Mossad chief in Washington as Netanyahu presses Trump to resume the war on Iran

Mossad director Roman Gofman is in Washington for talks with senior Trump administration officials on Iran, while Benjamin Netanyahu presses the US president to resume operations against Tehran. The Friday, November 13 visit was revealed by Axios, citing three sources with knowledge of the matter, and confirmed with its own sources by the Jerusalem Post.

Ratcliffe in Washington, Witkoff in Miami

The head of the Israeli intelligence service is meeting CIA director John Ratcliffe. He will then travel to Miami, where White House special envoy Steve Witkoff awaits him. So far Trump has rejected Netanyahu’s calls to return to fighting. The two leaders discussed the war in a phone call on November 5, a US official told Axios.

Caretaker government and Eisenkot’s oversight

The pressure comes at a time of political uncertainty in Israel. Netanyahu lost his parliamentary majority after the October 27 election and now governs as caretaker prime minister, while President Isaac Herzog gave the first mandate to form a government to Gadi Eisenkot. Eisenkot said in a statement that during the week he met Netanyahu and his military secretary and made clear he would not allow a “lack of oversight” over the prime minister’s actions during the transition.

Formally, a caretaker government has the same powers as a regular one: under Article 30 of the Basic Law, the outgoing government continues to serve until a new one takes over. The Supreme Court has held in the past that it must refrain from irreversible decisions unless they are urgent. Security matters, however, are the clearest exception to that rule, researcher Or Asher of the Tel Aviv-based Tachlith Institute explained to Reuters. “A caretaker prime minister can legally lead Israel into war, even against Iran,” he added.

Drones toward Bahrain and the Sirik strike

The visit coincides with new tension in the Gulf. The Revolutionary Guards claimed they destroyed a US early-warning radar in Bahrain, in retaliation for the air raid on a telecommunications tower in Sirik in Hormozgan province (our report). US Central Command (CENTCOM) denied the claim. “The IRGC launched two kamikaze drones toward Bahrain and US forces shot down both. There were no injuries or damage,” CENTCOM said in a statement. The US statement made no mention of the alleged strike on Sirik. The town, on the coast of the Strait of Hormuz, has been repeatedly attacked since the war began with the US and Israeli strikes of February 28.