Summary

Israel and the United States are expected to intensify efforts in the coming days to encourage opponents of the Iranian regime to take to the streets, sources told The Jerusalem Post. So far, regime opponents have largely refrained from demonstrating, either out of fear of the regime’s security forces or concern about being harmed in Israeli-American strikes. Officials in Israel and the United States say they are seeing fewer cracks within the senior leadership of the Iranian government than they had expected, according to several sources who spoke with the Post. However, fear is evident among lower-ranking personnel. At the same time, the two countries are seeing evidence that Iranian soldiers are hesitating to carry out orders to fire toward Israel and Gulf countries due to the ongoing Israeli-American campaign targeting missile launchers. At the same time, the two countries are concerned that Iranian soldiers may hesitate to carry out orders to fire toward Israel, partly due to the ongoing Israeli-American campaign targeting missile launchers. Netanyahu calls for Iranians to rise up On Thursday, during a press conference, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the citizens of Iran, telling them that “the moment when you will be able to achieve freedom is getting closer. We stand with you and are helping you.” At the same time, Netanyahu publicly acknowledged for the first time that it is not certain the regime will fall by the end of the war, telling Iranians that “ultimately, it depends on you.” Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday that Israel and the United States are entering the decisive stage of the struggle between the regime’s attempts to survive while causing increasing suffering to the Iranian people and surrender. “Only the Iranian people can bring this to an end through determined struggle—until the terrorist regime is overthrown and Iran is saved,” the minister said. An Israeli official told the Post that “it is more likely that lasting regime change will occur in the period after the war, during a time of relative calm, when large numbers of Iranian citizens who oppose the regime may feel they can safely take to the streets.”