Is it time for Washington to publicly call for regime change at Tehran and help the Iranian people overthrow the mullahs who oppress them and wreak havoc on the Mideast and beyond?

The Israeli prime minister, addressing the Iranian people in an English-language video with Farsi subtitles, indicated as much this week, describing a better future for Iran if it were under a different form of government than that of the Islamic Republic.

All across the free world, “everybody wants to have a regime change for the people of Iran,” the Israeli ambassador at the United Nations, Danny Danon, tells the Sun. He added, though, that while Israel is “not active” in promoting such a change, “we wish it for the Iranians.” 

After Mr. Netanyahu issued a similar video a few months ago, “many Iranians reached out to Israel,” the premier said in a new video posted Tuesday on X. Speaking of the October 25 attack during which the regime launched nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, he noted that Supreme Leader Khamanei’s assault failed to do much damage.

Yet, “did he tell you how much it cost?” Mr. Netanyahu asked. “Well I’m not guessing. It’s $2.3 billion. That’s how much of your precious money they wasted on a futile attack.” He went on to paint a picture of an Iran in which instead of bankrolling Mideast aggression, funds would be used for transportation, education, and the like.

“I want you to imagine, just imagine, how your life could be different if Iran was free,” he said. “You could speak your mind without fear. You could make a joke without wondering if you’d be carried off to Evin prison.” For nearly four minutes Mr. Netanayhu painted the picture of a rosy future for the Iranian people, including a mutually beneficial peace between the Jews of Israel and the people of Cyrus the Great. 

In contrast, President Biden’s administration has been chasing a deal with the Islamic Republic since he was sworn in. Tehran’s diplomats vaguely promised negotiations, but those led nowhere even when talks materialized. 

President-elect Trump is promising a complete policy overhaul and a return to the “maximum pressure” strategy of his first term. Yet, unlike Mr. Netanayhu, Trump shies away from calling for Iranians to imagine life without the ayatollahs.

“President Trump has no interest in regime change; the future of Iran will be decided by the Iranian people,” the current head of transition at the Department of State, Brian Hook, told CNN last week. As Iran envoy during the first Trump administration, Mr. Hook was one of the architects of the “maximum pressure” policy.

That policy included the killing of the most prominent Iranian military leader, Qassem Soleimani, for which the Islamic Republic vowed retaliation. Mr. Hook’s name is included in an active Tehran kill list, along with former top Trump officials such as Mike Pompeo, John Bolton, and others. A new murder plot against the president-elect was unveiled in the courts earlier this month.       

The next administration, Mr. Hook says, will “isolate Iran diplomatically and weaken them economically so that they can’t fund all of the violence that’s going with the Houthis in Yemen, Hamas, Hezbollah, PIJ, and these proxies that run around Iraq and Syria today, all of whom destabilize Israel and our Gulf partners.”

The Islamic Republic is the “chief driver of instability in today’s Middle East,” Mr. Hook says. Yet, the Biden administration has led a “policy of appeasement and accommodation” that resulted in a loss of deterrence. “No one believes you have a credible threat of military force,” he says.  

Trump aides say they would supply all the arms Israel needs, including, they indicate, those that Mr. Biden denied as he warned Mr. Netanyahu against attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities. According to Jerusalem officials, the coming year could be the point in which Iran becomes a nuclear power — and that is a no-no for the Jewish state. 

The Islamic Republic is “getting closer, and there is a huge pressure today on the leadership of Iran to go this extra mile, to weaponize what they have achieved from the enrichment until now,” Jerusalem’s new foreign minister, Gideon Saar, tells the website All Israel. “Preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons, this is a commitment needed for the future of this country,” he added. “This was always Israel’s doctrine.”

At the same time, it is unclear whether Trump, who vows to keep America out of new wars, would favor an attack that could drag America into a Mideast imbroglio and perhaps necessitate active military intervention. The New York Times is reporting that one of Trump’s closest advisers, Elon Musk, met on Monday with Iran’s ambassador at the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, to discuss “how to diffuse tensions.” 

A change of regime could alternatively end Iran’s militancy and neutralize it as a threat to the region and beyond.  

“I think the U.S. government should be doing everything possible to weaken the Islamic Republic,” the policy director at United Against Nuclear Iran, Jason Brodsky, tells the Sun. This would “empower the Iranian people to take their country back.”