A letter from Heinrich Himmler—the head of the SS and the key official behind the planning and implementation of the Holocaust—to Amin Haj al-Husseini, the former grand mufti of Jerusalem, was recently discovered in Israel’s National Library. Dated to 1943, the letter expresses German solidarity with Palestinian Arabs in undoing the “criminal” Balfour Declaration. Joy Bernard writes:

The Nazi commander . . . wrote to the Muslim leader that “the joint recognition of the enemy, [i.e., the Jew], and the joint battle against him are what creates the firm allegiance between Germany and freedom-seeking Muslims all over the world.”

Himmler went on to tell the mufti . . . that his country was closely following the Palestinian resistance against the Balfour Declaration. “The National-Socialist movement of Greater Germany has made its fight against world Jewry a guiding principle since its very beginning,” Himmler wrote. “For that reason [the movement] has been closely following the battle of freedom-seeking Arabs, especially in Palestine, against the Jewish invaders,” the Nazi leader added.

He finished his warm letter to the mufti by writing: “In this spirit, I am happy to extend to you, on the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, warm wishes for the continuation of your battle until the certain final victory.”

Last week, the New York Times reported, based on unnamed sources within the Trump administration, that the president had asked Israel not to carry out a planned strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. That is, somebody deliberately gave this information to the press, which later tried to confirm it by speaking with other officials. Amit Segal writes that, “according to figures in Israel’s security establishment,” this is “the most serious leak in Israel’s history.” He explains:

As Israel is reportedly planning what may well be one of its most consequential military operations ever, the New York Times lays out for the Iranians what Israel will target, when it will carry out the operation, and how. That’s not just any other leak.

Seth Mandel looks into the leaker’s logic:

The primary purpose of the [Times] article is not as a record of internal deliberations but as an instrument of policy itself. Namely, to obstruct future U.S. and Israeli foreign policy by divulging enough details of Israel’s plans in order to protect Iran’s nuclear sites. The idea is to force Israeli planners back to the drawing board, thus delaying a possible future strike on Iran until Iranian air defenses have been rebuilt.

The leak is the point. It’s a tactical play, more or less, to help Iran torpedo American action.

The leaker, Mandel explains—and the Times itself implies—is likely aligned with the faction in the administration that wants to see the U.S. retreat from the world stage and from its alliance with Israel, a faction that includes Vice-President J.D. Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and the president’s own chief of staff Susie Wiles.

Yet it’s also possible, if less likely, that the plans were leaked in support of administration policy rather than out of factional infighting. Eliezer Marom argues that the leak was “part of the negotiations and serves to clarify to the Iranians that there is a real attack plan that Trump stopped at the last moment to conduct negotiations.”