By: Fern Sidman

In an extraordinary statement that calls attention to the gravity of the current confrontation between Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran, a senior Israeli official told The Wall Street Journal on Saturday that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is “not off limits” in Israel’s expanding campaign to dismantle Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure.

The unnamed official, quoted during an exclusive interview, emphasized that no targets are being ruled out—not even the apex of the Iranian regime itself. The remark, which has reverberated through diplomatic and intelligence circles across the globe, signals an unprecedented escalation in both rhetoric and resolve from Jerusalem. As The Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) reported, the threat marks a historic shift in Israel’s deterrence posture, one that is now targeting not only Iran’s capabilities but also its leadership hierarchy.

“This is not just a war over centrifuges and uranium stockpiles,” wrote Jason Brodsky, policy director at United Against Nuclear Iran, in commentary cited by JNS. “With Ayatollah Khamenei, it was always bound to end in tears and flames when Iran’s regime is built on that.”

The statement arrives amid Israel’s ongoing Operation Rising Lion, its largest-ever military campaign against the Islamic Republic, launched in response to last week’s deadly missile barrage from Iran that killed at least ten Israeli civilians, including young children, in cities such as Bat Yam and Tamra. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz have since vowed that Iranian leadership will face severe consequences for the unprecedented attacks.

But this weekend’s remark—placing the 85-year-old Supreme Leader of Iran himself in the crosshairs—is a rare and potent signal that Jerusalem is willing to take the confrontation into uncharted territory.

As JNS has reported, the ongoing conflict has moved beyond conventional retaliatory boundaries. Israeli airstrikes have already penetrated deep into Iranian territory, including areas surrounding Tehran, targeting command-and-control nodes, radar installations, and missile batteries. The Israeli Air Force has reportedly achieved aerial superiority over vast portions of western Iran, a development Israeli officials say is unprecedented.

Now, with the Supreme Leader explicitly named as a potential target, Israel appears to be signaling a doctrinal transformation—one in which the regime’s leadership itself is deemed accountable and vulnerable for its militant policies.

“The accounts are being settled,” Brodsky wrote, as quoted by JNS. “There are no happy endings with this regime.”

The implications of the statement are as much strategic as symbolic. Khamenei, who has ruled Iran since 1989, is not merely a religious figurehead but the fulcrum of Iranian state power. He exercises direct command over the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), orchestrates Iran’s foreign policy, and oversees its nuclear ambitions. By stating that Khamenei is “not off limits,” Israel is effectively collapsing the separation between military targets and ideological leadership—a move likely to provoke fierce reactions in Tehran and possibly throughout the Shi’ite crescent.

As the JNS report indicated, Iran under Khamenei’s leadership has consistently pursued policies designed to destabilize the Middle East. From Hezbollah rocket arsenals in southern Lebanon to the IRGC’s entrenchment in Syria, and from proxy militias in Iraq to weapons shipments to the Houthis in Yemen, the Islamic Republic has waged a decades-long campaign of asymmetric warfare.

Its nuclear ambitions have remained at the center of Israel’s national security doctrine for more than two decades. The regime’s repeated violations of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) protocols, coupled with its ballistic missile development, have convinced much of Israel’s security establishment that a point of no return is rapidly approaching.

As JNS noted in its coverage of Operation Rising Lion, Netanyahu recently described the campaign’s goals as “twofold: to dismantle both the Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile threats.” That effort now appears to include the targeting of regime leadership figures as part of a broader strategy to decapitate the ideological and operational nerve centers of Iran’s war machine.

The international reaction to the Israeli official’s comment has been measured, but alarm is evident in Western capitals. European diplomats fear such rhetoric may undermine backchannel efforts to reestablish diplomatic engagement with Iran, while others argue it reflects a long-overdue reality check.

Critics of the Iranian regime point out that Khamenei has personally sanctioned terror campaigns against both Israeli and American interests over decades, including the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, the 1996 Khobar Towers attack, and more recent plots targeting dissidents and Jewish institutions abroad.

“This is not about revenge. It’s about justice and security,” one Israeli defense official told JNS. “A regime that exports death cannot claim immunity for its own architects.”

As Israeli jets continue to pound military infrastructure across Iran, speculation is mounting that further escalations may occur in the coming days. While targeting a head of state—especially one as protected and insulated as Khamenei—would present immense operational and geopolitical risks, the explicit naming of the Supreme Leader as a potential target has already shifted the conflict’s contours.

For Israel, the message is unambiguous: there will be no sanctuary for those who direct terror from behind palace walls.

This moment is not simply a response to a missile attack—it is the culmination of decades of enmity, strategic calculus, and unheeded warnings. And now, for the first time, Iran’s supreme ruler himself is being told that the cost of orchestrating war may ultimately be paid in personal consequence.