Netanyahu: Operation Rising Lion originally set for April, delayed on IDF's advice

Prime Minister Netanyahu gave a brief update to the Israeli public today (Friday), where he explained the rationale of the timing and of Operation Rising Lion itself.

He said that the decision to destroy Iran's nuclear program fell in November 2024, after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was eliminated. Netanyahu said that he assessed that after Hezbollah had been neutralized, he believed Iran would rapidly speed up its nuclear program.

Netanyahu said that the decision was taken to stop both Iran's nuclear program and its program of building thousands of missiles, each with a ton - a "bus" of explosives - constituting an existential threat to Israel. He said that Israel was at "midnight" - meaning time had run out.

Netanyahu said that he failed to get a majority within the cabinet in 2011-2012 to strike Iran's nuclear program, but that "now the situation has changed."

The Prime Minister also said that minimizing the losses, which he says are inevitable and will come, is also "part of the victory."

He also explained that the Iranian threat is so serious that Israel has to strike even if it means losing American support, as "if we don't attack, then we will 100% die."

Here is the full transcript:

"Hello, citizens of Israel. I want to give you a brief daily update and also answer the main questions you're directing to me. I will try to do this daily - I can't promise, but as frequently as possible.

"So first of all, the first question that comes up is: why now? Well, it's not "now." This is actually a directive that I gave to the security leadership more than half a year ago, in November 2024. I'm holding it here - a directive to eliminate Iran's nuclear program. This directive came shortly after Nasrallah's elimination. It was clear to me, and to others, that with the elimination, with the breaking of the Iranian axis, which was one basis for Israel's destruction, Iran would quickly move toward its nuclear program. That's exactly what it did. It rushed forward with clear steps that we warned would lead to weaponization - meaning the creation of weapons, actual atomic bombs, not just fissile material but the important and necessary thing of creating a weapons system for that fissile material - and action was needed.

"I set the execution date for the end of April 2025. For various reasons, this couldn't happen exactly on that date, and the precise date was set on the IDF's recommendation, in consultation with the Chief of Staff and Defense Minister. We set it for the day we set. So first of all, this didn't come by chance, and it didn't come for marginal reasons - it came for a clear reason. As I said in the discussion with the security leadership, I said that if Iran has nuclear weapons, we simply won't be here, we won't exist here. Therefore, this is the primary target - not the exclusive target, because they also simultaneously advanced their ballistic missile program, and after we hit the pace of advancement, the rehabilitation of this system in our strike on Iran, here too they came to accelerate this and bring about a system that would produce 300 ballistic missiles per month. That means within three years, that's ten thousand missiles, and within six years, 20,000 missiles. Each one, boom, explosive material. A bus full of explosives falling on Israel's cities. This too is an existential threat. Two existential threats that we decided we couldn't wait any longer. There's simply no choice - we're at the eleventh hour.

"So that's the reason - this didn't come at the last minute, it came in preparation before the last minute. And if I may say on a personal basis, I've seen this threat for over 40 years. In 1982, I wrote in one of the books I published just three years, only three years, after the establishment of the ayatollahs' regime, that the greatest threat to humanity and to us, to our state, would be from the ayatollahs' terror regime, which could arm itself with nuclear weapons and threaten us and many others.

"Twenty-five years ago, Aharon Dermer told me, when he came to me on his first day to join my team, he asked what the greatest threat was, what the biggest issue I thought we should focus on. I said, removing the Iranian nuclear threat, because if we don't deal with it, we won't be here. I didn't succeed in my terms, especially in 2011-2012 - I wanted to bring about an Israeli strike twice, but I couldn't mobilize the majority. This situation has changed.

"I think today, and I say this blessing the change that occurred in our security leadership, everyone understood the need. There were also doubts - people definitely asked hesitations, I would say, about two things mainly. First of all, regarding our capabilities, and second, regarding the price we would pay. Because there's always a price. I always say, there are no free wars. No free lunches, no free wars.

"So regarding our capabilities, this question was resolved week by week, day by day, through amazing work - amazing, I have no other word - by the Intelligence Division, the Mossad, the Air Force, the IDF. Amazing work, whose results you saw yesterday or this morning, if you will. It's an amazing thing. So this removed the doubts regarding capabilities.

"Regarding the price, I said there will be a price, and we're also preparing to minimize it in various ways I won't detail here, but it's important for me to minimize it with your help, citizens of Israel. You need to understand - don't be euphoric. As former General Amir Bar-Am correctly said, we need modesty and responsibility. So modesty, because the war, or this struggle, is still not over, and responsibility - simply to listen to instructions and stay near protected spaces, because we and you want to minimize casualties as much as possible. This is part of victory.

Now, the third thing - another question also came up. It's related to the second main question you're asking: what about America? What about America? America is leaving you alone, America opposes, America is with you or not. So first of all, when this question came up in the cabinet, in the restricted forum, I said, I very much hope America won't oppose, but we have no choice. It's not zero or one. If we don't get American support, we won't attack. If we don't attack, then it's 100% that we'll die, because otherwise it won't work out. Therefore, even if it won't be perfect, we need to do it as proven to change the direction of Iran's armament both in ballistic weapons and nuclear weapons, which means the end of Israel.

"Therefore, but I said something like this - American support, or at least American non-opposition, is very desirable. And I said, leave this to me and Minister Dermer. We were in contact with them, in many conversations, many, also in meetings, not all of them known. And this thing is of course very important. America's position - I leave to America. We updated them in advance. They knew about the strike. What will they do now? I leave this to President Trump. He makes his decisions independently, and I don't intend to speak for him. He does this very convincingly and very firmly. He said Iran must not have nuclear weapons, must not have enrichment capability. I think in this he expressed American policy, the implementation of this policy. This is of course the exclusive right of the United States.

"I must say regarding exclusive rights that I spoke with leaders - I spoke with Indian Prime Minister Modi, my friend Narendra Modi, with another friend, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and also with our acquaintances who helped us in the past, French President Macron and also British Prime Minister Starmer, and I definitely heard the same thing from all of them. They recognize our right to self-defense, to defend ourselves against existential threats. Everyone understands this, they understand this, and I will of course also speak with others, with President Putin and also with other leaders. So first of all, there is recognition of this.

"Now another question is asked: how long will this last? I can't say here, I don't want to say, but I said it will last as long as needed to distance and remove the threat as much as we can, in the required time. I was asked but what about Qom, this underground facility, it's under a mountain, and what about other elements? I won't detail here. I can't detail and I don't want to detail all our options. We are required to deal with the maximum we can deal with, both in the nuclear program and also in the production targets of ballistic missiles.

"I want to emphasize something here, citizens of Israel, that is not obvious. Of course we're trying to hit launchers and missiles being sent to us right now, but the goal of the operation is first of all to deal with the production capability of the next missiles, of thousands of next missiles, tens of thousands of next missiles, and all these production means are above ground. They are available, and we intend to hit the maximum of this capability. This is no less important as a target.

"Well, we are dealing with these things. And the last question, at least for this day - yes, what about retaliation? Will there be retaliation? And I tell you, there will be. You need to understand, yes, we hit - I want to tell you, we hit an amazing hit, a very successful opening blow. We hit a significant part of the Iranian General Staff, a significant and leading part of the nuclear scientists leading the projects of creating nuclear weapons, and we did this - the Air Force and Aman did truly heroic work here in real time. We are also acting against their defenses, meaning their air defense. We destroyed Natanz, their largest enrichment facility, the biggest, and we have additional targets.

"But one of the things this created is of course surprise. I told President Trump when we spoke, "surprise is the essence of success." That is, surprise is the central factor of success. We saw this with the pagers, we see this today too. This attack we carried out is perhaps one of the only attacks of its kind in history, on a much larger scale, with much greater firepower than the pagers, and this too will be studied. This of course created a state of chaos in Iran - they're currently organizing for this, but we must assume, and you must assume, I assume, that there will be an attack against us. It could be an attack, attacks, very difficult waves. And I ask you again, everyone should contribute regarding himself, regarding his family, regarding his environment - contribute the maximum to enter protected spaces. We will also act in other ways, but do this, and together we can achieve a historic turning point here.

"On October 7th, it seemed we were facing destruction, because of the Iranian axis, because of this insane massacre. I incidentally think that success in this axis will also positively affect the Gaza issue and the hostages, but we are trying to remove this axis essentially, and we did wonderful things together. We brought Hezbollah to its knees, hit Hamas hard, and the hand is still extended until completion of the mission, and we hit Iran itself. But what we are doing now is on a completely different level, completely, and it can change history, not only ensure our future, but really ensure a different Middle East.

"I intend later today to also speak directly to the Iranian people. I think there are enormous opportunities here. I'm just telling you, if we work correctly, work together responsibly, we have the power to create a turning point here in Israel's history, in our state's history. I thank you for your support, I thank you for your cooperation. I said, and I repeat, together we will stand, together we will fight, and with God's help, together we will win."