Wednesday, April 29, 2026, London

Was it all an op? A blockbuster piece in Israel’s Ynet by journalists Nahum Barnea and Ronen Bergman said Israel’s spy services began planning to topple Iran’s regime four years ago.

The plan by Benjamin Netanyahu and the Mossad was to kill Iran’s leaders, spark a popular uprising, and back a Kurdish insurgency in the country’s west.

According to the Hebrew-language report, Israel’s plans relied heavily on influence operations inside the country to overthrow the regime with mass protests.

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The article said Israel was heavily involved in the January uprising that provided the humanitarian fig leaf for the US-Israeli war.

Needless to say, the scheme totally failed. Iran’s hardliners emerged stronger than ever. And Iran is arguably stronger than ever. Nations around the world are now negotiating with Iran to get access to the Strait of Hormuz.

What emerges are immense intelligence failures, arrogance, and a lack of proper analytical understanding of Iran in the run-up to the war that continue to hamper war efforts.

I recently was a guest on Algeria’s 24-hour news channel, in which I discussed the strategic failures that brought us to this point.

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