Dr. Shmuel Katz, a prominent Israel advocate and co-founder of the organization Stand With Us, addressed the possibility of U.S. military action against Iran in a special interview with Arutz Sheva – Israel National News.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran today is a very complicated country,” Katz said. \u201cThere are many people who want to remove the current regime, but they don\u2019t have the power, they don\u2019t have the armaments, and they don\u2019t have the international support they need.”<\/p>\n
Katz described the Iranian government as \u201cvery cruel,” accusing it of killing, maiming, and imprisoning \u201ctens of thousands of people,” while the international community remains largely passive. He argued that Western diplomacy has repeatedly underestimated Tehran\u2019s strategic mindset.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Iranian mentality of this type of leadership believes big time in deception,” Katz said. \u201cThey will negotiate with you as much as they can in order to postpone any conflict.”<\/p>\n
According to Katz, Iran\u2019s leadership hopes to delay decisive action long enough for political changes in the West. \u201cThey\u2019re hoping the leadership of today in the United States and across the world will pass,” he said. \u201cMaybe new people will come into power who are more friendly to them, and they\u2019ll survive another day.”<\/p>\n
He warned that allowing the current regime to remain in power carries global consequences. \u201cThese people don\u2019t believe in freedom. They don\u2019t believe in the well-being of the West as we know it,” Katz said. \u201cThey are power-hungry, and their ideology is out of control.”<\/p>\n
Katz emphasized that Iran\u2019s military ambitions extend far beyond Israel. \u201cWhen Iran is building its rocket systems, they\u2019re not targeting only Israel,” he said. \u201cThey\u2019re targeting Europe. They\u2019re targeting the United States. If you add ballistic missiles and atomic weapons, New York and Washington are in danger. It\u2019s not a question of if, it\u2019s a question of how soon.”<\/p>\n
Asked about Israel\u2019s position should a new Iranian government emerge, Katz said Israel would be open to engagement under the right conditions. \u201cIsrael in principle is very open-minded,” he said. \u201cThey are willing to work with anybody who wants a better future, for their country, for Israel, and for the free world.”<\/p>\n
He pointed to the Iranian diaspora as a potential bridge. \u201cThere are many people in Israel and in the United States who came from Iran because of the current regime,” Katz said. \u201cThese people should amplify the connection to the local population and give them the support they need to build a better future.”<\/p>\n
However, Katz cautioned that Iran\u2019s current leadership is not focused solely on domestic affairs. \u201cIran of today is not thinking only Iranian,” he said. \u201cThey are thinking international. They\u2019re trying to infiltrate Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq, any field they can take over.”<\/p>\n
Turning to Iran-backed militant groups, Katz reflected on what he described as a major miscalculation in Israeli and international policy prior to the October 7th massacre. \u201cThere was a belief that if we are nice to Hamas, they will be nice to us,” he said. \u201cPeople did not understand the depth of the problem.”<\/p>\n
He described how Israeli communities near Gaza actively pursued coexistence. \u201cThey were inviting people into their homes, taking them to hospitals, building industrial parks, drinking coffee together,” Katz said. \u201cThey truly believed they were building a better future.”<\/p>\n
\u201cThat illusion collapsed on October 7,” he added. “The people who attacked were not strangers,” Katz said. \u201cThey were doctors, shopkeepers, teachers. They were holding hostages in their own homes. Many hostages were killed in captivity.”<\/p>\n
According to Katz, these events shattered the belief in the concept of the innocent bystander. \u201cYou ask yourself, \u2018How can we make peace with people who present themselves as civilians but are driven by an ideology to destroy you?\u2019” he said.<\/p>\n
Katz argued that ideology, not economic conditions, lies at the heart of the conflict. \u201cWhen ideology is kicking in, the well-being of today doesn\u2019t count,” he said. \u201cYou cannot make a business deal with people who believe in world domination.”<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Katz said Gaza cannot be stabilized without deep structural changes. \u201cHamas must be totally disarmed. Gaza must be demilitarized,” he said, adding that disarmament alone would not be enough. \u201cWithout proper education of children and adults for many years, it will be very difficult to see a real outcome.”<\/p>\n
He also criticized the involvement of outside actors. \u201cQatar and Turkey hate Israel, hate the free world as we know it,” Katz said. \u201cQatar invested billions in brainwashing youth, including in the United States. And today we are seeing the results. The first step is education, the second step is exposing evil and marginalizing it. Only then can we build a better future.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr. Shmuel Katz, a prominent Israel advocate and co-founder of the organization Stand With Us, addressed the possibility…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[145136,16719,85,46,21452,145134,43,1823,4661,39097,1582,145135],"class_list":["post-282671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-dr-shmuel-katz","tag-gaza-region","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israel-iran","tag-israel-iran-us","tag-news","tag-qatar","tag-qatar-israel","tag-trump-gaza-peace-plan","tag-turkey","tag-turkey-gaza"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}