NEED TO KNOW

• Netanyahu visited the Iranian missile strike site in Arad Sunday, calling on world leaders to join Operation Epic Fury against Iran
• Iran struck Arad and Dimona Saturday night — injuring over 100 people, including children, near Israel’s main nuclear research center
• European allies remain largely on the sidelines, with critics at home and abroad questioning Israel’s war aims and Netanyahu’s motives

ARAD, Israel (TDR) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood at the rubble of a residential building in Arad Sunday and issued a direct appeal to the world: join the war against Iran or face the consequences of staying out.

The big picture: Netanyahu’s call comes as the U.S.-Israel coalition enters its fourth week of operations against Iran with no clear endgame — and with international support stuck well short of what both leaders have publicly demanded.

• Netanyahu warned that Iran “has the capacity to reach deep into Europe” and is “putting everyone in their sights.”
• He cited Iranian strikes on strategic and symbolic targets — including areas near religious sites in Jerusalem — and accused Tehran of attempting to “blackmail the world” through its threatened closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
• European governments have so far declined to join offensive operations, with analysts at the Atlantic Council noting that the U.S. and Israel have failed to present clear, realizable objectives or a recognized legal basis under international law.

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Why it matters: The appeal isn’t just diplomatic theater — it reflects a genuine coalition gap that is shaping how long this war can last and on whose terms it ends.

• An Israel Democracy Institute poll found that 93% of Jewish Israelis support the war, with most believing it should continue until the Iranian regime is overthrown.
• More than a dozen U.S. troops have already been killed; Iran has struck U.S. bases across the region, and Arab governments hosting those bases did not choose this war.
• In the U.S., Democratic lawmakers and prominent figures on the right — including Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan — have broken with the administration, with no clear agreement on what a resolution looks like or how the diplomatic rift with European allies gets repaired.

Driving the news: Saturday night’s Iranian strikes on Arad and Dimona — the first to target the area near Israel’s nuclear research center — handed Netanyahu a vivid backdrop for his coalition appeal.

• More than 100 people, including children, were injured after ballistic missiles struck Arad and Dimona, causing extensive damage to residential areas and overwhelming local emergency services.
• Netanyahu called the absence of fatalities “a miracle” and said Israel was “responding with great force, but not after civilians.”
• The Israeli Foreign Ministry posted on X that the strikes constituted “a blatant war crime” and “pure terrorism.”

What they’re saying: Agreement that Iran poses a threat runs out quickly when the question turns to what joining the war actually requires.

• Netanyahu, at the Arad strike site: “Israel and the United States are working together for the entire world. And it’s time to see the leaders of the rest of the countries join up.”
• Former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett, also at the scene: “Just as they lied about the missiles, so too they lied about the nuclear issue. If we had not acted now, within a short time all of Europe would have been under an Iranian nuclear umbrella.”
• Opposition leader Yair Golan offered a sharply different read: “Netanyahu has turned national security into a tool for his political survival; this is why we have been in a war that does not end for two and a half years.”

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Yes, but: Netanyahu’s call for global coalition comes as the war’s own objectives remain unsettled — and as his domestic critics accuse him of using the conflict to delay his ongoing corruption trial.

• U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated on March 2 that “this is not a so-called regime change war” — directly at odds with Netanyahu’s consistent framing since day one.
• With no evidence of a popular Iranian uprising, analysts say it is unclear whether Israel has a clear plan to pursue regime change or what its fallback might be.
• Netanyahu has not dropped his push to weaken Israel’s attorney general and expand government control over media — legislation critics say is being advanced under cover of the war.

Between the lines: Netanyahu’s Arad appearance was a carefully staged argument for expanding the war’s coalition — but the subtext is that without more international buy-in, Israel increasingly owns the political exposure of where this conflict goes next.

• Foreign Policy’s analysis put it plainly: by not delineating what a successful end to the war looks like, the United States is allowing Israel to decide its outcome — and Americans will pay the price for deferring to Israel’s aims.
• Netanyahu’s call for world leaders to “join up” papers over a harder question neither he nor Trump has answered publicly: what does the coalition do if Iran doesn’t collapse, the Strait stays shut, and European allies keep watching from the sidelines?

What’s next:

• Trump’s 48-hour Hormuz ultimatum expires Monday evening
• Israel’s military has signaled the Hezbollah fight is “only just begun,” with new strikes launched Sunday
• Opposition leader Yair Lapid warned the war “cannot stop” until Iran’s ballistic missile capability is fully eliminated — setting a high bar for any negotiated exit
• Netanyahu has signaled a ground component may be necessary, a step that would require far deeper international commitment than any ally has offered

If Iran’s strikes on Israeli civilians strengthen Netanyahu’s case for a global coalition, but his war aims diverge from Washington’s and European allies won’t engage — who ultimately decides when this war has achieved enough to stop?

Sources

This report was compiled using information from The Jerusalem Post, The Tribune / ANI, Foreign Policy, Atlantic Council, Al Jazeera, and Christian Science Monitor.

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