On Jan. 26, the day Al-Monitor ran an article describing hints of a military option against Iran that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was directing at the new US administration, the chief of the Israel Defense Forces, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, delivered his annual address at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies. His remarks shocked Israel’s political-defense establishment and likely reverberated in Washington and Tehran.

Contrary to the position taken by two of Kochavi’s predecessors, Lt. Gen. (res.) Benny Gantz and Lt. Gen. (res.) Gabi Ashkenazi, who currently serve as Israel’s ministers of defense and foreign affairs, respectively, Kochavi launched a direct attack on the Barack Obama administration’s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and delivered thinly veiled hints to the new Democratic administration.

“If the 2015 nuclear deal had [remained in place], Iran would have gotten itself a bomb," Israel’s top soldier said. “A return to the 2015 nuclear agreement, or even if it is a similar accord with several improvements, is bad and wrong from an operational and strategic point of view. Operationally, because it would enable Iran to enrich quantities of uranium, develop centrifuges to the point of a nuclear breakout. Strategically, it will drag the Middle East into a nuclear race,” Kochavi warned. “Anything similar to the current agreement is bad and must not be allowed. Today’s Iran is not the Iran of 2015. Today’s Iran is under tremendous pressure, economic pressures. … Decisive action is required to deprive Iran of any breakout capability."

He went on, "I have instructed the IDF to prepare a number of operational plans in addition to those already in place. We are focused on preparing these plans in the coming year. It will be up to the political leadership, of course, to decide on implementation, but these plans need to be on the table.”