Israeli and U.S. military strikes on Iran are intended to dismantle its nuclear program and ballistic missile capabilities while potentially weakening the ruling regime, two former Israeli security figures told Newsmax on Tuesday.
The latest escalation began Feb. 28 when the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes across Iran targeting military infrastructure and nuclear-related sites, triggering retaliatory missile and drone attacks by Tehran across the region.
Israel also went on high alert as Iran fired missiles toward the country in retaliation for the joint operation, prompting school closings and restrictions on public gatherings.
Doron Kempel, a former deputy commander in the Israeli military's Sayeret Matkal special operations unit, said on "Bianca Across the Nation" that the conflict should be viewed through a broader geopolitical lens.
"Iran is a tool in the hand of the Russian-Chinese bloc," Kempel said. "That's the right way to strategically think about it.
"They are applying strategic kinetic pressure on the West. Right now they're destabilizing the Middle East. Later, they can get to us with their ballistic missiles."
Kempel said the military campaign could achieve either a limited or far more ambitious outcome depending on how the war develops.
"The aims of the war could be minimally and maximally," he said. "Minimally, we can delay this cancer by three or five years by eradicating all the ballistic missiles and the nuclear facilities. This is what's going on on the ground right now very effectively."
He added that intensified strikes serve a tactical purpose.
When U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth "talked about intensifying the firepower, that just has to do with greater safety for our brave pilots, basically destroying the infrastructure," Kempel said. "But that is the delaying of the cancer goal."
According to Kempel, the broader objective would involve weakening Iran's ruling system and empowering political change in the country.
"The more difficult, war-worthy goal is to eliminate this cancer," he said. "In order to do that, what we need to do is be able to declare the fact that the Iranian people have chosen democracy over tyranny.
"That means that we need to decay the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] and the regime."
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.
Eylon Levy, a former Israeli national spokesperson, said the strikes are intended to end what he described as Iran's long-standing threat to the region.
"The quickest way to end Iranian aggression, protect American interests and allies in the region is to destroy the Iranian regime's ability to continue waging war," Levy said.
He described Iran as a persistent destabilizing force in the Middle East.
"We are talking about the world's largest state sponsor of terror, designated as such by every U.S. president since the Islamic Revolution," Levy said.
"That has been firing indiscriminately around the region, not only at civilian targets in the Gulf, but firing warheads with cluster munitions at Israel."
"That is, by definition, an indiscriminate attack intended to kill as many civilians as possible," he added.
Levy said the campaign's goals appear clear.
"So I think we can expect to see the U.S. and Israel moving towards their very clearly defined goals: destroying the nuclear program, destroying the ballistic missile capabilities, sinking the Iranian navy, and giving the Iranian people an opportunity to take their country back," he said.
"Because ultimately, there will be no peace in the Middle East as long as the Iranian civilization is governed by a fanatical fundamentalist regime that is sworn to death to America, death to Israel," Levy said.
"And as we've seen now, is totally out of control and needs to be brought back under."
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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