With war raging in the Middle East, we want to bring you as many trusted voices on the news as we can. One such voice is the Israeli journalist Amit Segal. He writes a daily newsletter, It’s Noon in Israel, which we’re pleased to publish in The Free Press.
We’re used to wars that look like movies. Operation Midnight Hammer, the strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22, 2025, was a short action thriller with a clear beginning, middle, and happy ending. Operation Roaring Lion, the joint military operation with the U.S. against Iran, however, is a TV series. Following season one’s Rising Lion, we are now in season two, with a third season—my suggestion is Screaming Lion—likely in the early stages of development.
That isn’t to say war will become a biannual event. Roaring Lion was a significant operation, but success isn’t binary. It delivered a substantial reduction in nuclear capabilities, an even greater crippling of ballistic assets, and a potentially fatal blow to the regime’s long-term survival. Iran now resembles a movie character, but one from a comedy, not an action film: the armless, legless Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, threatening to bite at Israel and the U.S.’s shins.
Its funding apparatus in ruins and sanctions still in place, the regime’s resources are stretched incredibly thin, forcing an agonizing financial dilemma. With its still-depreciated rials, it must choose between rebuilding a ballistic missile industry, outfitting a brand-new navy, or investing in air defense. It could also try investing in improving the lives of its population, but that is far less likely.
