Living in the Waiting

Life in Israel has settled into an uneasy rhythm as the country waits to see what comes next, while the information war beyond our borders shows no signs of slowing down.

Welcome to the first edition of Emily in Tel Aviv, a weekly dispatch from Israel. This isn’t meant to be a recap of every headline. There are plenty of places to get the news. Instead, I’ll be sharing what life actually feels like on the ground, the stories I’m paying attention to, what I’m reading and researching, and the developments I think deserve far more attention than they’re getting.

FROM TEL AVIV

If I had to describe this week in one word, it would be waiting. Waiting to see when (and where) the war expands. Waiting to see whether more airlines suspend flights (yes, that’s happening too with ITA Airways and many others). Waiting for the next security briefing, the next diplomatic move or the next escalation that could change everything overnight.

And yet, life goes on.

Restaurants are busy, beaches are full, and cafés are packed. Israelis have become remarkably good at living with uncertainty because, whether we like it or not, uncertainty has become part of everyday life. It’s true that everyone is following the news, refreshing their Telegram accounts, but there is also a quiet understanding that the threats facing Israel are not going to disappear because the world is impatient or because we are exhausted. Most Israelis I speak to would rather finish this fight against the regime than postpone it for another few years. The reason is obvious: we know that the Islamic republic of Iran will only pose a greater threat to all of us if it is allowed to survive.

As an example, one story that has stayed with me all week is the Mossad’s exposure of an Islamic Republic plot to infiltrate foreign hit squads into Israel to assassinate senior Israeli figures. According to Israeli intelligence, the regime recruited foreign nationals through criminal networks, sending them into Israel to gather intelligence and prepare for potential attacks. It is a stark reminder that the Islamic Republic isn’t only fighting Israel through missiles and proxy groups. It is also investing heavily in covert operations designed to strike from within.

I’ll admit this story hit a little differently for me. The Islamic Republic has publicly identified me as a hostile figure, and over the years I’ve seen firsthand how seriously the regime takes those it considers its enemies. That’s why stories like this never feel distant or theoretical. They are a reminder that the threats we report on every day are very real, and that for many Israelis, they are unfolding much closer to home than most people realise. The reason question now is when will the rest of the world wake up to this threat?

To close out the week here is a round up of the five stories you may have missed (but shouldn’t) this week:

FIVE STORIES YOU SHOULD NOT MISS

1. Mamdani vs. reality

Zohran Mamdani built much of his national profile attacking Israel, including suggesting he wanted to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visited New York. I wrote a whole piece on that this week so if you haven’t read it yet, be sure to now. In summary, this week Mamdani ran into political reality when President Trump publicly dismissed and criticised him for his obsession with arrested Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. While his fantasy of arresting Netanyahu was shut down, that doesn’t mean his incitement is harmless.

Mamdani has been silent on the arrest of any other war criminals, he’s completely unconcerned about the ICC warrants for Hamas leaders, for example, but he, as a local mayor, feels compelled to routinely comment on Israel-U.S. relations. His now-viral video on social media spewing libels about the Israeli prime minister garnered tens of millions of views, and not even 24 hours later, a stabbing attack against Jews took place in New York City. Leaders have a responsibility to quell tensions, not spark an intifada — then again what can you expect from someone who literally founded a college chapter of campus hate group “students for justice in Palestine” at his university and furthermore took part in protests chanting “Globalize the Intifada?”

2. Ben Shapiro exposes the Tate brothers

One of the best exchanges I watched this week was Ben Shapiro’s smackdown of Andrew and Tristan Tate who were arrested this week in Florida to be extradited to the UK for a litany of sex crimes against women and girls.

The arrest of Andrew and Tristan Tate in Miami has brought them one step closer to extradition to the United Kingdom, where they now face a total of 59 criminal charges, including rape, human trafficking for sexual exploitation, assault and offences involving indecent images of children and extreme pornography. The brothers deny the allegations, but the sheer scale and seriousness of the charges should put an end to any attempt to portray them as harmless internet provocateurs.

What interested me even more was Ben Shapiro’s response. Rather than circling the wagons, Shapiro argued that the conservative movement had failed a basic moral test by embracing the Tates simply because they opposed the progressive Left. He challenged those who spent years making excuses for them, celebrating them as anti-establishment heroes or dismissing the allegations as political persecution. His point was simple: conservatism cannot claim to stand for family, personal responsibility and the dignity of women while elevating men who built a global brand around misogyny, exploitation and the degradation of women. If a movement abandons its principles whenever someone is useful in the culture war, those principles were never very strong to begin with.

3. The Gaza football narrative begins to unravel

For months, headlines around the world repeated claims that Israel had “indiscriminately killed Gaza’s football players”, with international sporting bodies and media outlets portraying them exclusively as innocent athletes caught up in the war. This week, however, the IDF released intelligence identifying 12 prominent figures from Gaza’s “football community,” including players, coaches and even a FIFA international assistant referee, as members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. According to the military, several held operational roles as commanders, anti-tank operatives and combat fighters, while others allegedly participated in the October 7 massacre.

Time and again, Palestinians initially reported as civilians or public figures have later been identified by Israel as members of terrorist organizations — from “journalists” to “aid workers” to “athletes.” These cases are yet another reminder that Hamas deliberately embeds its operatives throughout civilian institutions, committing war crimes and endangering their own population.

4. Hasan Piker’s Mao problem

Hasan Piker once again showed just how selective his moral outrage really is this week by praising Mao Zedong (and even dressing up like him), whose rule is widely associated with the deaths of more than 60 million people, making him one of the deadliest dictators in modern history. The same voices that describe Israel’s war against Hamas as uniquely evil somehow find admiration for a regime responsible for mass famine, political terror and one of history’s greatest human catastrophes. Reminder: Piker, who has openly praised Hamas and said Americans deserved 9/11, was the College Democrats surprise keynote speaker at their conference, which was cosponsored by J Street, no less.

5. Trump puts the Abraham Accords back on the table

One of the most significant developments this week received surprisingly little attention. After earlier reports suggested the Trump administration was prepared to support a Saudi civilian nuclear programme without requiring normalisation with Israel, President Trump publicly reversed course, making clear that Saudi participation in the Abraham Accords remains a condition of any American-backed nuclear deal. It’s a significant shift that re-establishes one of the administration’s most important strategic objectives: expanding Arab-Israeli normalisation while preventing a regional nuclear free-for-all. With Iran’s nuclear ambitions still unresolved, this will be one of the most consequential diplomatic stories to watch in the months ahead.

WHAT I’M READING

I’ve been re-reading Abbas Milani’s outstanding biography of Mohammad Reza Shah, The Shah. Whatever your views on the Pahlavi monarchy, it is impossible to understand today’s Islamic Republic without understanding its history and traditions. Milani’s book remains one of the best places to start.

Too many conversations about modern Iran are built on myths rather than history (such as the myth of a CIA anti-democratic coup against Mossadegh, when in fact it was Mossadegh who was acting in violation of the Iranian constitution).

I’ve also spent far too many hours this week reading Persian-language newspapers, Telegram channels and social media to understand the latest inside the Islamic Republic. Some of the most important developments never make it into English-language reporting, and when they do they often arrive stripped of the political and cultural context that gives them meaning.

NEXT WEEK

Next week could prove to be another pivotal one. For the past two weeks, the United States has led the military campaign against the Islamic Republic, carrying out nightly strikes on military infrastructure, missile sites and other strategic targets after the collapse of the ceasefire. Israel has largely allowed Washington to take the lead during this phase of the conflict, but that may not last. If the situation continues to deteriorate or Tehran escalates further, there is growing speculation that Israel could once again play a direct military role. I’ll be following every development from Tel Aviv, separating the headlines from the reality and bringing you analysis and reporting as events unfold.