“Israeli officials said they would intensify strikes on Tehran after a key hospital in southern Israel was hit in an Iranian missile attack,” the Washington Post reports.

Bloomberg: “They spent years working toward a detente with their historical enemy. Now they’re contemplating a conflict that could jeopardize their oil infrastructure, hamper their ambitious economic plans and destabilize the region.”

Tucker Carlson accused Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) of being a “sleazy feline”:

CRUZ: It’s interesting you’re trying to derail my questions by calling me an anti-Semite, which you are. 

CARLSON: Of course you are. And rather than be honorable enough to say it right to my face, you are, in a sleazy feline way, implying it. “Oh, just asking questions about the Jews.” I’m not asking questions about the Jews. I have– this has nothing to do with Jews or Judaism. It has to do with the foreign government.

CRUZ: “Isn’t Israel controlling our foreign policy?” That’s not about the Jews?

CARLSON: You said–

CRUZ: And by the way, you’re the one that just called me, I think, “a sleazy feline.” So, let’s be clear.

“So much of this is the same story told again. Once upon a time we didn’t know better, and we bought all the happy talk about Iraq. But every single assumption proved wrong.”

— Professor Vali Masr, quoted by the New York Times.

Axios: “One key question is on President Trump’s mind these days, his advisers say: If the U.S. joins Israel’s war and drops its massive bunker busters, will they actually destroy Iran’s most heavily fortified nuclear facility?”

“Trump’s doubts Wednesday about the certainty of success are one reason he was still questioning whether to move forward with a strike.”

Max Boot: The risks and benefits of bombing Fordow. Spoiler alert: It’s a close call.

The Economist: “When Israel launched its war on Iran on June 13th it did so on the basis of intelligence that it claimed showed Iran had reached a ‘point of no return’ in its quest for a nuclear weapon. That evidence galvanised Israel’s own security establishment to support an attack now. It has been shown to America and other Western partners, presumably playing an important role in their ongoing decision-making over whether to support or even join the war. The Economist has not seen the material directly, but has gained exclusive insights from an authoritative source, giving a view of Israel’s dossiers, as shared with its allies, and the claims they make over enriched uranium and the speeding-up of Iran’s programme. Some of the details are already known; some are new.”

“Israeli intelligence dossiers contain information that, if correct, is genuinely new. They suggest that roughly six years ago the scientists formed a secret ‘Special Progress Group’, under the auspices of the former AMAD director, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. This group’s aim was to prepare the way for a much quicker weaponisation process, if and when a decision was made by Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, to rush for a bomb.”

“President Trump told senior aides late Tuesday that he approved of attack plans for Iran, but was holding off to see if Tehran would abandon its nuclear program,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Iran’s well-defended Fordow enrichment facility is a possible U.S. target; it is buried under a mountain and generally considered by military experts to be out of reach of all but the most powerful bombs.”

Earlier Wednesday, Trump told reporters: “I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.”