Maj. Gen. Yadlin, who flew in the 1981 Osirak reactor strike, explains why Israel’s current operation against Iran represents a complex, multi-week campaign. Israel’s ongoing military campaign on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure could mark not just a military escalation but a strategic shift, according to retired Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin. The former head of Israeli military intelligence and one of the architects behind the legendary 1981 strike on Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor said Israel should expand its sights not just military targets, but political ones. “Israel took the decision that, on one hand, it’s time to end the leadership of the Axis of Evil — the head of the snake,” Yadlin told Fox News Digital. “At the same time, deal with the main problems there. Which is the nuclear.”
Yadlin didn’t say how long he thought the conflict would drag on. While he didn’t openly call for regime change, Yadlin suggested the IDF take out regime targets “beyond the military level.” “It’s not a one-day operation. It seems more like a week, two weeks. But when you start a war, even if you start it very successfully, you never know when it is finished.” “I hope that the achievements of the IDF, which are degrading the Iranian air defense, degrading the Iranian missile, ballistic missile capabilities, drones capabilities, and maybe even some regime targets beyond the military level that Israel started with, will convince the Iranians that it is time to stop. And then they will come to negotiation with the Trump administration much weaker.”