Ex-top IDF official to 'Post': Israel should get US to hit Iran nukes

Historic weakening of Axis of Resistance creates new opportunities, risks

By YONAH JEREMY BOB DECEMBER 8, 2024 22:05 Updated: DECEMBER 8, 2024 22:14

Military personnel stand guard at a nuclear facility in the Zardanjan area of Isfahan, Iran, April 19, 2024 (photo credit: WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY) VIA REUTERS)

Israel should seize the opportunity of the Assad regime falling and the Iranian proxy axis weakening to convince the US to strike Iran’s nuclear program, former IDF Operations Command chief Maj.-Gen. (res.) Israel Ziv told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

Ziv said that the fall of Bashar Assad, which also has weakened the “Axis of Resistance,” is a historic opportunity and that Washington, especially under President-elect Donald Trump, who will assume office on January 20, might be more ready than ever before to take advantage of Tehran’s moment of weakness.

In the past, one reason, among many, that neither American nor Israeli officials were ready to attack Iran’s nuclear program was the anticipated blowback from Iran’s proxies.

But Ziv said, “Now we can undertake additional moves to see how much we can press this success against Iran so they cannot strengthen or further advance their nuclear program.”

He emphasized that “Israel cannot do it without the US. We need them,” given certain limits in Israel’s airstrike capabilities regarding Iran’s nuclear program.

Israel Ziv (credit: MIRIAM ALSTER/FLASH90)

For example, it has been widely published for years that the US has a 30,000-pound bomb that can destroy Iranian nuclear facilities concealed under a mountain, but Israel does not have weapons of such power, nor does it have aircraft large enough to deliver them.

Fall of Assad could weaken Iran's axis

Additionally, Iran’s nuclear program is extremely spread out, and Washington has a much larger air force for covering more targets.

All this is only possible because Assad’s fall “breaks the contiguity of Iran’s proxies through Iraq and Syria to Lebanon, and even eventually south to Yemen, which they tried to build for many years,” said Ziv.

“The fall of Assad could mean the end of the Axis of Resistance,” he said, adding that he hoped it would help “weaken Hezbollah enough to change the conditions in Lebanon, which would make Iran more isolated.”

In terms of threats from the new rulers of Syria, Ziv said, “Israel cannot take chances. The jihadists have no love for Israel” and added that Jerusalem needs a strategy to achieve a balance of forces with the new Syria to stabilize the border.

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Further, he said Israel must build support with the US for an independent Kurdistan in the areas of Syria controlled by the Kurds, who are the only group with outward positive relations with Israel.

He added it would be “very critical to guard that area so Iran cannot return to its position in Syria” and that the IDF needed to take the Syrian side of Mount Hermon to make sure that “al-Qaeda is not sitting on the high ground above you.”