JINSA

Over 75 senior retired 🇺🇸U.S. generals, admirals, and military lawyers have signed a new open letter rejecting claims that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. The signatories include those who have commanded U.S. armed forces in combat, applying the laws of armed conflict. Their conclusion: based on the facts and applicable legal standard, the conduct of Israel’s war against Hamas does not constitute genocide. As the letter states, “Civilian deaths occurring during combat, however tragic, are insufficient, by themselves, to support a finding of genocidal intent.” The standards used to judge military conduct matter precisely because war is tragic and imperfect. “The precedent established today regarding Israel will shape the conditions under which American forces fight tomorrow. Protecting civilians and preserving the ability of our nation to defend itself requires us to defend the truth when the laws of war are being distorted to make false charges of genocide.” This is not an argument for minimizing the suffering of civilians. It is an argument for applying the law faithfully and maintaining the distinctions that matter: between the tragic consequences of war, violations of the laws of armed conflict, and the specific crime of genocide. Read the full open letter here: jinsa.org/open-letter-from-m…

President Trump should rise above the noise and refocus on the U.S. national interest by fulfilling his repeated vow to “finish the job” with Iran and return to his original war goals. In @thehill JINSA's @MichaelMakovsky & @BlaiseMisztal write: The war will only end by returning to the first objective Trump dropped from his list: the collapse of the fanatical, barbaric Tehran regime. No deal should be made with Iran; it would only sustain the regime. The U.S. military’s blockade is vital to further weakening it and accelerating its demise. thehill.com/opinion/internat…

.@blaisemisztal tells @piersmorgan he would advise President Trump that “this war is not finished.”
 Those who want the U.S. to abandon the Middle East and surrender to Iran don’t grapple with what happens next: 🔴 Iran fully controls the Strait of Hormuz, closing oil flow at will and spiking U.S. gas prices.
 🔴Iran finishes its path to a nuclear weapon.
 🔴Iran rebuilds its conventional missile stockpiles, leading to more devastating strikes  that drive down the global economy.
 🔴 Iranian proxies gain strength across the Middle East, attacking American troops and partners.

The United States maintains an ambiguous stance regarding Israel’s alleged nuclear program. The matter remains highly classified, with no public evidence proving Jerusalem’s nuclear capabilities. Piers seemed quite distressed by this nuance, and that the Israeli government had not disclosed classified information to @BlaiseMisztal, an American policy expert at a U.S. think tank. We direct Piers to Secretary of State @marcorubio’s June 2026 hearing: “They’ve never acknowledged to having a nuclear program,” and while there is “open source and reporting about what they may possess, and speaking frankly, most of the world assesses that they do. But they’ve never acknowledged that publicly. As a feature of our foreign policy, for a variety of reasons, we don’t discuss it in that way either.”

Statement from JINSA President & CEO @MichaelMakovsky on the U.S.-Israel MOU: President Trump’s statement today about foreign aid to Israel seemed to have caught everyone by surprise. We’re not aware of any agreement to end the aid this year; in fact, both countries were working on a new MOU to replace or follow the existing MOU that was agreed to by President Obama in 2016 and set to expire in 2028. Israel has demonstrated its extraordinary value to American security—not simply as a recipient of U.S. military assistance, but as an ally that fights as an equal partner alongside American forces, shares intelligence, develops advanced military capabilities, hosts and protects U.S. personnel, and shoulders a growing share of the burden for regional security. The ongoing Iranian threat to American interests and the profound uncertainty facing the Middle East make Israel’s unique military capabilities more important to the United States than ever. An abrupt end to U.S. military assistance to Israel, all of which is used to purchase American weapons from American companies and made by American workers, serves neither country’s economy nor security interests. There should be one final MOU of equal dollar value to the existing one. JINSA has argued that the current military assistance framework should ultimately give way to a true strategic partnership built around mutual collaboration and tangible benefits to both countries. It should accelerate a new model of cooperation—one that better harnesses Israel’s military, technological, and intelligence capabilities, as well as the geographic location and security of its military bases, to strengthen American security. The question should not be how to end this relationship, but how to evolve it to meet the strategic challenges ahead.

JINSA Distinguished Fellow IDF Major General (ret) Yaakov Amidror told @NYPost an attack on Israel would open the door to a massive response from the Jewish State. “If the Iranian retaliation will be to destroy or try to destroy energy facilities in the Gulf countries, that would be a good excuse for Israel to destroy the whole energy infrastructure in Iran.” Amidror emphasized that Israel’s top priority would be to neutralize the regime’s nuclear and missile capabilities. nypost.com/2026/10/31/world-…

Iran hasn’t directly attacked Israel since early June because it understands the cost of doing so.   “They fear, correctly, that Israel will retaliate hard,” says @MichaelMakovsky who explains why renewed conflict may be increasingly difficult to avoid. @TimesofIsrael timesofisrael.com/after-mont…