Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly proposed last week that he and US president Donald Trump issue a public call for Iranians to take to the streets against their government, but Trump rejected the idea, citing the high risk to civilians, according to two US officials and an Israeli source cited by Axios.
“Why the hell should we tell people to take to the streets when they’ll just get mowed down,” Trump told Netanyahu during the call, a US official briefed on the conversation said.
The exchange reflects differing approaches between the two allies, while the US and Israel share most military objectives in the ongoing conflict, they diverge on how far to push regime change and the level of acceptable chaos.
Netanyahu has listed fostering a popular uprising among the Iranian population as a core objective.
US officials, however, told Axios that Trump views regime change more as a “bonus” rather than a primary goal.
Though he suggested at the start of the war that Iranians might have a chance to overthrow their government after US combat operations, he has seldom repeated that position since.
The disagreement came shortly after Israel conducted strikes that killed Ali Larijani, Iran’s national security chief, and Gholamreza Soleimani, head of the Basij militia, along with several deputies.
Israeli officials say Soleimani’s elimination was intended to create conditions for a popular uprising, as he had been tasked with crushing protests.
Netanyahu argued during the call that the Iranian regime was in disarray and that there was a window of opportunity to further destabilize it. He suggested coordinating with Trump to encourage public protests. Trump, however, warned that such a call would likely result in mass casualties, recalling that thousands of protesters had been killed before the conflict escalated.
Despite the caution from Trump, Netanyahu later addressed the Iranian people publicly, urging them to “celebrate the Festival of Fire” while Israeli airstrikes targeted key locations. Very few Iranians reportedly came out into the streets, which US and Israeli officials attributed to fear of reprisals from the regime.
Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter, told Axios that the strategy remains focused on degrading the regime’s ability to suppress opposition, allowing Iranians to “take charge of their own lives,” while Trump simultaneously pursues diplomatic options to leave parts of the regime intact.
Israeli officials say Netanyahu remains skeptical that an acceptable deal can be reached soon.
