Ben Rhodes

No, I think that's right.

Look, the presentation in this situation, which is completely absurd and dangerous for Israel's own interest, it's not a good look if part of what you're fighting against is a perception on the left and the right that you have too much influence over American foreign policy.

The details leaked out.

And the thing that I always thought was absurd is that the Israelis were suggesting that Reza Pahlavi, the son of the Shah, could move in.

And I do think that the Israelis believe that they could collapse the regime.

And that, by the way, there might be violent chaos.

There might be civil conflict in Iran.

But that's better than having this regime in place.

And that means that they're not going to be able to do things like develop a nuclear weapon and have an effective ballistic missile program.

And that objective has not been achieved.

So they have weakened Iran's certain capabilities.

But for all the reasons we talked about, they have not achieved their military objectives vis-a-vis Iran.

And so that's going to be a source of, I think, discomfort.

They'll spin it.

They'll do the Pete Hegseff Vietnam body count thing, except it's about the number of missiles that we destroyed and the number of ships we destroyed.

But at core, their interest is not dealt with.

That regime is still in place.

And in some ways, it's more dangerous.

I think in Lebanon, they have, I think, come closer to accomplishing what they want.

They say they want to destroy Hezbollah.