Israel Publicly Urges Iranians to Revolt, Privately Admits They’ll Be “Slaughtered”

A Washington Post exclusive reveals the deadly contradiction at the heart of U.S.–Israeli strategy

A newly revealed exclusive from The Washington Post exposes a chilling reality behind the rhetoric coming out of Israel: while publicly encouraging Iranians to rise up against their government, senior Israeli officials privately believe those same protesters would be massacred if they did.

Iran war VIA Al Jazeera

According to a State Department cable reviewed by The Washington Post, Israeli officials told U.S. diplomats that if Iranians take to the streets in large numbers, “the people will get slaughtered.” This is because Iran’s security forces, particularly the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), have the upper hand and are fully prepared to crush dissent with lethal force (and have done this countless times before).

Despite acknowledging this likely outcome, Israeli officials are still pushing for exactly that scenario: a popular uprising. Publicly, PM Benjamin Netanyahu has framed the war as an opportunity for liberation, calling on Iranians to “cast off” what he describes as a murderous regime.

But behind closed doors, according to this Washington Post exclusive, Israeli officials are operating with a very different understanding: that the Iranian state remains intact, resilient, and fully capable of violently suppressing its own population.

Earlier this year, thousands were killed during anti-government protests. The regime has shown, repeatedly, that it will not hesitate to use overwhelming force against civilians.

So when officials now call for another uprising, they are doing so with full awareness of what is likely to follow, but there’s also another huge problem: there is no clear path forward.

Despite weeks of U.S. and Israeli strikes targeting everything from missile systems to internal security forces, the Iranian regime is still standing, and still launching attacks. Even Israeli officials reportedly admitted they expected more internal chaos after the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader. That chaos never materialized, and instead, the regime has consolidated power.

Which raises the question, if the government isn’t collapsing… and a popular uprising would be crushed… what exactly is the objective here?

What this Washington Post exclusive ultimately reveals is not just hypocrisy, it’s intent. A strategy is being pursued with full awareness that it could lead to mass civilian deaths. The language may be about “freedom” and “liberation,” but the internal calculations tell a different story: one where Iranian lives are treated as expendable variables in a geopolitical equation.

And if a policy only works by assuming people will be slaughtered, it’s not a path to freedom.

It’s something else entirely.