The vast majority of the IDF and the Mossad oppose the current Iran nuclear deal as insufficient in light of the power dynamics between the parties, the "blood and treasure" invested, and the threats confronting Israel, the Jerusalem Post has learned.
While that view is not unanimous and top Israeli officials understand the need to defer to Israel's political echelon and to the Trump administration on certain matters, it is nearly unanimous, and officials are making their views heard in private forums.
While the Trump administration has been almost entirely focused on opening the Strait of Hormuz and the nuclear issue, the Post understands that IDF and Mossad officials had hoped for progress on the ballistic missiles and proxy threats, which they are stuck dealing with on a day-to-day and year-to-year basis.
These issues have been left out of the deal.
Further, many Mossad officials and even some IDF officials believed it was important to keep Iran under sanctions until the Islamic regime changed its tune in a broader way to stop threatening Israel, or even until it was toppled.
Officials betting on sanctions pressure
Some Mossad officials, though fewer IDF officials, even believed that it was likely that the Islamic regime would fall within the year if financial sanctions pressure remained, given that the country lost over $300 billion from being bombed and has been losing huge additional sums daily since the US counter-blockaded Iran at Hormuz, the Post has learned.
These officials believed, the Post understands, that even if Iran held out against financial sanctions from 2018 to 2026, the combined new pressure of the damages to the regime from the 2026 war, along with the Hormuz blockade, would have finally pushed Iranians enough over the threshold to be willing and able to topple the regime.
In light of the billions of dollars expected to stream to the regime once the new deal is signed, many in the IDF and the Mossad now fear that any prospect of regime change could be delayed far past a year from now, missing a unique opportunity to make Israel and the world safer for generations.