With respect to Israel and Iran, talk of peace is in the air. We are beset with calls from various quarters to “de-escalate” the situation there, lest wider war break out. President Trump, who partnered with Israel in deceiving Iran prior to Israel’s preemptive strike, is now talking about making another deal with Iran.
I hope he doesn’t mean it. The last thing Israel, or anyone else, should be thinking about is another agreement with the mullahs. Israel now controls the skies, has largely degraded Iran’s missile capability, and can do pretty much anything it wants, militarily. It was delightful to see that Israel wiped out the regime’s state broadcaster.
So this is a golden opportunity, almost certainly the best one Israel ever has had, or ever will have, to bring about regime change in Iran. The mullahocracy needs to go. Neither Israel nor the rest of the world will ever be safe, as long as Islamic extremists control Iran. Israel has already demolished Iran’s proxies, Hamas, Hezbollah, and, to a lesser extent, the Houthis. But if Iran’s regime is allowed to stay in place, it will readily rebuild its terrorist infrastructure, just as it will eventually rebuild its nuclear capability.
I don’t know exactly how regime change will come about. I believe that the mullahs are unpopular with most Iranians, and that most Iranians would like to live in a modern, normal country. I don’t know how the transition to a new government will take place, but likely the Israelis have been thinking about, and planning for, this eventuality. In any case, Israel should continue to pound Iran and keep the pressure on until the leadership of the regime is more or less wiped out, and the mullahs are gone from power. It should ignore all pressure to the contrary.
Only with a new, more or less secular, Iran, will Israel–or the rest of the world–be safe. Israel should settle for nothing less.
