Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger | “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative” | April 22, 2026
The Venezuela Precedent?
*A Venezuela type of regime change – whereby a second tier official/commander assumes power – would be impractical and self destructive in Iran, which has been ruled since February 1979 by the non-transactional, ideological Ayatollah regime, religiously-dedicated to bring “The Oppressive Great American Satan” to submission. All facets of the Ayatollah regime have been driven by a 1400-year-old fanatic and apocalyptic Twelver Shiite ideology, which transcends financial, diplomatic, political, military and greed considerations.
In fact, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been the most authentic strategic representative of the Ayatollah ideology – a role model of martyrdom in the service of the Ayatollah regime’s Supreme Goal: a global Islamic Shiite Revolution.
*Therefore, unlike the toppling of Maduro, the corrupt, drug trafficking leader of Venezuela, a regime change in Iran requires rewriting is DNA: sweeping structural changes, uprooting and disavowing the Ayatollah’s Constitution, school curriculum, Friday mosque sermons and official media.
Disavowing the Ayatollah’s Constitution
*The 1979Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran is the roadmap of the Ayatollah’s vision. It lays the religious, ideological, historic and strategic foundation of the systematic, rogue, fanatic, anti-US domestic, regional and global conduct of Iran’s Ayatollah regime, which transformed it from “The American Policeman of the Gulf” into a leading global epicenter (in cooperation with China, Russia, North Korea and Hezbollah) of anti-US wars, terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering and the proliferation of military systems, such as predator drones sold to Mexico’s drug cartels.
*The Ayatollahs’ Constitution provides the guidelines for the exportation of the Islamic Revolution by utilizing subversion, terrorism, civil wars, the proliferation of ballistic technologies, drug trafficking and proselytization in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America (the US’ soft underbelly) and on US soil.
*The Ayatollahs’ Constitution aspires for the triumph of the oppressed “mustadafun” (e.g., Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua) over the oppressive and arrogant “mustakbirun” (e.g., “The Great American Satan,” Saudi Arabia and Israel).
*The strategic goal of the Ayatollahs’ Constitution is to establish a universal Shiite society, based on the teachings of Ayatollah Khomeini, and bring to submission the Sunni Moslem “apostates” and the non-Moslem “infidels.” A victory over US despotism!
The Ayatollah Regime’s School Curriculum Reflects its DNA
*Western democracies tend to rely heavily on diplomacy and negotiation with the Ayatollah regime, which has demonstrated its mastery in the art of the Quran-sanctioned Taqiyya (dissimulation). Moreover, since 1979, the Ayatollah regime has leveraged diplomacy/negotiation as a robust tailwind for its anti-US conduct in the Persian Gulf, the Middle East at-large, Africa, Latin America and on US soil.
*Western democracies tend to ignore the centrality of school curriculum as the most authentic representation of the Ayatollah regime’s fanatic, apocalyptic and megalomaniacal anti-US global strategy, tactics and vision: toppling the pro-US Arab Sunni “apostate and heretic” regimes and bringing the Western “infidel” – especially “The Great American Satan” – to submission.
*The Ayatollah’s school curriculum is consistent with the constitution, domestic repression of ethnic and religious minorities, the subjugation of women, and the proliferation of anti-US terrorism in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. It reflects an apocalyptic commitment to a global, anti-US Islamic revolution.
*Since 1979, the Ayatollah’s school curriculum has been the most effective production-line for an anti-US worldview, terrorism and drug trafficking.
*According to a March, 2026 study by Impact-se of the 2026 Iran’s school curriculum:
^”The USA is frequently described as the ‘Great Satan’, depicted as a principal adversary of the Islamic Republic…. In Khomeini’s own words, quoted in the Iranian curriculum, ‘Our war is a war of conviction, and it does not know geography or borders. In our war of faith, we must launch a major mobilization of Islamic troops in the world…. School textbooks inculcate students with narratives about global war, the [‘infidel’] West, foreign influence, the uncompromising militia doctrine and the nuclear vision….
^”[The school curriculum highlights] Iran’s role in promoting the global Khomeinist Revolution occupies a significant place in school textbooks. Moreover, the glorification of Jihad against the West and martyrdom is promulgated through graphic portrayals of military and terrorist figures, who died promoting the values of the Islamic Revolution….
^”A shift in hate from a focus on Sunnis towards what is often described as ‘The Imperialist West.’ The curriculum inculcates total aversion to Western values, such as secularism and non-Islamic family and sexual norms. The Iranian curriculum teaches students that they are constantly under threat, mostly from the United States. Students are taught that the foreign threat of the West, chiefly the United States, seeks to prevent Iran from spearheading Islamic culture worldwide and brainwash the Iranian people…. Students who do not follow the anti-foreigner policies should not be considered Muslims….
^”Annual school protests such as ‘The National Day of Fighting [US] arrogance involves student shouting anti-US slogans…. The US is characterized as the Satanic enemy of God and God’s Prophets….
^”The curriculum militarizes youth and conditions students as soldiers in a global battle to expand the Islamic Revolution…. Textbooks depict opponents as ‘enemies of God.’ Dying in the process, including martyrdom, is a blissful experience…. It highlights child warriors, who had been martyred in service of the Islamic Revolution…. Martyrdom seeking is the most powerful asset against the enemy….”
The Botton Line
*The DNA of the Ayatollah regime has made it a chief epicenter of global wars, terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering and the proliferation of advanced military systems. The goal of ending, minimizing and preventing wars and terrorism cannot be advanced, while this epicenter is active.
*The DNA of the Ayatollah regime consists of its 1979 Constitution, hateful school curriculum, inflaming Friday mosque sermons and inciteful official media.
*Ending, minimizing and preventing wars, terrorism and drug trafficking requires regime-change through a sweeping structural changes – not just changing the Ayatollah personnel– uprooting and disavowing the Ayatollah’s legacy. Rewriting the regime’s DNA!
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