Felice Friedson’s latest interview with Brig. Gen. Amir Avivi reads like a battlefield briefing with a political endgame baked in. Israel is again fighting Iran, but Avivi argues this round is not about buying time—it’s about breaking the system that keeps regenerating the threat. After last summer’s 12-day war, he says, Israel’s mission was “very narrow and clear,” driven by a looming nuclear “decisive threshold.” “The Iranians were about to produce a nuclear weapon, weaponize a bomb, and it was a matter of maybe of weeks that they reached this point,” he said.
That earlier operation, Avivi claims, focused on dismantling Iran’s nuclear program and degrading its missile infrastructure, with Israel acting mostly alone until the United States joined later. Yet he says Iran recovered quickly, ramping up ballistic missile production and becoming “even more aggressive,” including funding Hezbollah. That, he argues, forced a harder conclusion: “It was clear that the only solution is that this regime needs to go. We need a change of regime.”
From there, the interview widens beyond airstrikes into the mechanics of regime collapse. Avivi says Israel is striking the IRGC, the Basij volunteer militia, and government centers, while the United States targets strategic capabilities. “Basically, the US and Israel are completely dismantling this regime,” he said. But he insists outside power has limits: “Outside powers can only go so far. At the end of the day, it’s up to the Iranian people.”
He extends the same logic to proxy fronts, arguing Israel will continue against Hezbollah until it can “really dismantle this organization,” and he frames the Strait of Hormuz as a pressure point where Iran tries to weaponize energy prices. “This is Iranian strategy,” he said, and he argues the counter is simple: “to produce more oil.”
The conversation then turns to the post-regime question—Reza Pahlavi, the opposition’s fragmentation, and whether a unifying figure is emerging. “But now the Iranian people have rallied behind Reza Pahlavi,” Avivi said.
Read the article and watch the full interview for Friedson’s complete exchange—because Avivi is mapping out a theory of victory, not just recounting a battlefield.
