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Netanyahu Is Waging a Losing Battle Against Iran

On 14 July 2015, Haaretz published an analysis headlined Netanyahu Is Waging a Losing Battle Against Iran. The line under the headline says there is no effective Israeli or American military operation against Iran without soldiers on the ground. An American family should care because an Israeli paper was already saying, years before the 2026 bombing, that aircraft and missiles alone are not a real military option. That argument is about their soldiers.

Background for new readers: This column is from July 2015, the week world powers signed the Iran nuclear deal (the JCPOA, which limited Iran's uranium enrichment in exchange for lifting sanctions). The United States left that deal in 2018. In June 2025 US bombers hit Iran's nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, and on 28 February 2026 the United States and Israel began a joint air war on Iran. This page matters because it shows the "no real military option without boots on the ground" argument is more than a decade old. This article is filed under Israeli Press on US Ground Troops; the full article index lists every article on this shelf.

Evidence rating: MODERATE. The boots sentence is Haaretz's own standfirst on a 2015 analysis; no byline loaded. The rating covers what Haaretz published.

What the article says​

Haaretz labels the piece an analysis, dated 14 July 2015. The page's topic tags are nuclear weapons, Israel and Iran, Iran nuclear, and Benjamin Netanyahu. The standfirst is one sentence.

There is no military option, neither Israeli nor American, because there is no effective military operation without boots on the ground.

That line is unsigned on the page that loaded. "Boots on the ground" means soldiers physically present, not only ships or aircraft.

The only body paragraph that loaded is not about a war plan. It recalls a tent protest for social justice on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv on 14 July 2011. It says a momentary fear seized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that the protest's political effect was weak, and that its leaders, Stav Shaffir, Itzik Shmuli, and Manuel Trajtenberg, later became members of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, and posed no threat to his government. The rest of the column did not load.

What other reporting adds​

The same argument, before and after. An American think-tank study from 2009, the Brookings Institution's "Which Path to Persia? Options for a New American Strategy toward Iran," is quoted in one 2026 post as saying: "Any military operation against Iran will likely be very unpopular around the world and require the proper international context. The best way to minimize international opprobrium and maximize support is to strike only when there is a widespread conviction that the Iranians were given but then rejected a superb offer." (as quoted by an X user; the study itself was not opened; research capture: twitter/t51__v612.md).

The troop numbers people used. In May 2019, The New York Times reported the White House was reviewing plans for "sending as many as 120,000 troops to the Middle East." Former intelligence officer and commentator Malcolm Nance answered: "Any war with Iran would require 500,000 troops and the return to the draft." (Malcolm Nance on X, 14 May 2019, quoting The New York Times; research capture: twitter/t48__v565.md). The 120,000 is the Times figure; the 500,000 and the draft are Nance's estimate. Seven years later, in March 2026, one analyst concluded: "The US cannot occupy Iran even with a draft." (Policy Tensor on X, 18 March 2026; research capture: twitter/t54__v638.md).

What it shows​

Eleven years before the 2026 bombing, one of Israel's leading papers stated the rule plainly: "there is no effective military operation without boots on the ground," Israeli or American. That rule never changed. In 2019 a Pentagon plan for up to 120,000 troops to the region was reported, and an analyst answered that a real war would take 500,000 and a draft. In 2026, after weeks of bombing, Netanyahu said "there has to be a ground component," and the Pentagon drew up ground options for American troops. See Air War Is Not Enough and Force-Planning Documents.

Check it yourself​

Status: Benjamin Netanyahu is alive.

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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