Robert Besser is a news editor who has worked in television and newspapers in the United States, Asia and the Middle East.
Israel must pursue regime change in Iran as if our lives depend upon it, because they do.
If fact, if the extremist Iranian Islamic regime remains in power after this current war, Israel will be condemned to forever wars as Iran uses its limitless oil wealth to rebuild its nuclear project, its Iranian armies in Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Yemen and wherever, and eventually Iran will again possess many thousands of ballistic missiles to destroy Israel.
Clearly, the continuation of a government of Islamic extremists in Iran is, in itself, an existential threat to Israel.
So what is to be done to put an end to this Iranian government? You and I might not have an answer, but those in Israel who are tasked with finding critical solutions to the Iranian problem need to figure it out - and now.
In overthrowing the Iranian government we seem to be facing a task that appears impossible. But in Israel, we are too often forced to do the impossible.
Remember, Israel is the country that did the impossible when 600,000 Jews defeated five invading Arab armies in 1948. Israel again did the impossible when it liberated Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem in six days in 1967, and yet again did the impossible when it rescued Jewish hostages at Entebbe in 1976.
Israel also did the impossible when it refused to accept defeat in 1973, eventually driving the IDF to within miles of Damascus and crossing the Suez Canal to enter Egypt proper.
Indeed, within every Jew in Israel can be found the spark of David Ben Gurion’s words. “In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles."
Miracles? In today’s Israel we’ve got a bushel basket full of them.
How about miracles with water: Due to desalinization, today the arid country of Israel not only has an excess of water, but even exports water.
Or Israeli miracles in agriculture: Countries from throughout the world now come to Israel to learn how our farmers grow more crops per dunam with less water than anywhere on earth, and foreigners want to learn how Israeli cows produce more milk than anywhere else.
Or miracles in space: With unbelievable audacity, spelled chutzpah, Israel nearly landed a satellite on the moon, and will no doubt be successful in the next attempt.
Or miracles with our military: Israel has reinvented air warfare, turning fighter jets into platforms to destroy our enemies in their apartments, offices, bunkers, automobiles, bedrooms and at their dinner tables.
And every day we learn of new Israeli miracles in science, medicine, research, telecommunications and more.
And let’s not forget the miracle of Israel’s start-up business culture.
So the question must be asked: Is it true that Israel’s best brains can not figure out how to overthrow the Islamic regime?
When terrorists hijacked an Air France aircraft in 1976 with 106 Israelis and other Jews and held them in Entebbe, Uganda, our military planners did not have days or weeks to work out a plan. Instead they had hours. And they did it.
A plan to overthrow the Iranian regime? In the 1950s the US Central Intelligence Agency developed expertise in regime change by simply paying a country’s generals to take over their government. So why not in Iran?
Or in a government like Iran, made up of so many corrupt millionaires, simply pay moderates in the government to take over.
“Simply", of course, is a silly word. Overthrowing the Iranian government would be an extraordinarily difficult job.
It would take enormous Israeli resources, including military, intelligence and geopolitical minds, knowledge about Iran, Arabs, Moslems, the surrounding countries and so much more.
But what is our choice?
Because if we do not do it now, while the Irananian government is at its weakest point since it overthrew the Shah in 1979, we will guarantee that our grandchildren will have to fight and die in future wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
If we do not overthrow Iran's regime now, we will ensure that in the future our grandchildren will have to awaken in the middle of the night to run to bomb shelters.
Because if we do not do it now, we will be unable to avoid a nuclear war with Iran, which is the inevitable outcome of allowing Islamic fundamentalists to rearm.
And there is also an unspoken reason why we need to overthrow the Islamic regime right now. And that is because, at this very moment we may well be witnessing the end of the alliance between the United States and Israel.
For Israel has become “treif" among the growing American left in Congress, in the universities, the newsrooms, Hollywood and other woke institutions.
And in the mentally ill view of those of the American leftist religion, Israel has become a rogue state, just as apartheid South Africa was.
Of course, while Israel and the Jews will inhabit planet Earth long, long after American leftists are not even a footnote, in the coming years the hostility Israel felt during the Obama years might prove to be nothing compared to what future leftist American administrations will dish out.
And if, heaven forbid, the Islamists remain in power in Iran following this war, then at the minimum Israel must destroy their oil fields.
For it is their oil money which guarantees that Iran can forever fund their proxy armies, build new missiles and pursue nuclear arms.
And by the way, if 90 percent of Iran’s oil is now being delivered to China, how much of the world oil market will actually be disrupted if Iran loses its oil business?
We have seen with Hamas, we have seen with Hezbollah and we have seen for over 47 years with Iran, that Moslem fundamentalists are genetically incapable of honoring any ceasefire agreements.
Which is why, at this moment while history is being made every day, we Jews must reach into ourselves and find the resolve and the solutions, we must reject western appeasement and find the means to overthrow the Islamic regime.
We Jews have come too far in the past 2,000 years to allow Israel to be destroyed by Iran. We have been conquered, dispersed, and we have built new lives in country after country. We have suffered horribly, and miraculously survived living among the non-Jews. We have restored our language, we have restored our land, we have grown the country from 600,000 Jews in 1948 to nearly 8 million Jews today, we have made the transition from victim to warrior, and we have built Israel into one of the singular wonders of the world.
And above all, we have built a country in which Torah stands tall, as more students study Torah in Israel today than at any time in Jewish history.
So now what? Because some Islamic ayatollahs scream that they want us dead we are supposed to roll over and die?
Unlike the past 2,000 years, we Jews now decide whether we live or die. And, of course, we will decide that we will fight, and we will say no to again being enslaved and dispersed.
For the Jews have returned to Israel, we have fought and we have not only survived, but thrived. The Jews have been reborn.
So the United Nations, the European Union, the Congress and the White House, along with all Arab leaders, must come to understand that
Am Yisrael Chai is not just an American Jewish fundraising slogan, but is our way of life.
And no Islamic madmen are going to be given the opportunity to decide the fate of the Jews of Israel.