Strategic Assessment 2025 | The Year of Opportunity

Toward a Secure and Stabilized Middle East

Crafting an endgame to the war

And Strengthening the Israeli-American Alliance

Israel’s Defense and Security Forum (IDSF)

Executive Summary

Come Spring 2025, the United States, Israel, and the region are entering into a new phase in the war in the Middle East by crafting an endgame, tackling destabilizing actors and working on ushering in a new era of peace. Israel’s significant achievements in this war create new opportunities to tackle Iran’s terror project head-on, end the war in Gaza, take advantage of the new political reality in Lebanon, and work on fundamentally changing the alliance map in the Middle East by promoting an interest-based peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

American leadership is key to achieving these goals. Iran – siding with Russia, China, and North Korea – is continuing to strive toward nuclear weapons while reaching record levels of uranium enrichment and missile development. Iran poses a grave threat to the US national security and American homeland, and is the primary destabilizing actor in the Middle East.

While still dangerous, Iran is also unprecedentedly weak. In the aftermath of the October 7 attacks, Iran…