Should Ali Khamenei Be Left Standing?

Not all his crimes are known.

Iran fires 181 missiles at Israel; PM: They made a “big mistake” and “will pay for it.” (The Times of Israel)

As the Israeli — Israeli–US? — vise closes on the ayatollah regime, what should be the fate of its helmsman, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?

There are three possibilities: his elimination; his arrest, incarceration, and trial; and his survival, either by fleeing or remaining as head-of-state of Iran.

Asked by ABC News about the first of those options, Prime Minister Netanyahu, who had broached an Israeli plan to assassinate Khamenei to President Trump, said doing so would not “escalate the conflict, it's going to end the conflict.”

President Trump, who reportedly rejected the Israeli plan at the time, wrote more recently on his Truth Social: “We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there — We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.”

Khamenei has been Supreme Leader — read, dictator, running Iran with a tight grip — since 1989, and the charge sheet against him could not be longer.

From a specifically American standpoint, it includes — among other things — the bombing of the Khobar Towers in 1996; the killing or maiming with IEDs of over a thousand US soldiers in Iraq; the attempt to blow up a restaurant in Washington, DC, in 2011; death threats and assassination attempts against US leaders including President Trump; and ongoing “Death to America!” chants with ritual burning of American flags and effigies of Uncle Sam.

From a specifically Israeli standpoint, it includes — among other things — sponsoring our era’s most vicious anti-Israeli terror groups including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hizballah, and the Houthis; providing funding, training, and planning for the massacre of October 7, 2023; massive missile attacks in April 2024, October 2024, and June 2025, in the latter case directed mainly at civilian targets with 24 killed and hundreds wounded so far; ongoing “Death to Israel!” chants with ritual burning of Israeli flags; and constant, explicit threats to annihilate Israel, including by Khamenei himself as recently as a month ago.

One of Khamenei’s most chilling crimes, however — which was clarified in a report last April but slipped under the radar — must also be taken into account if it comes to deciding his fate.

In the AMIA atrocity on July 18, 1994, a bomb-laden van was driven into the Jewish Community Center building in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Upon detonating, it killed 85 people and injured over 300. It has long been known that this attack on a purely civilian target — with the aim of murdering as many Jews as possible — was carried out by Hizballah operatives under Iranian guidance. In other words, it happened on Khamenei’s watch.

Under Argentina’s pro-Israel President Javier Milei, however, the long-dormant investigation of the crime has been revived. Last April 9, Israel’s Ynetnews reported that it had borne fruit:

The lead prosecutor in the case of the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Buenos Aires Jewish Community Center building in Argentina, Sebastián Basso, has petitioned the country’s federal court to issue both national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Basso, who succeeded Alberto Nisman after his murder in 2015, claims that Khamenei was directly involved in planning the attack, which killed 85 people. The prosecutor is demanding Khamenei be held accountable and immediately arrested if he enters Argentinian territory.

. . . In his legal opinion submitted to the court, Basso argued Khamenei played a central role in planning the attack and issued the fatwa (religious decree) that authorized it.

The fact that Khamenei didn’t just approve or issue a directive for this antisemitic atrocity but was personally involved in planning it sheds a special light on his viciousness and evil.

As Netanyahu pointed out, there would be a pragmatic basis for eliminating Khamenei — namely, dealing a fatal blow to his regime. But it would also rid the earth of a monstrous killer and flash a warning to others of his ilk.