Israel, US Plan Iran Strikes Post-Midterms Amid Military Caution

Good Morning, Israel · Friday, October 23, 2026 · 8:02

Good Morning, Israel · Episode 26

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1. Israel, US Plan Iran Strikes Post-Midterms Amid Military Caution
2. Israel's Defense Minister Accuses Opposition of Aiding Enemies
3. Israel-Russia Tensions Escalate Over Antisemitic Online Campaign Claims
4. Israel's Interest Rate Hold Linked to Elections, Global Pressures
5. Israel's High Court Blocks Digital Voter Tracking by Parties
6. Israel's Defense Minister Blames Opposition for Potential Terror Attacks

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Maya

Washington and Jerusalem are reportedly drawing up plans to hit Iran again, just not yet.

Daniel

And Israel's own military officials say that right now, an attack isn't justified.

Maya

This is Good Morning, Israel from baba News. It's Friday, October twenty-third. I'm Maya.

Daniel

And I'm Daniel.

Maya

Daniel, yesterday we told you President Trump had held back an Israeli strike on Iran until after the American midterms. So what's moved since then?

Daniel

The picture got sharper. According to the reports, the U S and Israel are now preparing plans for renewed strikes after those midterm elections. Trump hasn't blocked them, but they're not considered imminent.

Maya

So "not before the midterms" has quietly turned into "maybe after."

Daniel

That's what it looks like. But here's the new wrinkle. Israeli military officials say an attack isn't currently justified.

Maya

Wait, the military's the one saying slow down?

Daniel

Right, and that matters. Planning for a strike isn't the same as deciding on one. The professional view seems to be that the case for acting today just isn't there yet.

Maya

Meanwhile, nobody's exactly calming things down.

Daniel

No. There's heated rhetoric on both sides and ongoing military drills, and that raises real concern about miscalculation. One wrong read of a drill, and things escalate.

Maya

And Tehran is making threats.

Daniel

It is. Iran has warned it would retaliate, including against U S bases in the region, and potentially against Saudi oil facilities.

Maya

Dragging in the Saudis. That's a message to the whole Gulf.

Daniel

Exactly. It's the regime saying, if you hit us, everyone's oil supply pays. Iran also reported damage to seven oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that carries a huge share of the world's oil.

Maya

So what comes next?

Daniel

The calendar. The U S midterms are the hinge. Until then, expect planning, posturing and a lot of nervous watching of oil prices.

Maya

Back to Israel, where the Iran tension has walked straight into the election campaign. Israelis vote on Tuesday, October twenty-seventh.

Daniel

And Defense Minister Israel Katz has set off a storm. He warned that Israel's enemies could launch attacks timed to influence the vote.

Maya

That part alone would get attention. But he went further.

Daniel

He did. Katz said opposition leaders would bear the blame for any future attacks. He named Yair Lapid, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and Yair Golan, saying their criticism of the government weakens national security.

Maya

Blaming the opposition for an attack that hasn't happened. That's a new campaign tactic.

Daniel

The opposition certainly thinks so. Lapid called Katz's statement a gift to the enemies of Israel. And he accused the government of using security threats to avoid losing the election.

Maya

Who else pushed back?

Daniel

Gadi Eisenkot and Yair Golan both condemned the remarks as politically motivated, and as damaging to national security.

Maya

Katz says he has intelligence, though.

Daniel

He says intelligence indicates adversaries might attack to sway the vote, and that the I D F is prepared to act. But so far, the security establishment hasn't confirmed any concrete threat tied to the election.

Maya

So a claimed warning, without the people who'd normally issue it standing behind it.

Daniel

Right. And that's why this matters. In a country that lives with real threats, voters need to trust that a security warning is just that, and not a campaign line.

Maya

Which brings us to a ceremony where that exact worry was front and center.

Daniel

President Isaac Herzog spoke at the memorial for Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated thirty-one years ago by a Jewish extremist, Yigal Amir.

Maya

And Herzog didn't keep it in the past.

Daniel

No. He warned about incitement today, and urged civility ahead of Tuesday's vote. His words were blunt. Words kill.

Maya

And on Amir?

Daniel

Herzog vowed that Yigal Amir will never be released.

Maya

What did the Rabin family say?

Daniel

Dalia Rabin, his daughter, called for accountability for the October seventh attack. And Yair Golan used the moment to accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of fostering the conditions for political violence.

Maya

A memorial meant to unite, and the campaign still found its way in.

Daniel

It usually does at that ceremony. Rabin's murder is the moment Israelis point to when they talk about where political hatred can lead.

Maya

Let's turn to Moscow. Prime Minister Netanyahu has accused Russia of running an antisemitic online campaign against Israel.

Daniel

He alleged that Russian bot networks are spreading antisemitism and propaganda. And he pointed to something specific, a reported drop in that activity after Ukrainian attacks on data centers belonging to Yandex.

Maya

Yandex being?

Daniel

Russia's biggest tech company, a bit like its Google. The implication is that when the servers went down, so did the bots.

Maya

That's quite the circumstantial case. How did Moscow respond?

Daniel

Russia's Foreign Ministry rejected it and called the claims baseless.

Maya

Is this really just about bots?

Daniel

Not entirely. It reflects a deeper rift, mainly over Russia's cooperation with Iran. Remember, yesterday we mentioned Russia's Foreign Minister visiting Tehran. Still, communication channels between Israel and Russia remain open.

Maya

Talking, while accusing each other. Diplomacy as usual.

Daniel

Pretty much.

Maya

One more election story. Israel's High Court of Justice has stepped into what happens at the polling stations.

Daniel

The court ruled, two to one, that political parties can't digitally track voters in real time on election day.

Maya

Tracking how?

Daniel

Party representatives at the polling stations had wanted to count voters and send those numbers to headquarters. The court earlier barred reporting anything that identifies voters. A later clarification still allowed sending just the totals, and now the court has overridden that too.

Maya

And who wanted the totals?

Daniel

The Likud, Netanyahu's party, defended the clarification. The ruling comes down on the side of privacy.

Maya

Quickly to the economy. We told you yesterday the Bank of Israel held rates at three point two five percent. Anything new?

Daniel

An explanation. Accountant Majd Karam says the hold, and the delay in expected rate cuts, comes down to the elections and global pressure. Rising energy prices and bond yields leave the bank little room to move.

Maya

And tech?

Daniel

Karam says giant tech companies, including Nvidia, now heavily shape Israel's growth forecasts. That raises the question of how long tech-driven growth can last.

Maya

Speaking of costs, your breakfast is going up.

Daniel

Egg prices rise about two point one percent from November first, according to the Agriculture Ministry. A twelve-pack will cost between twenty-seven and thirty-three agorot more, depending on size.

Maya

Agorot being cents, essentially.

Daniel

Right, a hundredth of a shekel. It's an automatic quarterly review, reflecting higher production and marketing costs.

Maya

So the omelet survives, just a little pricier.

Daniel

Barely noticeable, unless you bake a lot.

Maya

And finally, a rescue. Police say the YAMAM, Israel's elite police special forces unit, rappelled down from a roof to reach a woman threatening to jump from her eleventh-floor apartment window.

Daniel

The operation ended successfully, with no injuries. Police are investigating the circumstances.

Maya

What should people watch today?

Daniel

Whether the security establishment says anything about the intelligence Defense Minister Katz cited. With four days to the vote, any word from them could change how voters hear his warning.

Maya

Follow Good Morning, Israel so tomorrow's episode is waiting for you.

Daniel

See you tomorrow morning.