Netanyahu Says Toppling Iran's Government Is Israel's Goal

Jerusalem, Israel — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that overthrowing Iran's government remains Israel's "primary objective," a declaration that came days before national elections in which his party faces declining support in the polls, according to Al Jazeera.

The remarks followed conversations between Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump on Sunday, as well as a visit to Israel by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth. Netanyahu offered no indication that Washington had agreed to join a renewed offensive against Iran, let alone a campaign aimed at bringing down its leadership, Al Jazeera reported.

Does Israel have the military power to strike Iran?

Analysts say Israel's capacity to hit Iranian targets is not in question. Urban Coningham, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, told Al Jazeera that Israel's offensive weapons stockpiles and aerial refuelling capabilities give it "a substantial advantage."

"Israel could again establish air superiority and strike Iranian targets," Coningham said.

Can air strikes alone remove Iran's leadership?

Experts interviewed by Al Jazeera were skeptical that military strikes, however damaging, can translate into the fall of Iran's government. Air strikes alone are unlikely to achieve that outcome, they said, while a ground invasion would require a far larger military commitment than Israel has previously deployed against Iran.

Netanyahu has cast Iran's leadership as a central threat since his first term as prime minister in 1996. Addressing the US Congress that year, he said: "The most dangerous of these [governments] is Iran, that has wed a cruel despotism to a fanatic militancy." Nearly three decades later, US involvement in the June 2025 war — and again in a campaign launched on February 28 this year — delivered the kind of military intervention Netanyahu had long sought from Washington, according to Al Jazeera.

What would a renewed offensive against Iran involve?

A fresh campaign would mean confronting a state that has already withstood two rounds of attacks and retains the capacity to retaliate, both against Israel and against Gulf states hosting US military assets, analysts told Al Jazeera. That retaliatory capability complicates any calculation about further strikes, since it raises the risk of a wider regional confrontation rather than a swift collapse of Tehran's leadership.

Is Washington ready to back another round of strikes?

US backing for a renewed campaign remains uncertain. Experts cited by Al Jazeera questioned Washington's appetite for further fighting, noting that the United States has yet to identify a credible path to forcing Iran's leadership to accept its demands through military pressure alone. Hegseth's visit to Israel and Trump's call with Netanyahu suggest continued coordination between the two governments, but neither side has publicly committed to a new offensive aimed at toppling Iran's leadership.

What to watch

• Whether Trump signals direct US military participation in any new Israeli campaign against Iran.
• How Netanyahu's statements on Iran affect his standing ahead of national elections next week.
• Signs of retaliatory planning from Iran against Israel or Gulf states hosting US forces.
• Any shift in Gulf states' posture toward hosting further US military assets amid renewed tension.

The full report is available from Al Jazeera.