{"id":18238,"date":"2025-06-18T18:30:34","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T18:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=18238"},"modified":"2025-06-18T18:30:34","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T18:30:34","slug":"whats-israels-endgame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=18238","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s Israel\u2019s Endgame?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>&#8220;Even if the regime falls, there\u2019s no reason to be certain that something better will replace it, current and former officials warn. A failed, leaderless Iranian state could be a breeding ground for all sorts of new problems. A much more militarized autocracy also could take over, one unabashedly determined to obtain a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHistory tells us it can always be worse,\u201d Jonathan Panikoff, a former U.S. intelligence officer, wrote in an online analysis. \u201cIsrael might find itself in a perpetual, ongoing, and far more intense war that is no longer in the shadows, as it has been for years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Israel, however, may not be thinking that many steps ahead, argued one U.S. official who has long worked on the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think they care enough about what comes next as long as it\u2019s too weak to threaten Israel,\u201d the official said.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2025\/06\/13\/israel-iran-regime-attack-goal-column-00405153\">https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2025\/06\/13\/israel-iran-regime-attack-goal-column-00405153<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Even if the regime falls, there\u2019s no reason to be certain that something better will replace it, current and former officials warn. A failed, leaderless Iranian state could be a breeding ground for all sorts of new problems. A much more militarized autocracy also could take over, one unabashedly determined to obtain a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHistory tells us it can always be worse,\u201d Jonathan Panikoff, a former U.S. intelligence officer, wrote in an online analysis. \u201cIsrael might find itself in a perpetual, ongoing, and far more intense war that is no longer in the shadows, as it has been for years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Israel, however, may not be thinking that many steps ahead, argued one U.S. official who has long worked on the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think they care enough about what comes next as long as it\u2019s too weak to threaten Israel,\u201d the official said.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2025\/06\/13\/israel-iran-regime-attack-goal-column-00405153<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[173,436,552,314,156,194,391,259,191,158],"class_list":["post-18238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-bomb","tag-bombs","tag-conflict","tag-international-relations","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-middle-east","tag-military","tag-strike","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18238"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18239,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18238\/revisions\/18239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}