Iran’s state broadcaster, which was bombed mid-broadcast by Israel on Monday, was many things to many people. It was the employer of hundreds of journalists, some of whom were injured in the attack, prompting protests from press freedom organizations. It was also the propaganda arm of a repressive regime, which has broadcast the “confessions” of hundreds of the regime’s opponents over the years, many believed to have been extracted by torture.

What it was not is an integral component of Iran’s nascent nuclear program.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country had “no choice” but to launch airstrikes to stop Iran’s imminent rush to acquire a nuclear bomb. But it has also been apparent that this was the floor, not the ceiling, of Israel’s ambitions.

The Israeli military operation is called “Rising Lion,” evoking the pre-revolutionary flag often flown by opponents of the Iranian government, a theocratic regime that has crushed protests at home and backed armed groups throughout the Middle East. While one Iranian nuclear enrichment site has been heavily damaged, others have been hardly touched. (Some of these may be difficult or even impossible for Israel to destroy without direct US involvement in the war.) At the same time, Israel appears to be systematically wiping out the senior leadership of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and according to some reports, had a plan to kill Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which was vetoed by President Donald Trump. Netanyahu, meanwhile, has called for the Iranian people to overthrow their government, describing the strikes as “your opportunity to stand up.”

“From the beginning, it was apparent, based on the targeting and Israeli public messaging, that this had the potential to be something much more than just a counter-proliferation operation,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran project at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Retired Gen. Giora Eiland, a former head of Israel’s national security council with close ties to the current government, told reporters on Monday that regime change was not the “explicit” goal of the Israeli campaign, which is focused on setting back Iran’s nuclear and missile........

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