Opinion Articles
Middle East
Podcast: Is Turkey with F-35 capabilities too big of a threat for Israel to accept?
As Trump meets Erdogan and F-35 sales dominate the headlines, former Israeli intelligence colonel Or Horvitz makes a contrarian case: Turkey is a real and growing threat to Israel, but it is not, and will not become, the next Iran.
Watch
Podcast: Is Turkey with F-35 capabilities too big of a threat for Israel to accept?
As Trump meets Erdogan and F-35 sales dominate the headlines, former Israeli intelligence colonel Or Horvitz makes a contrarian case: Turkey is a real and growing threat to Israel, but it is not, and will not become, the next Iran.
New Publications in the Field
Opinion Articles
Opinion Articles
No substitute for Oslo and the ‘new Middle East’ – opinion
For a moment, I felt that the voice of the late president Shimon Peres was coming from the mouth of Netanyahu. Published in the Jerusalem Post. The agreement to normalize relations between Israel and Sudan – another important step adjoining the agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain – fuels the debate over whether a “new Middle East” is…
Opinion Articles
Opinion Articles
Op-Ed: Securing an Acceptable Iran Deal in the Long Run
Since the interim framework deal between the US led 5+1 and Iran was announced in April, Israel has come out strongly against what it views as a “bad deal,” one that grants international legitimacy to Iran’s nuclear program. As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remarked time and again, Israel is not against a diplomatic solution. In his speech in March to Congress, Netanyahu noted that “the alternative to this bad deal is a much better deal” and that “no country has a greater stake than Israel in a good deal that peacefully removes this threat.” Rather, Israel sees in the emerging deal a capitulation to Iranian bargaining tactics when the US position was at its strongest, and a grave misunderstanding of the Iranian regime’s intentions.
Researchers Team
LTC (Ret.) Or Horvitz
Bio
LTC (Ret.) Or Horvitz is a strategic leader with over 17 years of experience at the intersection of U.S. foreign policy, U.S.–Israel relations, intelligence, and security. He currently serves as Head of the American Program at the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI).
In parallel, he serves as Head of Strategy at Elsight Ltd., as a Lecturer on intelligence, crisis management, and international affairs, and provides strategic advisory services to companies, institutions, and senior decision-makers navigating complex geopolitical and security environments.
A former Lieutenant Colonel in Israeli Defense Intelligence (IDI), he led large multidisciplinary teams, authored hundreds of decision memoranda for senior military and government leadership, and gained extensive experience along the intelligence axis linking Israel and the United States. In his final roles in IDI, he served as Head of the Hezbollah and Lebanon Branch (2022–2024) and later as Senior Advisor to the Director of IDI (2024–2026), where he was centrally involved in post–October 7 transformation processes and Israel’s campaigns against Hezbollah and Iran.
He is an alumnus of Harvard Kennedy School’s RK Fellowship (2020–2021) and IDI’s elite Havatzalot program (2008–2011).
Focus Areas and Research
Articles by LTC (Ret.) Or Horvitz
Yaakov Katz
Bio
Yaakov Katz is an Israeli-American author and journalist. Between 2016 and 2023, Yaakov was editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post where he continues to write a popular weekly column.
He is the author of three books - “Shadow Strike – Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power”, “Weapon Wizards - How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower” and “Israel vs. Iran: The Shadow War”.
Shadow Strike was recently adapted into a docudrama by Reshet Media and his books have been published in a number of languages including English, Hebrew, Czech, Polish, Japanese and Mandarin.
His next book – tentatively titled “Precision Strike” – is scheduled for publication by St. Martin’s Press in the Spring of 2025.
Yaakov served for close to a decade as the paper's military reporter and defense analyst and was a lecturer at Harvard University where he taught an advanced course in journalism. He also served as Israel correspondent for Jane’s Defence Weekly.
Prior to taking up the role of editor-in-chief, Yaakov served for two years as a senior policy adviser to Naftali Bennett during his tenure as Israel’s Minister of Economy and Minister of Diaspora Affairs.
In 2013, Yaakov was one of 12 international fellows to spend a year at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
Originally from Chicago, Yaakov has a law degree from Bar Ilan University.
