Shapiro served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East until January—charged with, among other things, considering scenarios in which tensions between Israel and Iran escalated into all-out war and preparing U.

Israel and Iran traded fire for a third straight day on Sunday, with rising casualties and expanding targets marking a sharp escalation in the conflict between the longtime adversaries. Overnight Iranian strikes killed at least ten people in Israel,

Trump told the Wall Street Journal that he knew all about Israel’s plan ahead of time, that he wasn’t given a mere “heads-up.”