Day 619 - Will Israeli strikes push Iran to end nuclear program?
The Times of Israel Daily Briefing
The Times of Israel
4.4 • 864 Ratings
🗓️ 16 June 2025
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.
Times of Israel founding editor David Horovitz joins host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode.
Over the past night, eight Israelis were killed and hundreds injured in Iranian barrages, with evenings and overnights now punctuated by missile strikes. Israelis have been staying close to protected spaces, and, until last night, almost every serious casualty had been outside a protected room or shelter.
Horovitz talks about Israel gaining air supremacy in Iran and the declared goals of the military campaign, which include averting the ballistic missile threat and damaging the Iranian nuclear program, but do not include bringing down the Iranian regime or targeting the country's political leadership... or completely destroying the nuclear program. Rather, the overt intention is to create an environment in which the regime decides its own interests require it to abandon and dismantle the entire program.
He notes that Israel has killed many Iranian commanders from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and army, and key nuclear scientists, disrupting the regime's military command structure and hampering a potential breakout to the bomb.
Horovitz discusses whether the US could get involved, and notes comments by US President Donald Trump that express clear support for Israel but no intention to join the battle.
He says that Israel, which has made significant progress over the last few days, never asks other countries to fight its wars, but American involvement may be crucial in disabling Iran's best-protected nuclear facilities.
Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates.
For further reading:
8 killed, nearly 300 injured as Iranian ballistic missiles strike central Israel, Haifa
Devastation grows as Iran targets Israel’s civilian areas, despite interceptors and shelters
Israel kills Iranian intel chiefs, strikes deep inside Iran, opens ‘air corridor to Tehran’
IDF reiterates safe rooms still best option against Iran’s missiles, despite 2 fatalities
Trump said to veto Khamenei assassination; Netanyahu: Conflict may result in regime change
Trump says ‘it’s possible’ US will get involved in Iran-Israel conflict, while urging deal
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IMAGE: Israelis at scene where a ballistic missile fired from Iran hit and caused damage in Tel Aviv, June 16, 2025. (Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, welcome to the Times of Israel's daily briefing. It is Monday, June 16th, and I'm Jessica Steinberg. |
| 0:09.0 | I'm speaking today with Times Visual founding editor David Horowitz. Good morning, David. |
| 0:13.1 | Good morning, Jessica. Hi there. It is day 619 of the war. Eight people were killed and hundreds |
| 0:20.0 | hurt in the overnight Iranian missile |
| 0:22.7 | strikes on central Israel and Haifa. Meanwhile, Israel on Sunday killed Iranian intelligence chiefs |
| 0:30.1 | striking deep inside Iran, opening what it termed a, quote, air corridor to Tehran. We'll talk |
| 0:37.0 | about the latest strikes, how Israelis are faring, |
| 0:41.2 | both in Israel and those who are stuck abroad. We'll talk about the goals of the war, |
| 0:45.9 | coordination with the U.S., and where we are in all of this. So stay with us. |
| 0:53.2 | Nothing has given me. with us. |
| 1:01.4 | Nothing has given me such delight as the proposal to establish a Hebrew university in Jerusalem. |
| 1:02.8 | More than a century has passed since Albert Einstein wrote this in his diary. |
| 1:07.3 | A century of cutting-edge research and innovation at Israel's leading academic institution that Einstein, |
| 1:13.7 | alongside many other luminaries, helped establish. |
| 1:17.1 | Join me, Gilad Halpern, for The View from Mount Scopus, a podcast series exploring the past, |
| 1:22.7 | present and future of the Hebrew University. |
| 1:25.4 | The View from Mount Scopus, available wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 1:35.9 | David, let's start with where we are this morning. Strikes overnight, Israelis, of course, |
| 1:42.1 | running to shelters and to safe rooms, trying to figure out what is |
| 1:46.1 | actually safe. People get up in the morning and or don't go to sleep and find out how many were |
| 1:53.3 | killed, how many were wounded. And it's now playing out on a daily basis and does not look like |
| 2:00.1 | any end is in sight. |
... |
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