— According to Haaretz, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while presenting his proposal to President Trump in February 2026 to appoint Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former president of Iran, as the future leader of Iran after the war, did not reveal major internal objections from senior Israeli security officials.

Netanyahu presented the plan as viable and enjoying broad support in Israel, while key figures in Israel’s security establishment privately expressed serious doubts about its feasibility.

The head of Israel’s military intelligence assessed that the likelihood of the plan’s success was very low, while Tzachi Hanegbi, a former national security adviser, stepped away from planning meetings and privately described the idea as “science fiction.”

This broader strategy was undermined by overconfidence, an unrealistic timeline, and reliance on assumptions that the Iranian government could collapse quickly.