Gallant, Khamenei
By Jeff Kerry
Former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant has sent Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei a letter urging him to abandon his war against Israel.
“We have never met, but I trust we know a great deal about one another,” Gallant began, explaining that he had watched Khamenei for nearly 30 years as he rose to power.
“As defense minister, I was responsible for turning decades of Israeli intelligence, air force capabilities, and strategic doctrine into a single, coordinated military plan.
“The plan that cut through your ‘Ring of Fire’ like a hot knife through butter and ultimately caused it to collapse,” he said.
According to Gallant, the plans he created as defense minister culminated in Operation Rising Lion.
“What unfolded in June 2025 was not merely a military campaign. It was the strategic collapse of a system you spent four decades constructing.”
Gallant wrote that despite the regime’s attempts to create a “Ring of Fire” around Israel – Hamas to the south, Hezbollah to the north, Syria and Iraq to the east, and Houthis to the southeast – they failed.
“The Israeli public, despite pain and loss, did not break. Our people endured.
“As you are now well aware, we responded,” he said, detailing the sequence of events that followed October 7 leading up to the Israel-Iran war.
“Israel systematically dismantled Hamas leadership, Hezbollah arsenals and command, and missile production facilities.
“We flew over Tehran as we did over Tel Aviv. We eliminated key military leaders and scientists. We struck the S300 systems.
“We eviscerated your air defense. Your nuclear program and infrastructure were set back by years. Your shield, long advertised, failed to protect.”
Can you build a secret nuclear program when you have no secrets?
In Gallant’s words, what mattered more than the physical damage dealt was the intelligence Israel gained.
“We see everything. We hear everything. We are everywhere,” he wrote.
“We knew your schedules. Your sites. Your communications. Your conversations with your closest allies, most of whom are no longer with you, in Beirut, Damascus, and Tehran.
“Your timelines. Your fallback plans. And your blind spots. In more ways than one, we knew more about you than you knew about yourselves.”
Gallant warned Khamenei that Iran would never be able to pursue nuclear weapons, and to do so would be to put his faith in systems that have already failed.
“Hope is not a strategy. Would you risk your future and your country’s on a race you cannot conceal and are unlikely to finish?”
Gallant reminded Khamenei that since October 7, Israel had succeeded in killing many of the regime’s top players.
“Hezbollah’s arsenal lies in ruins, buried with its commanders. Hamas is neutralized. Assad is gone. His successor has chosen a different path.
The Gulf states now align against you, not with you. Iraq resists your grip. The region has moved on.”
Gallant told Khamenei there is still one way out
To close his letter, Gallant told Khamenei he could not rebuild his proxies or nuclear program without Israel destroying them as many times as necessary.
“But what you build, we will likely see. What we see, we will strike. And what we strike, you will struggle to replace,” he said.
“With every passing month, the gap grows. Our knowledge deepens. Our target sets expand. Your options narrow.”
Gallant issued a final warning: Abandon the war, or face Israel again.
He laid out the “defining moment” Khamenei faces, saying the regime could continue to pursue nuclear weapons, and pay the “heavy price” that Israel would demand, or they could move forward.
“Abandon your war against a small, determined country a thousand miles from your border, and focus instead on the welfare and future of your own people.”
“But if you choose wrong again, we will be there, waiting,” Gallant concluded.(Jerusalem Dateline)
