The official position of the Israeli government is that the war is directed solely at Iran’s nuclear and military assets. Regime change, we are told, is not on the table. Iranian missile strikes, however, are resulting in retaliation, which can easily lead to mission creep. If the Israelis seek to broaden the war, what are their options?
Bibi could decide to use his nukes to annihilate the population, of course. But in the absence of a genuine existential threat to Israel, which clearly does not exist at the present time, even he would be reluctant to take that step.
The Israelis can also further damage the Iranian economy by attacking oil facilities. Some of that has already occurred. The problem there is that the interests of much of the outside world, including American consumers, would be damaged by dramatically higher oil prices, which in turn would lead to more attempts from the international community to stop the war. As a result, I don’t think we will see a significant increase in oil facility attacks in the near future.
Finally, the Israeli government could decide to go for regime change. In the absence of an invasion, which is highly unlikely, this would require attacks on the highest levels of government, including the Supreme Leader, and on elements of the security apparatus. The Israelis, however, have no carrots to offer to the Iranian opposition, which is in any event unlikely to treat Netanyahu as a modern-day Abraham Lincoln. Any serious attempt at regime change would have to include significant economic incentives for normalization, which would have to come primarily from Donald Trump.