Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, that Israel is prepared to respond “with great force” if Iran attacks during the approaching Jewish high holiday season, even as Tehran’s latest barrages have focused on U.S. bases across the region rather than Israeli territory.
Speaking at a conference hosted by Yedioth Ahronoth and the Israel Democracy Institute, Katz said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF are monitoring Iranian moves “on a daily basis,” sometimes overnight on emergency channels, and do not intend to be surprised. Rosh Hashanah begins the evening of September 11, followed by Yom Kippur on September 20 and Sukkot on September 25 — a calendar Israel historically treats as a heightened alert window after the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the October 7, 2023 Hamas assault on Simchat Torah.
Katz’s core claim was dual. First, Iran has a pattern of timing attacks around Jewish holidays. Second, if Israel is hit, Jerusalem will retaliate independently: “If they attack us, we will respond with great force, independently of anyone else,” he said, adding that Israeli aircraft are ready to take off. He also linked rising economic pressure on Tehran to a higher chance that Iran might widen the war to Israel.
Foreign Minister Gideon Saar struck a related but cooler note in a France 24 interview aired the same day, saying Israel does not currently plan to join the U.S.–Iran fighting, while promising a heavy response if attacked and doubting Tehran would make that “mistake.” The distinction matters: Israel helped open the war with the United States in late February 2026, then largely stayed off the daily exchange as Washington and Tehran traded strikes over Hormuz and Gulf bases.
For now, as Katz put it, Iran is “striking throughout the region except us.” That pause is unstable. Iranian missile and drone campaigns against American facilities in Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, and the UAE keep Israel’s air-defense and political leadership on a wartime clock without giving Jerusalem a fresh casus belli to escalate on its own terms. If Tehran does fire across the holidays, Israel’s promise of an independent response could reopen a second front the White House has not budgeted for in midterm season.
The strategic risk is miscalculation under parallel calendars. Washington wants leverage over Hormuz without a wider regional war. Iran wants to raise American costs without inviting Israeli airpower back into the campaign at full scale. Israel wants deterrence without owning every night of the Gulf fight. Katz’s speech tells Tehran the holiday window is watched — and that sitting out the current U.S. exchanges does not mean Israel will absorb a direct strike.
