The United States and Israel have launched an attack on Iran, with explosions heard and seen across Tehran and in other parts of the country, as apparent retaliatory explosions are hitting northern Israel and multiple Gulf Arab states.
Several missiles struck University Street and the Jomhouri area in Tehran, the Fars news agency reported. Smoke was seen rising in the city, according to an Al Jazeera correspondent on the ground.
Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim News Agency reported that explosions also occurred in Tehran’s northern Seyyed Khandan area. Other Iranian media reported attacks nationwide, including in the western Ilam province, while Israel’s military confirmed carrying out attacks in western Iran.
An Israeli strike hit an elementary girl’s school in Minab, a city in the Hormozgan province of southern Iran, killing at least 40 people, according to according to the state-run IRNA news agency..
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the attacks targeted a range of military and defence sites, as well as civilian infrastructure, in various cities.
US President Donald Trump said the joint attacks were aimed at “eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime”.
“Short time ago, US military began major combat operation in Iran. Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating threats from the Iranian regime,” he said.
An Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran is preparing for a retaliation that is set to be ”crushing”. Iran is preparing to “take revenge” on Israel and deliver a “strong response”, State TV reported.
A senior Iranian official told Al Jazeera that “all American and Israeli assets and interests in the Middle East have become a legitimate target” and that “there are no red lines after this aggression”.
Explosions in Israel, Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait
Explosions rocked northern Israel as the country worked to intercept incoming Iranian missiles shortly after it attacked Iran. The blasts echoed just after the Israeli military said it would be using its air defence systems to bring down the Iranian fire. There was no immediate word on any casualties or damage from the ongoing attack.
Blasts also occurred across numerous Gulf Arab states that host US military assets, including Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Iran’s Fars News Agency confirmed the country had carried out attacks targeting military bases in each of the states, including Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar and the headquarters of the US Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain.
Qatar’s Defence Ministry said it had “successfully thwarted a number of attacks targeting the country’s territory”, after several rounds of alerts sounded.
The UAE’s state news agency reported one person was killed in Abu Dhabi after Iranian missiles were intercepted.
Muhanad Seloom, assistant professor in Critical Security Studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera that Iran wants to “raise the cost” for countries in the region that are close to the US.
“They are trying to draw other countries in the region into this war,” said Seloom. “They want to raise the cost for these countries, with the hope probably that these countries will pressure the US administration to stop this war.”
‘Joint US-Israeli action’
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacks on Iran aimed to remove an “existential threat”. Netanyahu projected that “joint action” by Israel and the US “will create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their fate into their own hands” and praised Trump for his “historic leadership”.
A US official told Al Jazeera earlier that the attacks were carried out as a joint military operation between Israel and the US, which has assembled a vast fleet of fighter jets and warships in the region to try to pressure Iran into a deal over its nuclear programme. A US official told Reuters that attacks were being carried out by air and sea.
One of the areas targeted in Iran’s capital was near the offices of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reported The Associated Press. Khamenei is not in Tehran and has been transferred to a secure location, according to an official quoted by Reuters.
Sirens in Israel
As sirens sounded and a state of emergency was declared in Israel, the Israeli military said it had issued a “proactive alert to prepare the public for the possibility of missiles being launched toward the state of Israel”.
The Israel Airports Authority announced its airspace had been closed to all civilian flights and urged the public not to come to the airport.
According to an Israeli defence official quoted by Reuters, the attacks had been planned for months and the launch date decided weeks ago, even as the US and Iran carried out negotiations.
Mehran Kamrava, director of the Iranian studies unit at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and professor at Georgetown University in Qatar, said Israel “appears to have launched an attack designed to derail the negotiations”.
PHOENIX — In the heart of the America First movement, Vice President J.D. Vance delivered a masterclass in political navigation at Turning Point USA’s year-end bash, deftly sidestepping the Israel quagmire that’s fracturing MAGA ranks without uttering the word that has neocons and Zionist lobbyists foaming at the mouth. The 41-year-old Ohioan, fresh from hosting a Hanukkah shindig at his home—complete with VP-sealed kippahs—focused on core conservative values: No “purity tests” for patriots, a nod to the young groypers questioning endless U.S. handouts to foreign powers. Vance’s restraint isn’t weakness; it’s wisdom—refusing to let establishment gatekeepers like AIPAC dictate who belongs in Trump’s coalition. As he told the roaring crowd, “President Trump did not build the greatest coalition in politics by running his supporters through endless, self-defeating purity tests.” Amen to that—Vance gets it: Real America First means putting White working families before endless Middle East entanglements.
This “tightrope” act, as one ally aptly put it, comes amid mounting pressure from the pro-Israel old guard to excommunicate bold voices like Nick Fuentes—the podcaster unapologetically calling out dual loyalties and endless wars—and Tucker Carlson, whose Israel skepticism echoes the frustrations of young conservatives tired of seeing their tax dollars fund foreign adventures. Fuentes, a fearless advocate for White America against demographic replacement, has taken heat for his unfiltered takes, but Vance’s silence speaks volumes: Why condemn a guy exposing the strings pulled by foreign lobbies? As Vance posted on X just before his Hanukkah event: “There’s a difference between not liking Israel (or disagreeing with a given Israeli policy) and anti-semitism.” Spot on—criticizing endless aid isn’t “hate”; it’s fiscal sanity.
From a right-center view, Vance’s balancing act is pure genius: Embracing Israel as a “strategic partner” without kowtowing to the war hawks who bled us dry in Iraq and Afghanistan. His UnHerd chat nailed it: “Antisemitism, and all forms of ethnic hatred, have no place in the conservative movement.” But let’s be real—Vance hates the Fuentes smears from the left, and his restraint keeps the door open for groypers disillusioned with Zionist priorities. Allies like TPUSA’s Andrew Kolvet praise Vance’s bridge-building: “Israel is our ally… but they’re not our only concern.” Exactly—America First means securing borders here, not babysitting endless conflicts abroad.
Critics like Shabbos Kestenbaum whine Vance is “winking” at groypers, but that’s swamp-speak for fearing real debate. Vance’s refusal to bash Carlson—after Tucker’s Fuentes sit-down—or Fuentes himself shows backbone: No bowing to the ADL’s cancel mob. As Vance ally noted anonymously: “JD understands the needs… of young Americans… better than any other leading politician.” Young Whites, squeezed by inflation and replacement migration, see Israel aid as a distraction—Vance’s “soul” check on Palestinian kid casualties humanizes that without caving.
Fuentes fired back via email, calling Vance’s remarks “performative” but open to support if he reins in Israel and bans immigration—fair ask for a guy amplifying White grievances ignored by RINOs. Greene’s resignation over Epstein files and Israel aid underscores the rift: MAGA’s evolving beyond neocon shackles.
Vance’s Phoenix omission? Strategic gold—focusing on Trump’s coalition sans Israel drama. As 2028 whispers grow, his “tightrope” keeps options open: Pro-White base without alienating allies. Trump stayed mum, but Vance’s play echoes the boss: Deal-making over division. For MAGA, it’s a win—prioritizing America, not endless foreign welfare.
Tucker Carlson leaned forward, his voice a mix of folksy curiosity and barely veiled admiration. “Nick Fuentes, thank you for doing this,” he said, slapping a tin of nicotine pouches onto the scarred wooden table. “I want to understand what you believe, and I want to give you a chance… to just lay it out.” What followed was a two-hour-plus podcast episode that didn’t so much crack open the Overton window of American conservatism as shatter it entirely. Fuentes, the 27-year-old white nationalist firebrand whose “Groyper” army of online trolls has long haunted the fringes of the MAGA movement, wasn’t grilled on his praise for Adolf Hitler or his Holocaust denial. Instead, he was handed a megaphone—reaching nearly 5 million YouTube views in days—and used it to declare “organized Jewry” America’s existential threat, gush over Joseph Stalin as a “fan,” and blame women for the nation’s moral decay.
This wasn’t a rogue ambush; it was a coronation. For years, Fuentes operated in the shadows—banned from platforms, shunned by CPAC, even mocked by Carlson himself as a “weird little gay kid” in an August spat. But in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s September assassination and a roiling GOP civil war over Israel, the firewall against him is crumbling. From Heritage Foundation boardrooms to Young Republican group chats, Fuentes’ antisemitic gospel is seeping into the mainstream right, threatening to redefine “America First” as a code for white Christian nationalism. As one GOP strategist whispered to me off the record: “Fuentes isn’t infiltrating MAGA—he’s becoming it.”
Our investigation—drawing on leaked emails, internal Heritage memos, exclusive interviews with disgruntled staffers, and a deep dive into Fuentes’ financial empire—reveals a calculated conquest. Backed by a post-Kirk surge in followers (over 100,000 on X and Rumble since September), Fuentes is positioning himself as the “alt-Charlie Kirk,” infiltrating youth orgs and think tanks while his Groypers wage guerrilla warfare online. The result? A Republican Party fracturing along lines of faith, foreign policy, and outright bigotry, with Trump’s “big tent” looking more like a siege tower aimed at American Jews.
The interview, aired October 27 on The Tucker Carlson Show, was billed as a bridge-building exercise. Carlson, exiled from Fox but thriving with 5 million subscribers, framed it as a quest for understanding: “You’re clearly ascendant… enormously talented. More talented than I am, for sure.” Fuentes, the Berwyn, Illinois, native who once urged Trump to drop out in 2016, obliged with a manifesto. “The big challenge to unifying the country… is organized Jewry in America,” he intoned, echoing tropes of a “transnational gang” pulling strings. He admired Stalin for “turning the USSR into a global superpower” and beat back the Nazis—omitting the purges that killed millions, including Jews. On women? “It’s the women… extremely liberal… frumpy, obnoxious, loudmouth… Their sense of their own looks and sexual value is very inflated.” Carlson, self-admitted “a little sexist,” nodded along, decrying “Christian Zionists” like Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee as heretics infected by a “brain virus.”
Pushback was perfunctory. Carlson quibbled on antisemitism—”It’s against my Christian faith”—but never circled back to Stalin or Hitler, whom Fuentes has called “really f***ing cool.” By contrast, his June grilling of Cruz devolved into shouts over Israel policy. “Why grill a senator fighting for conservatism but pattycake with a podcaster praising genocide?” one Heritage alum fumed to me.
The episode exploded: 13 million X views, 2.6 million on YouTube in 24 hours. Fuentes crowed on X: “We don’t need permission from foreign agents & paid shills… The Tucker show was the first conversation… totally unsanctioned by Israel.” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) rallied: “The more they go after @TuckerCarlson, the more I will watch.” But the backlash was swift and bipartisan.
GOP Reckoning: From Cruz to McConnell, a Line in the Sand
At the Republican Jewish Coalition’s (RJC) annual summit in Las Vegas—meant to toast a fragile Gaza ceasefire—the interview hijacked the agenda. College-aged Jewish Republicans waved “Tucker is not MAGA” signs; speakers like Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) thundered, “In our party we will not tolerate antisemitism.” Sen. Ted Cruz, without naming Carlson, eviscerated the platforming: “If you sit there with someone who says Adolf Hitler was very, very cool… and you say nothing, then you are a coward and you are complicit in that evil.” He’d seen “more antisemitism on the right in the last six months than in my entire life,” a “poison” facing an “existential crisis.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) piled on, skewering Heritage’s defense of Carlson: “Last I checked, ‘conservatives should feel no obligation’ to carry water for antisemites and apologists for America-hating autocrats.” Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) called Carlson “a bad person… changed a lot over the last 20 years.” RJC CEO Matt Brooks was “appalled, offended and disgusted,” vowing a “reassessment” of ties with Heritage. Even Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) quipped from the “Hitler-sucks wing of the Republican Party.”
Democrats pounced: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer deemed it “deeply disturbing,” urging Heritage allies to “disavow this dangerous mainstreaming.” The irony stung—GOP attacks on “leftist antisemitism” rang hollow amid leaks of Young Republicans’ chats joking about gas chambers and a Trump nominee’s “Nazi streak.”
Fuentes reveled: In a post-interview video, he urged, “We are done with the Jewish oligarchy… the slavish surrender to Israel.” His Groypers—Pepe the Frog variants co-opted by alt-right incels—swarmed, doxxing critics and claiming infiltration: “There’s groypers in every department.”
Heritage’s House of Cards: Staff Shakeup and Soul-Searching
No institution felt the quake like the Heritage Foundation, conservatism’s intellectual fortress and architect of Project 2025. President Kevin Roberts’ Thursday video—defending Carlson as a “close friend” and decrying a “venomous coalition” of cancellers—ignited a firestorm. “The American people expect us to be focusing on our political adversaries on the left, not attacking our friends on the right,” Roberts intoned, adding that “canceling [Fuentes] is not the answer.”
Internally, it was mutiny. Tax researcher Preston Brashers tweeted a “NAZIS ARE BAD” meme and clips of Fuentes’ Hitler fandom, prompting Chief of Staff Ryan Neuhaus to demand resignations: “Resign if so outraged… addition by subtraction.” By Friday, Roberts reassigned Neuhaus to a senior adviser role at the Simon Center, installing EVP Derrick Morgan as acting chief. An all-staff email, subject: “Heritage’s Stand Against Antisemitism and for Civilizational Truth,” touted anti-hate initiatives but insisted on “balanced” Israel policy: “Space between believing Israel can do no wrong and blaming it for every wrong.”
Board trustees rebelled. Princeton’s Robert P. George blasted “no enemies to the right” as incompatible with “inherent and equal dignity of all,” refusing to normalize “white supremacists… antisemites.” Trustee John Coleman: “You cannot be a faithful Christian and anti-Semitic.” Mark Goldfeder quit Heritage’s antisemitism task force: “Makes continued participation impossible.” Ex-staffer Tim Chapman, now at Advancing American Freedom, accused Heritage of “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” with populists.
Roberts doubled down in interviews: “To appeal to [Fuentes’] millions of disaffected young men… not to cancel him.” But whispers of a board “emergency meeting” (denied by VP Mary Vought) and donation-page Carlson scrub suggest damage control. “Heritage’s one-voice policy is cracking,” a current staffer told me anonymously. “We’re the intellectual backbone—now we’re carrying water for Stalin fans?”
Kirk’s September 10 assassination—by Tyler Robinson, a left-leaning gamer radicalized over trans issues—created a void Fuentes exploited ruthlessly. Leftist conspiracies briefly fingered Groypers (debunked; no ties), but Fuentes spun it: “We’re being framed… based on literally zero evidence.” His post-Kirk episode: 2.5 million Rumble views. Spotify yanked his show for hate speech, but X reinstated him under Musk.
Fuentes’ model? Infiltrate and radicalize. Groypers trolled Turning Point USA in 2019’s “Groyper Wars,” grilling Kirk on Israel and immigration. Jan. 6 arrests included Groyper links; now, they’re in “every department,” per Fuentes. Financially? America First Foundation: $44K in FY2024 (up from $4K prior). Subscriptions ($15-$100/month) and merch fund his Rumble empire—second-most watched Q3 streamer.
Legally unscathed: A November 2024 battery charge (pepper-spraying a woman after doxxing) resolved with anger management, 75 hours community service, $635 restitution, and an apology—dismissed if complied. Victim Marla Rose: “Consequences for… hate.” Fuentes’ retort to critics? “Shut the f— up. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Fuentes’ Carlson chat doubled as a misogyny manifesto. Women? “Baby machines” with “inflated” value, driving “hoeflation” and erectile dysfunction via porn. “Men are the responsible party but have no authority.” Carlson: “I don’t know a single happily married woman who’s liberal.” Bare Marriage research contradicts: Patriarchal “authority” correlates with exhaustion, pain, and passive-aggression.
On Israel: A proxy for antisemitism. Carlson’s “Christian Zionists” rant alienates evangelicals; Fuentes eyes Vance as 2028 prey: “We’ll be in Iowa.” Laura Loomer, Jewish MAGA enforcer: “They say I don’t belong… because I’m Jewish.” Trump—philo-Semitic, pro-Israel—holds the tent, but his exit looms.
As George Washington wrote in 1790: May Jews “continue to merit and enjoy the good will” of Americans. Fuentes’ vision? An America where they don’t. With Kirk gone and Heritage wobbling, the Groypers march. The right’s soul hangs in the balance: Will it debate evil—or embrace it?
