I'm Jason Chaffetz. I'm Emily Campagno. I'm Greg Gutfeld. And this is the Fox News Rundown. Wednesday, February 11th, 2026. I'm Eben Brown. Israel's prime minister is back in Washington to meet with President Trump, whose administration is both negotiating with Iran's rulers while building up a frightful military presence again in the Middle East. But to what outcome? And to whose benefits? It's not about this is Israel's problem and we're going to try to fix it. This is a direct threat to the United States. Iran doesn't call the United States the great Satan and Israel the little Satan because Israel's really the problem. We're the big problem for them. This is the Fox News Rundown Evening Edition. President Trump is once again hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a visit at the White House. The Israeli leader spent the day in Washington in, as they say, high-level meetings. He also formally accepted the invitation for Israel to join the new Board of Peace, President Trump's attempt to create a meeting body of nations to pave the way forward in the Gaza Strip rebuilding. But all this comes as the White House pursues negotiations with the ruling regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The president openly says he's pursuing a peaceful agreement with Iran's rulers, who have notably cracked down on domestic dissenters in recent weeks. Some count put the number of killings in the tens of thousands. But Israel's Netanyahu will probably communicate exactly what his country will or won't stand for in any negotiated agreement the U.S. may seek that would keep Iran's ruling mullahs in power. The input Mr. Netanyahu is allowed to provide to President Trump is far more than any other world leader seems to enjoy. And that may be just as beneficial for President Trump as it is for the Israeli leader. These are important trips. And you're right. I believe this may be the seventh time that he's met with the president in just shortly, you know, in just over a year, which is pretty unprecedented. E.J. Kimball once served as the staff director at the Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus. He's now a foreign policy consultant and is the director for policy at the U.S.-Israel Education Association. There's a lot going on here. And, you know, this visit, at least on the face of it, is very much focused on Iran. And I think it is very much focused on maybe what the United States is planning to do on Iran, how these negotiations are going. But you've also still got the issue with Hamas in Gaza. And Prime Minister Netanyahu signed on to this Board of Peace today so that Israel is officially part of this plan, this Board of Peace, and how things in Gaza are going to shake out in the weeks, months, and years ahead, which I think is vitally important for Israel's national security. and also to give additional credibility to this Board of Peace when you've got one of the main players having a seat at the table. But when we look at Iran right now, there's a few things going on here. You have President Trump's statements and U.S. interests vis-a-vis Iran, and you also have Israeli interests vis-a-vis Iran and others in the region. So there's a lot that needs to be discussed and planned for. And my feeling based on previous meetings that Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump have had over this last 14 months or less than 14 months I think that there is some real strategic planning and decision making going on here that we'll see play out in the days, weeks and months ahead. There is certainly a growing and palpable sentiment, I think, saying, why haven't we struck in Iran yet already? We meaning the United States. We've watched so much military hardware move into the Middle East over these past, let's say, four or five, six weeks. people were wondering, you know, especially at the height of the ongoing protests in Iran across many Iranian cities, that the Americans would act quickly. President Trump said help was on the way and people have just sort of been waiting with their their arms out going well, well. But these things do have to happen very carefully, don't they? They do. And that's a good point that you raise. We saw this in Venezuela and Venezuela is a much smaller challenge than Iran is. And we saw the U.S. moved assets into the region. There were attempts to negotiate with Maduro until finally the president realized that those negotiations were going nowhere. Everything was in place. The planning was done and they executed their mission to perfection. Now, we'll still see how things play out there. But in that case, it was not about regime change. They took out the leadership and brought up the next level. And the U.S. basically is controlling Venezuela right now. In Iran, it is a much different situation, much different. And the question, you know, there's a few issues with Iran. The nuclear program was pretty much taken out, at least as an immediate threat back in June. You still have the ballistic missile program. You've got their drones program. You've got their proxies in the region, the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah are what remains in Lebanon. You've got militias in Iraq. You have some remnants in Syria. So there's still threats there. and in my mind when you look at the way that president trump carries out military action whether it was trump 45 or trump 47 he likes to go in hard fast and get out with victory with minimal exposure of u.s troops and to do that in iran in my mind you need to have a massive assault when it starts that not only takes out the ballistic missile launchers and missiles themselves and their drone commanders and ability to deploy these drones to go after U.S. assets in the region, military bases, our allies in the region. You also have to go after the proxy groups in the region. And that's where a country like Israel would definitely play a role in that, if not directly in Iran. I think we may look at the UK being involved in this and some of the Arab countries, whether it's from a defense standpoint, like they were during the 12-day war and shooting down, helping to shoot down incoming missiles from Iran. I think if I were betting on how the president would carry out an attack, it will be massive up front, unyielding, unrelenting, and to not give the Iranian regime the ability to counterattack. The president has to also balance political sentiment at home here domestically in the United States There a loud I don want to say they very big I think they loud if you chronically online and that probably it but anti sentiments certainly in the Democratic Party but also now very prominently again, I think loud but small in the Republican Party that don't want the president to do anything on behalf of Israel or to involve the United States in another war. There was this same cacophony leading up to the Operation Midnight Hammer during the 12-Day War. You know, this suit saying of we'll involve the United States in a protracted long war with a nuclear Iran if we got involved. That obviously did not come to fruition, not even close. How much balancing does President Trump need to do here, especially meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu once again, which shows a level of deference that he's not shown to other world leaders? It's a very good point that you're raising about the domestic sentiment here. And I would say in some cases there are some legitimate questions that people raise. Maybe it's out of ignorance or just because they don't follow it very much. People think that the United States is looking to attack Iran because of Israel, because we want to support Israel and Iran is Israel's enemy. But let me just run through really quickly here. When you think about Iran, so Iran has its proxy group, Hezbollah. Hezbollah is an Iranian. It's basically the Iranian army militia operating outside of the borders of Iran. They attacked the American embassy. Well, first of all, you had the regime came in with American embassy workers being taken hostage. You had the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut by Hezbollah. CIA station chiefs killed there. Another taken hostage and killed. You've had attacks against American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan by Iranian-made IEDs. You've also had the Iranian regime try to assassinate President Trump and Secretary Pompeo and others. And you've had Hezbollah operating within the United States at least since the 1990s. There was a case in Charlotte, North Carolina with cigarette smuggling to get drug to get money to send back to Hezbollah to continue carrying out attacks. Sleeper agents arrested in New York City back in 2017. Drugs from Venezuela being brought into the United States to recruit to to get money for Hezbollah. So it's not about this is Israel's problem and we're going to try to fix it. This is a direct threat to the United States. Iran doesn't call the United States the great Satan and Israel the little Satan because Israel's really the problem and they have to get through us. We're the big problem for them. And they've said it since they came into power nearly 50 years ago. President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are meeting once again in Washington as Washington tries to negotiate with the Iranian regime. Our guest is E.J. Kimball of the U.S. Israel Education Association here on the Fox News Rundown Evening Edition. Please like, subscribe, share this podcast. We'll have more straight ahead. So how does today's meetings end? You know, it's one thing for these gentlemen to get together and smile for the cameras. There are other meetings that have been going on really all day that the public doesn't get to see much of. But what what is substantively completed today? So this is where our interests may differ. And I think this is why Prime Minister Netanyahu is here President Trump is looking at the Iran issue He trying to negotiate a deal that is a good deal And we do have slightly different interests than Israel The ballistic missile program is an issue for the United States, but it's not an existential issue for us. It's an existential issue for Israel. That's a red line for them. And I think what is likely being discussed behind closed doors is what Israel's red lines are and when Israel would carry out an attack on their own and what they would need to have to not carry out that attack, what would need to be negotiated. Because even if the president is able to get a deal with the Iranians, if it's not good for Israel, then Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu has an obligation as the leader of that country to make sure that he's protecting his citizens, regardless of the costs. So I think they're having some very frank discussions there, but also looking at what does a fight with Iran look like and how best to do it in a way that's quick, decisive and provides an opportunity for the people of Iran to be able to seize power from the current regime. and not that the United States is looking at regime change, but the people in Iran want this leadership gone. And you can't go in and President Trump, I would be shocked beyond shocked if he came out, got rid of the regime and then said, okay, we're gonna rebuild Iran. That's not who he is. He campaigned in 2016 exactly against that idea. So if the people wanna rise up, what is it that they need to be able to take control of their country again? The oil calculus comes into that, doesn't it? I mean, it would certainly be beneficial for the United States, but also the Iranian people in a post-Islamic regime setting to be able to trade their oil on the free market. Absolutely. And this goes to, I think, a larger geo-strategic issue, which is our biggest threat, China. And if you look at what we did in Venezuela, China was buying Venezuelan oil for pennies on the dollar. And now that's done. And in Iran, China was doing the same thing. So if China loses that lifeline on the oil because they need it and without it, that impacts their ability to, say, threaten Taiwan. It threatens them in the AI race. You know, they they are getting this on such a a heavy discount that you're right. The Iranian people, if they get control of their country and their resources again, they can be a thriving economy very quickly, very, very quickly, which is different than, say, you know, Iraq and Afghanistan, you know, back in the early 2000s during the war on terror. So there's there's an opportunity there for a quick turnaround. But I don't think it should be dismissed. the role that China plays in all of this, everything that's happening around the world from the U.S. interest. China is the biggest geostrategic threat, and we can't underscore that enough. E.J. Kimball, you are the director of policy at the U.S. Israel Education Association, a foreign policy expert. Thank you so much for being with us on the Fox News Rundown Evening Edition. Thank you very much. My pleasure. you've been listening to the fox news rundown and now stay up to date by subscribing to this podcast at foxnewspodcasts.com listen ad-free on fox news podcasts plus on apple podcasts and prime members can listen to the show ad-free on amazon music and for up to the minute news
