Nukes? Real goal of Israel is toppling the Tehran regime

Israel's campaign to cripple Iran's nuclear programme and decapitate its military with bombardments across the west of the country is part of a comprehensive plan to remove the existential threat Iran poses to the Jewish state.

- SAM KILEY

The "second order effect" may be no less important - regime change.

Israel has been planning this for years. It has shaped the battlefield with assassinations of nuclear scientists, the destruction of Iranian regional proxy militias, and bombing of its missile facilities last year.

This year, it has slipped Mossad intelligence agency commandos into the country where they’ve shown Ukrainian levels of innovation and used drones to snuff out Iran’s air defences and target missile launch sites. Two more top leaders of the Iranian forces have been slain in meticulously targeted strikes.

Politicians, though, have not yet appeared on the Israeli kill lists. That is deliberate. Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly tried to appeal to the Iranian people to rise against the Islamic regime that has ruled over them since 1979.

On Friday, as Israel’s first waves of 200 aircraft were conducting their first sorties against Iran, he broadcast an appeal directly to the Iranian people. “Israel’s fight is not against the Iranian people. Our fight is against the murderous Islamic regime that oppresses and impoverishes you,” Netanyahu said.

“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,” he added. “This is your opportunity to stand up and let your voices be heard.”

Iran’s regime is oppressive. It hangs poets and journalists, gasses schoolgirls for protesting against being forced to wear head scarves and takes foreigners hostage. It has backed murderous campaigns by Hamas, created the militia-cum-mafia that is modern Hezbollah, and used the Houthis of Yemen to destabilise world trade through the Red Sea.