Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared that Israel can end the Iranian threat only by removing the regime in Tehran. Speaking to Mark Levin on Fox News's Life, Liberty & Levin in an interview broadcast Saturday night, he said the only way to deal with Iran is to "basically get rid of this regime." He placed eliminating that threat at the top of his agenda should he win the October 27 Knesset election.
Israelis will be casting ballots for the first time nationally since Hamas carried out the October 7, 2023 massacre and the wars it triggered.
For voters heading to the polls on October 27, the interview laid out the program Netanyahu says he would pursue in a new term. He described the campaign against Tehran as a long process requiring both military and economic measures, and praised US President Donald Trump's pressure on the Islamic Republic. "Let's complete the job and have the people of Iran seize their own future," Netanyahu said, JNS reported, adding that the military campaign and economic blockade had been "very effective."
The Jerusalem Post reported that he set out three priorities. The first is the "complete elimination of the Iranian threat" to Israel, America and the world. The second is widening the Abraham Accords, which he said he and Trump forged with four Arab states. The third is turning Israel into a world leader in artificial intelligence.
More states are waiting to sign on to the accords, Netanyahu argued, "because they saw our strength, our power and fortitude." He called for "an axis of peace and moderation against these barbarians who shoot their own people."
Iran, he told Levin, is building intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States and wants them fitted with nuclear warheads. "Every single city in the United States, every single city, will be held hostage to the blackmail of these fanatics," he warned. Turning to his American audience, he called Iran "a regime that chants death to Israel, death to America" and said: "You are the real target."
In the regime's eyes, Netanyahu said, America is the "great Satan" and Israel the "little Satan." He then addressed Europe: "I say to my European friends, I hope you're not offended. You're a middle-sized Satan."
He labeled Hamas, Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthis "the three H's" and "arms of this toxic octopus," placing the blame on Iran's ayatollahs rather than its citizens. "It's not the Iranian people. The Iranian people are great people," he said.
Netanyahu ruled out any durable agreement with Tehran. "You can't win them over. You can't buy them out," he said. "No deal holds more than two seconds, because they do one thing consistently and reliably. They lie."
Asked about Trump, Netanyahu said each leader acts in his own country's interest. "I'm glad that it often, very often, this meshes," he said. On the race itself: "I fight every campaign as though I'm [going to] lose, and that's the only reason I win."
Earlier in the week, Matzav reported, Netanyahu said he was not looking to open a new military confrontation with Iran before the vote, while warning that Israel would hit back hard at any attack by Iran or its proxies.
On Saturday, Defense Minister Israel Katz told Israel's Channel 14 that Israel stands ready for another round. "We are prepared to strike Iran with full force, and this time all energy targets as well," Katz said, adding that the regime was close to collapse.
A day earlier, the commander of US Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, said in a recorded message that economic pressure on Iran had grown so severe that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is not paying its troops. US forces have blocked Iran from exporting at least $25 billion worth of crude oil, he said.
