The U.S. decision to strike Iran was a victory for Israel, which had been pushing President Trump for months on the need to hit the country. Now, Israel’s role in spurring the operation has become a point of political tension. The New York Times journalists Mark Mazzetti and Ronen Bergman discuss what we know about the extraordinarily close cooperation between Israel and the United States. Guest: • Mark Mazzetti (https://www.nytimes.com/by/mark-mazzetti) , an investigative reporter for The New York Times in Washington, D.C., focusing on national security. • Ronen Bergman (https://www.nytimes.com/by/ronen-bergman) , a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine in Tel Aviv. Background reading:  • How Mr. Trump decided to go to war (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/us/politics/trump-war-iran-israel.html) . Photo: Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily (http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily) . Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.  Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts (http://nytimes.com/podcasts) or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.