Across Israel today, citizens, ordinary people, not only generals or politicians, are praying for the fall of the Iranian Islamic regime.
There is a collective understanding that the collapse of the Ayatollahs and their Islamic Republic is the only path to a true 'new order' in the Middle East.
If the regime falls, the oxygen pipeline of weapons, money, and training that fuels the region's fires will finally run dry. This applies to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Shiite militias in Iraq, and the Houthis in Yemen, who continue to threaten global shipping with ballistic missiles provided by Tehran.
While these proxies won’t vanish overnight, without their Iranian state sponsor, their strategic threat will diminish significantly.
However, I must sound a critical warning regarding recent diplomatic chatter suggesting a 'compromise' in which the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, might be removed from power to appease the protesters.
Let me be clear: Khamenei leaving the scene is not the same as the regime falling.
Iran is not a dictatorship of one man; it is a dictatorship of an ideology. The system is built on Velayat-e Faqih (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist).
Replacing the man at the top while leaving the institutions of oppression - the IRGC, the religious councils, and the revolutionary courts - intact is the worst-case scenario, because it creates a dangerous illusion of change.
The West might be tempted to embrace this 'new' leadership, lift sanctions, and release frozen funds. That money will not go to the Iranian people; it will be used to crush them with greater ferocity and to reinvigorate the terror proxies abroad.
Even now, despite mass protests rocking Tehran and a collapsing economy, the Iranian regime has not paused its export of terror for a second. Just this week, the Iranian Foreign Minister landed in Beirut with a single goal: to ensure Hezbollah does not disarm.
Similarly, renewed talk of nuclear negotiations is a trap. We must remember that previous rounds of "negotiations" dragged on for many years, serving only as a stalling tactic to buy time for technical advancement.
President Trump has built a reputation as a leader who backs his words with action. He has promised to deal with the Iranian threat and the murderous repression of the Iranian people. Accepting a cosmetic change in Tehran would undermine his credibility and his achievements in the region.
We cannot settle for a change of faces. The goal must be the fall of the ideology. Unless the regime of the Ayatollahs is replaced by a true democracy, the threat to the region - and the world - will remain.
Sarit Zehavi is head ofthe Alma Research Center, "your eyes and ears on the northern border,"