US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are an “epic tag team,” says foreign policy adviser Ophir Falk in a short conversation with The Jerusalem Post. He said the US-Israel campaign against Iran has been marked by unprecedented coordination, unusually smooth execution, and a strategic goal focused on ending what he called the existential threat posed by Tehran’s ruling clerics.
“The cooperation and coordination between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu and the cooperation and coordination between the Israeli and American armed forces is unprecedented,” Falk told the Post. “Trump and Netanyahu are an epic tag team.”
Falk’s remarks on Thursday, the sixth day of the Israel-Iran war, followed days of intensive Israeli and US strikes on Iranian targets and repeated Iranian missile launches toward Israel and other countries in the region, as governments worldwide weighed calls for de-escalation alongside warnings about the risk of wider conflict.
Falk said Iran’s nuclear ambitions were central to the threat Israel and the US are now confronting. “If Iran would have become nuclear, they would have been able to threaten and blackmail everyone. Especially Europe and the United States,” Falk told the Post.
He described the campaign’s strategic aim in sweeping terms and said Israel did not intend to dictate Iran’s political future, even as he argued that removing the Ayatollah regime is the clearest way to remove Tehran’s threat.
“The goal is to remove the existential threat posed by the Ayatollah regime, and the best way of removing that threat is by removing the Ayatollah regime,” Falk told the Post.
An opportunity for the Iranian people
Falk said such an outcome could create an opening for Iranians themselves.
"It could also pave the way for the Iranian people to seize this unique opportunity and shape their own future," Falk clarified. “I doubt the Iranian people want to replace one ayatollah with another ayatollah.”
Falk also emphasized the campaign's early operational results, highlighting the scale of sorties and the complexity of joint coordination.
“Knock on wood, but nobody could have expected such smooth execution,” Falk told the Post. “With such payload being dropped there, so many flights, and such a complex level of coordination required, no one could anticipate such success so soon. The achievements are incredible so far.”
He also credited the Israeli public for sustaining the war effort over a prolonged period.
“The Israeli people have shown incredible resilience and the will to fight over the past two and a half years,” Falk told the Post.