first and foremost a calculated geopolitical pivot for both Ankara and Jerusalem. But it was also a result of Herzog’s unexpectedly close ties with the Turkish president, the culmination of a long process of careful relationship-building on Herzog’s part that opened a channel of communication between the two men.

Early Friday morning, Israel attacked military installations near the Iranian cities of Isfahan and nearby Natanz, the latter being one of the hubs of the country’s nuclear program. Jerusalem is not taking credit for the attack, and none of the details are too certain, but it seems that the attack involved multiple drones, likely launched from within Iran, as well as one or more missiles fired from Syrian or Iraqi airspace. Strikes on Syrian radar systems shortly beforehand probably helped make the attack possible, and there were reportedly strikes on Iraq as well.

Iran itself is downplaying the attack, but the S-300 air-defense batteries in Isfahan appear to have been destroyed or damaged. This is a sophisticated Russian-made system positioned to protect the Natanz nuclear installation. In other words, Israel has demonstrated that Iran’s best technology can’t protect the country’s skies from the IDF. As Yossi Kuperwasser puts it, the attack, combined with the response to the assault on April 13,

clarified to the Iranians that whereas we [Israelis] are not as vulnerable as they thought, they are more vulnerable than they thought. They have difficulty hitting us, but we have no difficulty hitting them.

Nobody knows exactly how the operation was carried out. . . . It is good that a question mark hovers over . . . what exactly Israel did. Let’s keep them wondering. It is good for deniability and good for keeping the enemy uncertain.

The fact that we chose targets that were in the vicinity of a major nuclear facility but were linked to the Iranian missile and air forces was a good message. It communicated that we can reach other targets as well but, as we don’t want escalation, we chose targets nearby that were involved in the attack against Israel. I think it sends the message that if we want to, we can send a stronger message. Israel is not seeking escalation at the moment.