Day 621 - How warfare is being rewritten over the skies of Tehran

The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

The Times of Israel

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4.4 • 864 Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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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.

Senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode.

The Israel-Iran war continues with fewer missile barrages from Iran even as Israel continues to use innovative ways of using its technology to destroy nuclear and military infrastructure in Iran. We begin the episode by speaking about how Israel has tweaked its aerial missile capabilities, specifically its standoff munitions, to turn them into far-flying, guided ballistic missiles.

Rettig Gur speaks about the many, deep reasons why Russia did not want this Israel-Iran war to take place, including the notion that Israel has shown the lack of capabilities of Russian anti-aircraft tech as the IAF sails through Tehran airspace. We hear what else had Russian President Vladimir Putin concerned.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed words of support yesterday for Israel’s war against Iran, saying, “This is the dirty work Israel is doing for all of us. We are also victims of this regime. This mullah regime has brought death and destruction to the world. As Merz appers to be urging the United States to enter the fray, we also hear about France's support for Israel's military operations in Iran.

Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates.

For further reading:

Israel will achieve goals in Iran within a week or two, including in Fordo, IDF says

The US bunker-buster bomb that could destroy Iran’s Fordo nuclear facility

Germany’s Merz threatens destruction of Iran’s nuclear program if it bucks talks

Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.

IMAGE: Portraits of Iranian military generals and nuclear scientists, killed in Israel's June 13 attack are displayed above a road, as a plume of heavy smoke rises from an oil refinery in southern Tehran, after it was hit in an overnight Israeli strike, on June 15, 2025. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Times of Israel's daily briefing.
0:06.0	Today is Wednesday, June 18th, day 621 of the war.
0:11.3	I'm Amanda Borschal Dan here with our senior analyst, Javiv Rettigur.
0:15.3	Hi, Javu.
0:15.9	Thanks for joining me today.
0:17.2	Hi, Amanda.
0:17.8	Good to be here.
0:18.8	Always a pleasure speaking with you.
0:20.5	The Israel-Iran war
0:22.4	continues with fewer missile barrages each night from Iran, even as the Supreme Leader claims
0:28.9	that the battle has just begun. Israel continues to find innovative ways to use its technology
0:36.1	in this ongoing war, and Kaviv will explain some of them.
0:40.3	While the United States has so far sat out from the attacks on Iran, at least until recording time,
0:47.1	Germany's leader seems to be egging Trump on to join the fray. And we also need to wonder
0:52.9	what lessons are being learned by Putin,
0:56.2	Russia's leader, as Israel seems to be showing up all of its technology in Iran. All of this
1:02.7	and more when we're back.
1:15.8	Nothing has given me such delight as the proposal to establish a Huber university in Jerusalem.
1:20.5	More than a century has passed since Albert Einstein wrote this in his diary.
1:26.2	A century of cutting-edge research and innovation at Israel's leading academic institution that Einstein, alongside many other luminaries, helped establish.
1:31.1	Join me, Gilad Halpern, for The View from Mount Scopus, a podcast series exploring the past, present, and future of the Hebrew University.
1:39.4	The View from Mount Scopus. Available wherever you get your podcasts.
	...

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