THE MOSSAD FILES with Dan Raviv

After President Trump chose to return to war against Iran -- although not completely forcefully -- Iran's oil sales were again banned by U.S. sanctions. Can harsh sanctions bring down the radical regime in Tehran? When the Memorandum of Understanding that Trump's negotiators created with Iran permitted oil sales for 60 days -- and pronounced a ceasefire that hasn't totally held -- h...

Dan's joined by his co-author on six books about Israel -- journalist and filmmaker Yossi Melman -- who's been writing about a serious rift in relations between Israel and the United States.  The reason?  Donald Trump is wooing Iran. Also heard in this episode of The Mossad Files: former Israeli ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren; and former U.S. officials on a Carnegie Connects onli...

Dan's guest is Joel Rubin, author of "Saving Democratic Foreign Policy: How Democrats Can Earn the American People's Trust to Lead the World Once Again." Rubin was a State Department official in the Obama Administration and has a Substack, "The Briefing Book." He argues that Israel could be doing a much better job of explaining its policy goals -- its vision of how th...

Dan examines the widely held belief that President Trump's deal with Iran -- the Memorandum of Understanding -- was bad for Israel, and therefore the country's spy agency, the Mossad, will surely go back to covert war inside Iran.  This time, the Israelis expect to be alone. Clearly the U.S. and Israel did not achieve their goals in the war that they launched on February 28.  Yossi Melma...

The war against Iran may be entering a new phase -- and some may call it peace. But many serious analysts in the United States and Israel call it a failure, or even "a disaster" for Israeli interests. Dennis Ross, longtime Middle East mediator for American presidents, offers hope that pressure will build for positive change in Tehran -- but, as author of "Statecraft 2.0" he sug...

Dan's guest is Yaakov Katz -- author of books on Israeli defense including "While Israel Slept" (on the failures of Oct. 7, 2023) and former editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post.  They discuss the new director of the Mossad spy agency, General Roman Gofman -- controversial in part for alleged failure to support a young Israeli operative in a secret operation. Gofman is a Benjamin N...

Dan gets an assist from his longtime writing partner, Yossi Melman, in analyzing the reported plot by the Mossad -- apparently with U.S. participation -- to free Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from house arrest in Tehran, and help him take power in Iran. That coup, toppling the current Islamic Republic of Iran regime, would be headed by a former president who publicly hated Israel and the U.S. and denied the...

Dan's guest is Professor Eitan Shamir -- who had senior roles in Israel's Defense Ministry and Strategic Affairs Ministry. He is now head of the BESA Center at Bar-Ilan University. Shamir says, about Israel having to accept Donald Trump's decisions and timetable: "When you have a senior partner, there's a cost!" Is it reasonable to believe that Benjamin Netanyahu forc...

Dan's guest is Jonathan Tobin, the prolific Editor-in-Chief of JNS -- Jewish News Syndicate. In American politics, there's no doubt that Tobin is on the Right side of the spectrum. His analysis is clear and strong, as it increasingly emerges that Israel has a problem: a sharp decline in popularity and support in the United States. Tobin argues, as many do, that the unpopularity is mostly...

Who's in charge in Iran? Who's left, after U.S. and Israeli air strikes killed top leaders?  Is there really a chance that the Islamic Republic regime will fall? Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at FDD (Foundation for the Defense of Deocracies) and senior director of that think tank's Iran Program, answers Dan's questions -- and sheds light on how Iran's hardline regime...

Dan plays audio clips from the annual Ceremony of Commendations at Mossad headquarters near Tel Aviv, where spymaster David "Dedi" Barnea -- whose 5-year term as Director of the Mossad ends next month -- delivered hint after hint of what the spy agency has been doing in Iran and Lebanon. We then hear Elliott Abrams, longtime U.S. official in Republican administrations, analyzing the myst...

As Israel celebrated its 78th birthday, Independence Day was preceded -- as every year -- by a somber Memorial Day in tribute to IDF soldiers killed in action and to victims of terrorism. Among the many speeches -- heard, in part, on this Mossad Files episode -- were strong statements by Mossad director David (Dedi) Barnea and his predecessor at the spy agency, Yossi Cohen.   Israel's spymast...

Dan Raviv interviews Joel Rubin -- a Democratic Party strategist, former State Department official, who has a Substack called "The Briefing Book," focused on the nexis between foreign affairs and U.S. politics. Rubin says his fellow Democrats aren't giving enough credit to what could be good developments in the Middle East. After all, a majority of the party wants to cut-off U.S. mi...