On January 27, journalist Warren Kinsella published an op-ed in The Toronto Sun highlighting a webinar he hosted with HR Canada Charitable Organization featuring Israeli journalist Amit Segal. 

Kinsella recapped their conversation and the insights shared by Segal, including the possibility of an American-led military strike against the Islamic Republic, what a potential collapse in Iran could mean for its regional terror proxies, and which country may emerge as Israel’s next major threat.

KINSELLA: Revelations from Iran, including the slaughter of 30,000 citizens

Amit Segal is one of the most influential journalists in Israel and the Middle East. He has sources at the highest level of governments and intelligence agencies. He writes a column for the Wall Street Journal and is a best-selling author.

And, his sources say, 30,000 Iranians were slaughtered over a 36-hour period from Jan. 8 to 10, 2026. By their own government. That’s nearly 1,000 people murdered every hour.

“That makes it not just the deadliest period in Iranian history,” Segal said in an HonestReporting Canada-sponsored interview this week. “It’s the deadliest period since the Holocaust. There has never been a single event in which this number of casualties was recorded since World War II.”

The protests against Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his repressive Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have been raging for weeks, but they have attracted precious little attention in the West. Part of the reason for that has been a near-total Internet blackout imposed by Khamenei and the IRGC — a “digital darkness,” Segal says — and the fact that journalists there face imprisonment or death.

But information is seeping out, and much of it is being collected by Israel’s powerful intelligence agencies. Those agencies then pass along some of what they know to Segal, who they trust.

Among the revelations Segal shared in our interview:

The Ayatollahs’ Regime is Collapsing.

Iran was once on the verge of becoming a regional superpower, Segal says, but not now. The Islamic regime’s leaders simply don’t have enough resources to run the country — food, electricity, water and gasoline.

“From what I hear in the Israeli security establishment, they believe that (the Iranian) regime is finished,” Segal says. “But it takes time in Iran. It took 11 months for (Ayatollah Ruhollah) Khomeini to actually become the Supreme Leader of Iran. We might expect (regime change) that is measured by months, rather than days or weeks.”

The Israelis and the Americans are ready to strike.

The U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier arrived in the Middle East this week, and would lead any American military intervention in Iran. A carrier “strike group” can include guided missile cruisers, anti-aircraft warships, and anti-submarine destroyers — and more than 5,000 U.S. troops have been moved to the region, as well.

ypt border crossing, and the deployment of an international force to keep the peace. And Hamas and Hezbollah — Iranian proxies that have slaughtered thousands of Israeli citizens over two decades — are a shadow of their former selves, Segal says.

“They effectively no longer exist,” he says. “Israel destroyed Hezbollah in a brilliant war, beginning with the pagers attack, and then the killing of their entire military leadership. And Hamas is finished militarily. I just hope Israel will be smart enough this time to not allow it to rearm itself.”

Israel isn’t safe yet, however.

Turkey, he says, is likely to fill the gap caused by the collapse of Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah. “There is still a huge hatred towards Israel in the Middle East,” Segal says from his home in Israel. “It is still a very hostile neighbourhood. Turkey is ruled by a sort of Muslim Brotherhood and is the most anti-Israel, anti-Western force in the Middle East these days. It has possibly a future as a geostrategic regional power.”

The explosion in antisemitism in Canada hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Israel has traditionally been an ally of Canada, and vice-versa, going back decades. Under Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney, that has clearly changed, says Segal.

“The antisemitism hasn’t gone unnoticed,” he says. “Many Israelis would be happy to bury the hatchet with Canadians, and get back to the days of Stephen Harper. But times have changed, unfortunately — and it’s not just in Canada. Three out of the four largest English-speaking countries (are experiencing) a wave of antisemitism which emanates from both the far left and the far right. These are interesting times. And it’s a bit scary.”

Amit Segal tries to end on a happier note.

“I think we are actually seeing the light at the end of the tunnel,” he says, then laughs. “Unfortunately, in the Middle East, the light at the end of the tunnel is usually the train coming right at you!

“But I do think we are now going to see a hopefully better decade — and maybe even a better generation.”