The assassination of Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader for almost four decades, is a kind of tectonic historical event. The disappearance of the supreme leader, along with senior figures from the Revolutionary Guards, the military, intelligence and political establishment, creates a void that the regime will find difficult to fill, despite early announcements about its preparations for such a scenario and the appointment of a series of replacements for senior officials in order to ensure the regime’s functional continuity and survival. However, despite the early preparations that were apparently made, it seems that the supreme leader was unable to complete the mission and the preparations for it. Even if he lost his status and influence following “Rising lion” operation in June 2025, he remains the regime’s most prominent and significant source of authority and its most obvious symbol.
The assassination of Khamenei, along with the assassination of other significant senior figures by Israel in a preemptive strike that managed to surprise the Iranians despite their advance preparations, is nothing less than an earthquake on a regional level, and perhaps even beyond. More than proving the depth of cooperation between the US and Israel and Israeli capability and establishing its status as a leading and significant regional power, it is an embarrassing humiliation for the Iranian regime and an indication of its weakness and vulnerability.
“This has repercussions for the entire region, with an emphasis on Iran’s proxies, which were also weakened by Israel during two years and four months of war.”
Iran’s responses, with unbridled attacks on Gulf countries that have led to damage to national and civilian infrastructure, are urging countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to join the war effort led by the US and Israel, despite the fact that until the outbreak of the war, together with other countries such as Turkey and Qatar, they tried, to convince President Trump not to take military action against Iran. If Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates do join the military action against Iran, this will be a significant change in the regional power structure. The two joining the attack against Iran places them together in a distinct and defined camp, led by the US and Israel, which seeks to leverage the results of the war in Iran to a regime change and to shape a new regional architecture, which will also put what is happening in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon in a completely different light.
The attack on the Iranian regime and its military and civilian branches creates a dynamic that makes possible what was until recently perceived as impossible: regime change in Iran. The US and Israel are providing the people of Iran with the conditions and infrastructure to leverage the dynamic that was created as a result of the severe damage caused to the regime, its capabilities and its almost mythical symbols, with an emphasis on the Supreme Leader, for a revolution that will end with a change of regime and its replacement with a regime that will focus on reconstructing and healing Iran and returning it to the family of nations.
Such an Iran will also inevitably become part of the new regional architecture and, with the beginning of the process of reconstruction and rebuilding, will also be able to make a real contribution to the entire region thanks to its size, human capital and wealth of resources. It is to be hoped that Iranian society will know how to establish leadership from within and organize the necessary process for the final overthrow of the regime and its replacement. Iranian society will need experienced forces who can step into the shoes of the outgoing government and manage a complex country like Iran and lead it with a confident and responsible hand on the path of reconstruction and change. The infrastructure of these experienced forces must come from the existing establishment, and it is likely that such potential exists among senior and experienced members of the Iranian military who will choose to defect and join the Iranian people, who are seeking to bring about historic change. The more the US and Israel succeed in increasing and deepening the damage to the existing regime, its assets and capabilities, and the more the Iranian people succeed in establishing a civilian leadership that will be able to organize the revolution, the greater the chance of a more significant defection.
The entire region is facing a historical event that is almost unique in its scope, intensity and significance. The US president has chosen to take military action against Iran despite opposition from within his own country, including among his closest advisors and confidants. His decision is a canonical and foundational historical decision, which will be remembered for generations if it ultimately leads to regime change in Iran, which in turn will lead to fundamental change in the entire region, along with implications for the entire world order.
The cooperation between the US and Israel is also precedent-setting and historic, and its strategic significance is enormous. The closeness between the leaders and their special relationship, along with the special and intimate relationship between the security establishments of the two countries, made possible the historic move, the essence of which is a powerful strategic alliance that projects Israel’s power throughout the region and even beyond. Israel has proven once again that it is the largest and most effective US aircraft carrier in the region.
The US has solidly established its position as the leading and only global power that is capable and willing to lead transformative and reality-changing moves. Israel’s efforts, led by Prime Minister Netanyahu, to convince the US to choose this strategic path, the essence and purpose of which is regime change in Iran as the only option for eliminating the Iranian threat in its various components (nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles and proxies in space, along with support for global terrorism and even encouragement and sometimes even leadership of it), have borne fruit and deserve enormous appreciation.
“The assassination of Iran’s supreme leader is an exceptional move, a biblical one, in its severity, and the choice to carry it out symbolizes the US president’s determination to make history and not just be a part of it.”
