Israeli ambassador says U.S. strikes have weakened Iran and eased tensions

Israeli Ambassador Michael Leiter used a Sunday television appearance to argue that U.S. strikes had weakened Iran and eased tensions, while signaling that Israel would be ready to restart the war if the United States asked. The comments aired on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan, a broadcast that also featured Sen. Tim Scott, White House border czar Tom Homan, Rep. Mike Turner, retired Gen. Frank McKenzie and former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

Leiter, whose full name is Yechiel Michael Leiter, officially took office as Israel’s ambassador to Washington on Jan. 27, 2025. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed him in late 2024, and he replaced Michael Herzog. The Embassy of Israel in Washington identifies Leiter as a U.S.-born Israeli who later moved to Israel and held senior public-service roles, including chief of staff to Netanyahu when Netanyahu served as finance minister and deputy director general of Israel’s Education Ministry.

His message came as the U.S.-Israel-Iran confrontation remained in flux and as the broader regional war spilled across Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank. Israel has seized more than 1,200 square kilometers of territory since 2023, and land seizures plus evacuation warnings have pushed more than 3 million people out of Gaza and Lebanon combined. Leiter’s decision to frame the U.S. strikes as a stabilizing force put him squarely in the debate over whether military pressure is reducing danger or widening it.

The West Bank dispute sharpened that tension. Rep. Ro Khanna has said he was detained by Israeli settlers there, and the territory remains one of the most combustible fronts in the conflict. More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, land Israel captured in the 1967 war. Since the Gaza war began in October 2023, more than 150 Palestinian teenagers and children have been killed, shot or arrested in the West Bank, and youths have made up almost a quarter of nearly 700 Palestinians killed there.

Leiter’s interview was therefore more than a routine diplomatic turn. It was an effort to persuade Washington that Israel’s posture toward Iran can be tightened further if needed, even as Congress and the White House face mounting pressure to confront settlement violence, civilian casualties and the limits of U.S. support for Israel’s military campaign.