TEL AVIV—Israel on Monday continued to expand its days-old military campaign against Iran, bombing the state broadcaster in Tehran and evacuating surrounding neighborhoods in the latest indications that the Jewish state may be moving to topple the regime.
As footage showed Iran’s state broadcaster building burning and an anchor fleeing smoke and falling debris mid-broadcast, defense minister Israel Katz vowed, “We will strike the Iranian dictator everywhere.”
On ABC News, meanwhile, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the notion that Israel’s potential assassination of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei would be an escalation, saying, “It’s not going to escalate the conflict, it’s going to end the conflict.”
Asked if Israel would target Khamenei, Netanyahu said Israel was “doing what we need to do.”
Over the weekend, Israel pushed the limits of its targeting of Iranian sites, carrying out airstrikes on energy, aviation, and manufacturing infrastructure across the country. Shortly after the start of the campaign, Netanyahu told Iranians that Israel’s assault on the regime will “clear the path for you to achieve your freedom.”
“The time has come for the Iranian people to unite around its flag and its historic legacy, by standing up for your freedom from the evil and oppressive regime,” Netanyahu said in an English-language video message. “The Islamic regime, which has oppressed you for almost 50 years, threatens to destroy our country.”
Israel’s actions and rhetoric appear to signal growing interest in pushing for regime change in Iran.
As Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told CNN on Sunday, regime change is not an official goal of Israel’s military campaign against Iran, known as Operation Rising Lion. But according to current and former officials, Israel’s unexpected early success in the campaign is leading officials to increasingly consider bolder options to encourage the retirement of Iran’s ruling clerics, who have for decades advocated and worked toward Israel’s destruction.
MK Ohad Tal, a member of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, told the Washington Free Beacon that the cabinet has authorized five official goals: To degrade Iran’s nuclear capabilities, dismantle its ballistic missile infrastructure, prevent its plans to destroy Israel, create conditions to end its nuclear program altogether, and minimize civilian casualties.
“Regime change is not in the official goals of the war,” Tal said. “But unofficially, I think that’s what everybody hopes for.”
He added, “If you really want to get rid of the nuclear program, you have to take down the regime. Otherwise, you’re just postponing their ability to go back to develop the program.”
Amir Avivi, a retired brigadier general and former deputy commander of the IDF’s Gaza Division who has advised Israeli decision-makers during the war, confirmed that a potential toppling of the regime is being actively discussed. “Because the war so far is a huge success,” he said, “there is serious consideration of toppling the regime completely and creating the terms for the Iranian people to rise up and take over the country.”
As to what that might entail, Avivi said: “Kill the leadership. All of them.”
Israel is yet to make such a decision. Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Netanyahu, said Israel must proceed with caution and humility.
“Israel can shake the regime and make it much weaker. But Israel cannot produce an opposition,” he said. “It is beyond our capacity.”
According to Amidror, almost all of the so-called civilian infrastructure Israel has targeted—such as Shiraz electronics factories and the Mashhad airport refueling depot—has served clear military purposes. Israel’s strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure have similarly focused on pipelines, fuel depots, and refineries critical to the regime’s domestic power grid.
Still, the strikes appeared designed in part to turn Iranians against their leaders. Katz’s evacuation warning of Tehran was “part of a pre-approved plan to exert pressure on the regime by evacuating the population—in response to the firing on the Israeli home front,” a security source said. According to Israeli energy analyst Eran Efrat, Israel’s choice of energy targets was meant to destabilize the regime from within while avoiding global economic backlash.
“It’s 100 percent focused on the domestic market. We didn’t even start to touch the production or export side,” Efrat said. “The goal is to make the day-to-day life of the normal Iranian person impossible, and maybe push the people to the streets.”
Since destroying most of Iran’s remaining air defenses in the campaign’s opening hours, Israel has operated with near-complete freedom over Iranian airspace. The military said Sunday it had struck more than 250 sites and 720 distinct military components. On Monday, it attacked missile launchers in western Iran, ammunition convoys, and long-range drone storage hubs, according to military officials.
Meanwhile, Israel has continued to take out Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal. According to the military, Iran began the war with around 2,000 ballistic missiles and roughly 400 launchers. As of Monday, about one-third of those launchers had been destroyed, and Iran had fired at least 370 missiles at Israel. Israel has also targeted missile factories and logistics hubs, leaving Iran, in Avivi’s words, “largely unable to produce new missiles at scale.”
Israeli officials said Iran was on pace to exhaust its remaining missiles within one to two weeks.
According to current and former officials, Israel will need at least another two to three weeks to accomplish the main goal of its campaign. Yossi Kuperwasser, a former head of the Israeli military’s Research and Assessment Division, said Israel’s initial assault destroyed Iran’s uranium metal conversion facilities and killed multiple senior nuclear scientists.
“We have already eliminated core scientists and the ability to convert uranium metal,” said Kuperwasser, the director of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security. “We’ve taken them back many years.”
He emphasized that the elimination of the Isfahan uranium metal conversion facility was particularly significant, because without it, Iran cannot build a bomb—even if it retains enriched uranium stockpiles. “If they don’t get a replacement, we’ve set them back a long time,” as much as years, he and other sources said.
Yet Fordow—the regime’s most heavily fortified underground enrichment site—remains in good standing. Kuperwasser, Avivi, and others say only U.S. strategic bombers can destroy it. “We have plans to finish the job without the Americans,” Kuperwasser said. “But it would be much easier with them.”
This article was originally published at freebeacon.com
