Attempts to prevent the nuclearization of Iran will fail, according to former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon, who asserted Saturday that the military option should be examined and the Iranian regime should be brought down.

Speaking on Channel 2's "Meet the Press," Ya'alon also proposed going into Gaza with massive ground forces to "clean" the area without taking it over for a long period. He said he feared that within a year terrorists would be firing Katyushas at Kiryat Gat and Ashdod. "No one will solve the problem in Gaza for us," he said.

"We will have to get at the terrorists and their workshops, which are the infrastructure of terror, and to strike them. We did this in Operation Defensive Shield. Before Defensive Shield we also debated, but in the end we carried it out wisely. You have to be blind not to see the necessity to go into the Strip. There is no choice," Ya'alon added.

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The former IDF chief said he believed Mahmoud Abbas is not a relevant partner. He also expressed concern that escalation in the south might cause the northern front with Hezbollah to heat up. In addition, he said that anti-rocket systems the defense establishment has discussed are ineffective and do not provide a real response to the problem of Qassams and Katyushas.

According to Ya'alon, he prepared the IDF for a scenario like last year's Second Lebanon War. "With me as chief of staff, the war would have looked different," he said.