Israel’s war against Iran was never just about nuclear weapons

Netanyahu has always sought more than just interrupting the Iranian nuclear program. In today’s war, Tel Aviv sees a historic opportunity to finally overthrow the Islamic Republic.

“The Iranian regime has never been so weak. This is your moment – Iranians – get up and make your voices heard. We are with you.”
– Benjamin Netanyahu, June 13, 2025

Since the 1990s, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been unshakable in his strategic goal: to stop the Iranian nuclear program. At a time when even Washington was focused on peace agreements and settlements with Palestinians, Netanyahu was already obsessed with Iran.

He criticized the peace agreement with the Palestinians, but consistently highlighted the “Iranian threat.” At a time when this issue was not a global or regional priority, Netanyahu was almost alone in warning against Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

In the early 2000s, while Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon focused on repressing Al-Aqsa’s intifada and what he called “Palestinian terrorism,” Netanyahu simultaneously warned of Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Sharon via Iran as an international problem to be solved globally, but Netanyahu sought unilateral confrontation.

Netanyahu always wanted to leave his mark in Jewish history and be remembered as the leader who neutralized the “Iranian nuclear threat”.

Frustrated plans and revived ambitions

In 2010, Netanyahu and then Minister of Defense Ehud Barak ordered the Israeli army to prepare attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities and murder Iranian scientists. The operation was only paralyzed because important security leaders reacted: Cabinet Chief Menim Ashkenazi, Shin Bet’s head, Yuval Diskin, and Mossad chief Meir Dagan warned that Israel had no military capacity to attack Iran without US support.

The Obama government, alerted by Barak, turned to diplomacy and sealed the joint integral action plan (JCPOA) with Tehran. Netanyahu got annoyed. But the dream of bombarding Iran has never disappeared. He continued this effort on the international scenario – including using the UN General Assembly to display a charge of a bomb, warning about the possibility of Iran overcoming the red line in uranium enrichment.

During Donald Trump’s first term, Netanyahu managed to convince him to withdraw from the nuclear agreement after exposing Iran’s “stolen nuclear archive”. To support the political and military impetus, Netanyahu ordered the military to prepare for an attack on Iran without external help, citing the motto he often repeats: “The fate of the only Jewish state cannot be entrusted to strangers, even if they are our allies. ”

Tel Aviv then intensified selective murders and cyber attacks. The 2020 murder of Mohsen Fakhizadeh (which has been on the Mossad’s black list since 2009), Iran’s main nuclear scientist, was a message: Israel’s war against Iran had entered a new phase.

The confrontation between Israel and Iran has never ceased. Netanyahu remains the architect of this conflict. Even after becoming opposition leader in the Knesset under the Naphtali Bennett-Yair Lapid government, former Israeli Prime Minister Bennett maintained Netanyahu’s position, stating that “a thousand stab wounds” should be directed to the “head of the axis”-that is, Netanyahu incorporated the Iranian case into the daily political life of Israel-Israel- No prime minister can ignore him.

From the Secret War to the open confrontation

Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, led by Hamas, deepened Israeli fears. Tel Aviv responded with multi -front climbing: Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and secretly Iran. The occupying state explored regional changes – weakened Syrian air defenses and a new corridor via Iraq – to more deeply attack the Iranian territory.

Tel Aviv believes he has made a strategic error by not attacking Iran in 2010; Now the Iranian nuclear facilities are more fortified and their more robust defenses. Some Israeli analysts argue that if Tehran obtains nuclear weapons, the country and its allies will become bolder, forcing Israel to act to avoid a genuine existential threat.

The current war is the apex of the obsession of decades of Netanyahu. The Israeli media now admits that the Lion’s courage operation targets Iranian scientists, nuclear facilities, Islamic Revolutionary Guard facilities (IRGC) and military. But ambition is deeper.

The regime change plan

As documented by Israeli Think Tanks and Strategic Planners, the long -term goal is to change the regime: dismantling the Islamic Republic, installing a friendly government and destroying the axis of resistance. Some argue that with the aging of the supreme leader there Khamenei, the system is vulnerable.

Others advocate even more radical measures: a beheading attack against Iranian leadership combined with attacks on oil infrastructure to incite internal agitation. The risks are huge, but Tel Aviv sees this as a historical opportunity.

This is no longer a shadow war. For the first time, Israel openly attacked the Iranian territory, triggering direct retaliation. The Western powers rushed to defend the state of occupation, but the trajectory is in spiral.

Israel is betting that it can absorb an Iranian response, fragment the Islamic Republic and rewrite the Asian West power equations in the coming decades.

But Iran is not isolated, and Netanyahu may be exaggerating. Although shaken and spread over multiple fronts, the axis of resistance – from Hezbollah to Ansarallah and the Iraqi factions – is mobilized. The region prepares for a broader confrontation.

Netanyahu sees a window. Tehran sees not only one but many cross -red lines. The rest of Western Asia sees a war that can redesign the map.

Originally published by The Cradle on 06/14/2025

Pan Analysked.