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<\/p>\nWith a new war with Iran in its second week, and Israeli political and military leaders counseling patience among Israelis, what the government\u2019s actual war aims are and whether they are attainable remain elusive.<\/p>\n
In contrast with President Donald Trump\u2019s zig-zagging on exactly why he decided to send the United States to war against Iran alongside Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s messaging has remained fixated on regime change in Iran since Day 1.<\/p>\n
The U.S.-Israeli attack \u201cwill create the conditions for the brave Iranian people [to] rid themselves of the yoke of tyranny,\u201d Mr. Netanyahu declared at the war\u2019s outset. On Tuesday, he addressed Iranians directly on X, urging them: \u201cBe ready to seize the moment!\u201d<\/p>\n
Why We Wrote This<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s Benjamin Netanyahu has been consistent in stating his Iran war aim: regime change. But can he declare victory without it? \u201cAn exit strategy needs to be realistic,\u201d cautions one Israeli analyst. \u201cBecause if it is not realistic, there is no exit.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is unclear, however, whether Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s \u201cmission accomplished\u201d requires overthrowing the Islamic Republic or, as some former Israeli military officials and analysts suggest, whether destabilizing the regime and severely reducing the threat it poses, especially its nuclear program, would suffice.<\/p>\n
But even these more limited goals might increasingly be at odds with the Trump administration\u2019s tighter timetable (and shorter patience) for the war, as it focuses increasingly on the safe flow of the region\u2019s oil.<\/p>\n
No clear Israeli fallback<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Netanyahu, the endgame in this war is to see a heavily diminished Iran,\u201d says retired Col. Miri Eisen, who worked in military intelligence for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Though the prime minister would like to see regime change, she says, he would likely be satisfied with less.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wants to see that the physical threat\u201d from Iran\u2019s nuclear program, missiles, and its regional proxies \u201care brought down to an incredibly low level,\u201d Ms. Eisen says. \u201cIt\u2019s the culmination of what he\u2019s been talking about for many, many years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\tMajid Asgaripour\/WANA\/Reuters\n<\/p>\n
People hold pictures of Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, during a funeral ceremony for Iranian military commanders killed in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, in Tehran, March 11, 2026.<\/p>\n
Yet, with no evidence of a popular Iranian uprising, and Mr. Trump appearing to back away from his own demands for regime change, analysts say it is unclear whether Israel has a clear plan to pursue that objective or what its fallback might be.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing that we wish to see happening is that the regime in Iran is going to change and to be replaced by a regime that is pro-Western, more or less ready to give up the ideas of hegemony in the Middle East,\u201d says retired Brig. Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser, who heads the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.<\/p>\n
This would mean Iran would give up its nuclear project, its ballistic missiles arsenal, and its proxy armies such as Hezbollah and Hamas, he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is our dream, and that\u2019s also the dream of the United States,\u201d says Mr. Kuperwasser, the former head of the research division of IDF military intelligence. But after the dreams, he adds, \u201ccomes reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Iranian regime shows no signs of bending and has chosen hard-liner Mojtaba Khamenei to replace his father, the slain Ali Khamenei, as supreme leader.<\/p>\n
Iran underestimated<\/p>\n
There are also increasing jitters that Israel and the U.S. might have underestimated the response from Iran, which was weakened by the 12-day Israel-Iran war last June but says it will fight as long as necessary.<\/p>\n
Despite U.S. and Israeli attacks against the regime\u2019s missile launchers and stockpiles, Iran continues to attack Israel with round-the-clock ballistic-missile and drone attacks and has been hitting its Arab neighbors in the Gulf region, driving a spike in oil prices. Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration\u2019s special envoy, might visit Israel next week, presumably to discuss next steps.<\/p>\n
Shlomo Brom, a former director of the strategic planning division in the IDF, says he does not see that the U.S. and Israel have set out a realistic strategy to end the war.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn exit strategy needs to be realistic. Because, if it is not realistic, there is no exit,\u201d says the retired brigadier general, now a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, a think tank in Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
People take shelter from incoming missiles in an underground garage in Tel Aviv, Israel, March 4, 2026.<\/p>\n
Israel and the U.S. have attained \u201cenormous\u201d military achievements on the ground, Mr. Brom says. But he adds that when they are not coupled with realistic, achievable goals\u00a0\u2013 that are themselves a compromise between all you want to what you can actually get\u00a0\u2013 then the war will \u201cdrag on,\u201d until Mr. Trump \u201cwill be fed up with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regime change could mean completely taking out the Islamic leadership, Mr. Brom says, but it could also mean working with a more moderate Islamic replacement that will more easily yield to U.S. and Israeli demands and seek a better relationship with the West.<\/p>\n
\u201cJudging from the little information that is coming from Iran,\u201d he concludes, \u201cI don\u2019t see any movement toward regime change.\u201d<\/p>\n
The nuclear target<\/p>\n
If Israel and the U.S. drop regime change as a goal, says Eyal Hulata, a former Israeli national security adviser, they will be seeking objectives that are easier to \u201cdefine and also measure,\u201d such as further downgrading Iran\u2019s missile and nuclear programs.<\/p>\n
After the June war, Mr. Netanyahu addressed the nation and declared: \u201cDear citizens of Israel … we achieved an historic victory, one that will last for decades.\u201d Just eight months later, he was announcing a new operation to stop the same threat.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe caused the nuclear project very devastating damage [in June], but we didn\u2019t finish the job,\u201d says Mr. Kuperwasser.<\/p>\n
Iran still has 450 kilograms (about 1,000 pounds) of highly enriched uranium in an underground tunnel, he says, and has refused, in talks with the U.S. before the war, to export its stockpiles.<\/p>\n
The thinking in Jerusalem was that waiting to attack would only have allowed Iran to rebuild its nuclear and missile capabilities, so the strategy was it was best to strike now.<\/p>\n
According to Adi Stoler, head of the international media division of the IDF spokesperson\u2019s office, the second phase of the war, which she says has already started, will focus on taking out Iran\u2019s remaining nuclear capabilities while continuing to deplete its missile arsenal and assassinate more regime officials.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to make sure that Iran will never pose a threat again to the State of Israel,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Differing stakes<\/p>\n
Analysts say there are significant differences in how victory would be perceived in the United States and Israel.<\/p>\n
For Mr. Trump, if the war can \u201cend in a way that he will be perceived a victor, or at least he can make arguments why he is the victor, that is sufficient for him,\u201d says Mr. Brom.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Smoke from Israeli shelling is seen rising in southern Lebanon during an escalation of fighting between Iranian proxy Hezbollah and Israel, March 8, 2026.<\/p>\n
But for Mr. Netanyahu, seeking to recover politically from the stain of Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7, 2023, attack, the stakes are far higher. Anything less than regime change in Iran might be seen as a failure by the Israeli public, observers say.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Israelis have been hunkering down in bomb shelters pounded not just by Iran but also by its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah.<\/p>\n
According to an Israel Democracy Institute poll, an overwhelming majority of Jewish Israelis, 93%, support the war in Iran, with most believing it should continue until the regime is overthrown.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost Israelis believe that this war is necessary in order to seriously degrade the regime\u2019s military capabilities and also at least try to bring down the regime,\u201d says Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-born lecturer at Reichman University in Israel.<\/p>\n
But while most Israelis are willing to endure the current hardship, they want to know this is the elusive \u201clast round\u201d \u2013 one that will vanquish the existential threat Iran has posed for decades.<\/p>\n
That public expectation might make it even harder for Israel to stop the war on its own. America will ultimately make that call, and Israel will have no choice but to acquiesce, says Ms. Eisen, the retired IDF colonel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn most of our wars, it takes an outer force to stop us,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a new war with Iran in its second week, and Israeli political and military leaders counseling patience…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-335814","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335814","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=335814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}