Candidate for IDF Chief Recommends Targeted Killings of Iranian Commanders

By Hamodia Staff

YERUSHALAYIM – A leading candidate for IDF chief of staff authored a report calling for assassinations of Iranian military officials to counter Tehran’s growing entrenchment in Syria, The Times of Israel said on Wednesday.

Eyal Zamir published the 74-page paper in his current position as a research fellow at the Washington Institute, titled “Countering Iran’s Regional Strategy.”

“Some of the Iranian militias base themselves in special camps in Syria, and in the case of an Israeli campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, they could conceivably fire missiles from deep within Syria at Israeli targets,” Zamir wrote.

In addition, Iranian land forces based in Syria also pose a threat. “It would take relatively little time to move them to the Syria-Israel border to fight in the Golan Heights and pin down Israel Defense Forces, or to transfer them to Lebanon to fight alongside Hezbollah against the IDF,” Zamir said.

Zamir listed several options to curb the IRGC’s efforts to strengthen Iranian proxies, among them:

“Target the organization’s leadership, commanders, and key operatives who are behind the planning and execution of terrorist attacks and subversion; issue international arrest warrants of designated individuals; and conduct targeted killings against individuals plotting attacks (the Soleimani model),” he said in the report, referring to the 2020 U.S. assassination of the head of the IRGC’s expeditionary Quds Force. Defense Minister Benny Gantz has said that he wants to appoint the next chief of staff soon despite the fact that it would come during an interim government, which normally does not make senior appointments. The attorney general noted that there is “no absolute ban” on such appointments but has not yet made a decision whether or not to allow it. Defense Ministry lawyers reportedly submitted to her office classified information that supported Gantz’s contention that it is a matter of national security to not delay the appointment.