BICOM CEO James Sorene was featured on LBC where he was interviewed by host Nick Ferrari on the ongoing tension between Iran and Israel and the recent strikes in the Golan Heights and Syria.

The Guardian, Channel 4 News, the Telegraph, , BBC News Online and the Daily Express reports on the tension in the Golan Heights between Iranian forces and Israel.

The Sun features a report from the Golan Heights by Political Editor Tom Newton Dunn. In his report he says that “with Syria the chaotic playground of all of the region’s superpowers, the Middle East has again become a powder keg ready to blow.” He writes that “it’s clear the generals disagree with their ministers over whether Donald Trump was right to pull the US out of the Iran nuclear agreement on Tuesday night, fearing the uncertainty over what comes next. But all are united on who is responsible for the explosive clash in the early hours of Thursday morning.” It also features an extensive graphic outlining Iran’s influence in the region.

The Telegraph, the Independent and the Daily Mail reports that Israel has released a video of the moment one of its missiles destroyed what they called an Iranian rocket launcher in Syria. The raids were in response to the first direct attack by Iran on Israel since the Iranian revolution 39 years ago, a moment in history that severed previously close ties and set the two states on what successive leaders in each country have believed to be an inexorable path towards war. The Guardian and the Daily Mail reports that Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon is calling on the UN Security Council and the secretary-general to immediately condemn Iran’s missile attack and demand that Tehran remove its military presence from Syria. In letters to the council and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres Danon said to the council and  that “the international community must not stand idly by while a tyrannical regime attacks a sovereign nation and continues to threaten the very existence of a member-state of the United Nations”. The Times reports that Israel claimed to have wiped out almost all Iran’s military infrastructure in Syria yesterday after their biggest military confrontation stoked fears of a regional war breaking out in the Middle East. Israel boasted that Iran’s military capabilities in Syria would take as much as a year to rebuild after it launched 70 separate strikes on Iranian targets in retaliation for what it claimed was an unsuccessful multiple rocket attack on its forces in the occupied Golan Heights. The dramatic intervention came amid heightened tensions in the region only a day after US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.

BBC Radio Four’s Today Programme was broadcast from Jerusalem where they discussed the recent conflict in the north of Israel between Iranian and Israeli forces.

The Guardian published a column by Foreign Affairs Editor Peter Beaumont which argues that “if the precise timing of the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Iran in Syria is surprising, the fact that it has occurred is less so”.

The Telegraph published a column by Defence Editor Con Coughlin that argues that “Russia, Israel and Iran are trapped in a deadly dance for the future of the Middle East”. He makes that case that Russian President Vlademir Putin is said to enjoy a good relationship with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to the extent that, in the past, Moscow has given Israel a green light to attack Iranian positions in Syria, even though Russia and Iran are supposed to be allies fighting common cause on behalf of the Assad regime.

The Telegraph published a column by terrorism expert at the Human Security Centre Julie Lenarz that argues that “we must stand with Trump and Israel to stop Iran from creating a Shiite empire”.

The Telegraph published a column by Editor of the Sunday Telegraph Allister Heath that argues that “the Iran deal was a monument to Western myopia and groupthink” and bids it “good riddance”.

The Independent published a column by Middle East Correspondent Robert Fisk which argues that the current situation in the Middle East is “a moment when all sides are now staring at each other with increasing concern”.

The Daily Mail published a column by the director of the Crisis Research Institute in Oxford, Mark Almond on the ongoing tensions between Iran and Israel. He argues that the “alarming developments in the Middle East remind us of the even greater likelihood of conventional warfare on a cataclysmic scale in the region. Now that its heavyweights — Israel and Iran — have traded blows for the very first time, we ignore that threat at our peril.”

The Independent and the Daily Mail via AP report that Hamas’ leader in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar has compared the enclave’s people to a “starving tiger” hinting at the possibility that thousands of Palestinians could breach the border fence with Israel during mass protests next week. “What’s the problem if hundreds of thousands storm this fence which is not a border of a state? What’s the problem with that?” Sinwar said, adding he did not recognise the border. Sinwar also warned that desperation among young Gazans had become a ticking bomb. Sinwar said the protests were peaceful, but that “no one knows where the tiger is heading, what it is going to do”.

BBC News Online the Financial Times and the Independent report that the US has imposed sanctions on six people and three companies it says have ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the penalties targeted those who had funnelled millions of dollars to the group, funding its “malign activity”. Iran’s central bank helped the IRGC to access US dollars via “a large-scale currency exchange network,” he said. The Treasury Department said all six individuals were Iranian. US individuals and entities will be barred from doing business with them following the move, which was carried out in conjunction with the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The Financial Times reports that with the symbolic move of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem next week, Trump will reverse seven decades of US policy, defying a longstanding international consensus and, in Palestinian eyes at least, destroying hopes of a two-state solution. But for Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, the embassy inauguration will be the second act in a series of diplomatic triumphs.

The Israeli media focuses on the extensive Israeli air strike against Iranian targets in Syria, dubbed Operation House of Cards, which its describes as the largest Israeli operation in Syria since 1974.

In Yediot Ahronoth, Yossi Yehoshua writes about Qassem Soleimani who commands the IRGC’s elite Quds Force, which was responsible for the missile launches at Israel. “Soleimani wanted revenge, but not only did he not get it—he also took a significant blow. The great question now is whether this failure will make the [chance of] revenge more remote, or hasten it.” He adds that “this is not the end of the story, but rather another round of battle in the campaign against Iran. This is precisely the time for the urgent assistance that the civilian home front requires.”

Also in Yediot Ahronot, Ron Ben Yishai writes that “Soleimani will need a great deal of time and funds in order to recoup the bases, intelligence posts and logistical sites destroyed in the strike. Iranian public opinion will not be pleased.” He also argues that “the Israeli strike was meant to signal to President Bashar Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin that the continued military presence of Iran in Syria will harm their vital interests: the constant skirmishing between Israel and Iran on Syrian territory will torpedo efforts to end the long and bloody Syrian civil war and further delay Assad’s regaining control over all – or most – of Syria and the rebuilding of the country.”

In Haaretz, Anshel Pfeffer writes that Putin is giving Israel a free hand against Iran in Syria, but he may soon have to pick a side, adding that “Moscow is content to maintain a balance between the two sides – leaving Iran’s forces in Syria while allowing Israel to bomb them – as long as its achievement of saving the Assad regime is not endangered.”

A poll in Maariv shows that if elections to the Knesset were to be held today, the Likud led by Netanyahu would jump to 36 seats versus the 30 it has in the current Knesset, with Yesh Atid lagging behind with 17 seats, the Joint List with 12 seats, and the Zionist Union led by Avi Gabbay with 10 seats.

Kan Radio News reports remarks by Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar who said that the Israelis being held in Gaza would not see the light of day without a deal that frees the Palestinian prisoners. Sinwar added at a press briefing in Gaza that the protests at the border fence would continue until the siege that Israel has imposed on the Gaza Strip is broken.

Israel Hayom features an interview with Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales. Guatemala is moving its embassy to Jerusalem next week.

The Times of Israel reports that Israel is due to expel a Human Rights Watch director for what it calls “actively supporting” BDS.