In an exclusive interview with Ben Shapiro for Channel 12 News, Israel’s chief political analyst Amit Segal described President Donald Trump’s June 22 strike on Iran’s Fordo nuclear facility as “one of the bravest actions I’ve ever seen a president take.” The U.S. operation, deploying B-2 stealth bombers to target the site buried under 90 meters of rock, marks a historic embrace of Israel’s Begin Doctrine, named after former Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s 1981 strike on Iraq’s Osirak reactor to prevent nuclear proliferation.
“This is the first time the U.S. has adopted the Begin Doctrine,” Segal told Shapiro, contrasting Trump’s decisiveness with President Ronald Reagan’s condemnation of Begin and subsequent arms embargo. The strike, leveraging America’s most advanced weaponry, has crippled Iran’s nuclear ambitions, with Israel estimating that 70-75% of Iran’s ballistic missile program and nearly all its nuclear facilities are now neutralized.
For Israel, the implications are transformative. “Israel has reshuffled the deck in the Middle East,” Segal said, citing the near-elimination of Hezbollah, the fall of Syria’s Assad regime, and the devastation of Hamas. With Iran’s ballistic missile launchers reduced by two-thirds and nightly attacks largely intercepted, Israel is poised to restore normalcy once 30-50 more launchers are destroyed. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy of “silence will be met with silence” signals a potential de-escalation if Iran halts its aggression.
