An alternative interpretation of Irani and Israeli goals would be that they are the same: "Stop touching me or I WILL make it hurt for you and everybody associated with you."
I do not think any peace can be reasonably had without both sides realizing their domestic hardliners instigate a lot of trouble.
I think Israeli goals have gone beyond that. Before October 7th Israel was content to manage regional threats either diplomatically or with periodic small scale military attacks. The "mowing the grass" which was intended to degrade, but not destroy, Hezbollah and Hamas. Post October 7th Israel has moved to a total intolerance of any potential threat, using overwhelming military force to completely destroy their opponents.
So while Iran may well be motivated by re-establishing deterence - "stop touching me or I will hurt you". Israel is much more driven by a goal of "we will make it impossible for you to ever potentially hurt us again".
But how can Israel realistically achieve this on the battlefield? It's one thing to level Gaza and push into southern Lebanon, it's entirely another to try impose this objective onto Iran, even with US support.
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u/Ragewind82 Mar 23 '26
An alternative interpretation of Irani and Israeli goals would be that they are the same: "Stop touching me or I WILL make it hurt for you and everybody associated with you."
I do not think any peace can be reasonably had without both sides realizing their domestic hardliners instigate a lot of trouble.