Israel has not yet eliminated all the targets it wants to in Iran, but it now has the opportunity to do so because the Islamic Republic no longer has any air defense systems, KT McFarland told Newsmax on Monday.
McFarland, who was deputy national security adviser in the first Trump administration, told "Wake Up America" that neither side in the conflict is ready for a ceasefire, each for its own reasons.
She said Israel particularly wants to eliminate the reinforced nuclear facilities that are buried deep beneath the ground, and "it can do that now more or less at its leisure, because Israel now owns the skies" over Iran, since the country no longer has any air defense systems left.
McFarland insisted that the Iranians are not yet interested in a halt in fighting, because they still have missiles, and they want to show they are tough by continuing to launch attacks against the Israeli populace.
But the former deputy national security adviser said that what is key for her is the question, "are the Iranian people ready to overthrow the mullahs. We know that the mullahs are not popular, not because of Israel or war, but the mullahs have so mismanaged the economy and the social structure that there is a very large percentage of the Iranian people who are sick of the mullahs."
She therefore stressed that the question is going to be do the "Iranian people themselves force regime change by forcing out their own leadership."
McFarland also questioned conventional wisdom that the only way to get rid of the Fordow nuclear sites deep inside a mountain is for the United States to do so, with their superior weaponry.
However, she pointed out that "the one thing we have learned" is that just as "Israel using pagers to decimate the Hezbollah leadership, don't always believe the conventional wisdom. I'm sure Israel has tricks up its sleeve. What that looks like, we'll find out."
She also said that the Abraham Accord countries may publicly be berating Israel for its attacks on Iran, but privately they are urging Israel to keep going with the attacks because they hate the Iranians more than Israel does, since it is such a source of instability in the region.
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Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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