Unnamed sources told Reuters yesterday that U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was in Israel on Monday and that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed what to do about Iran. Defense Minister Israel Katz also reportedly participated in the meeting. Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for the prime minister, later confirmed to Reuters that Netanyahu had met with Hegseth at the Ovda Air Force Base in Israel’s southern Negev desert region. Netanyahu and Hegseth discussed “the threats in the region” and the U.S.-Israel partnership in dealing both offensively and defensively with those threats, he said in a brief phone call. “Those threats” could only mean Iran and its allies, particularly Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Haaretz noted that both Netanyahu and Katz have been issuing threats against Iran and also Lebanon in the run-up to next week’s elections in Israel. “This is the truth; it isn’t spin,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Army Radio on Tuesday. “This is intelligence information that Iran and its proxies want to try to influence the elections because they know we have changed the equation, that we are stronger than ever.”