In a Fox News interview with Mark Levin in March 2018,
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defined the three greatest threats to his
country as “Iran, Iran and Iran.”
This was by no means the first time that Netanyahu had
pointed to the perils posed by Tehran’s race to acquire nuclear weapons, nor
would it be his last.
Indeed, Netanyahu has been warning the world about
Tehran’s global terrorist reach for so long that his speeches on the issue,
both at home and abroad, have become a source of ridicule. Accusing him of
fear-mongering as a ploy to stay in power, his detractors berate him for
comparing the mullah-led regime’s evil hegemonic aspirations to those of the
Nazis.
Yes, the very enemies who think nothing of comparing Netanyahu and his ally in
the White House to Hitler have been downplaying the concrete danger that has
been emanating from the Islamic Republic since its establishment 40 years ago –
a menace that has escalated to alarming levels. Thanks to the “appeasement deal
of the century,” otherwise known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or
JCPOA, pushed forth by a coalition of ostriches, led by former US president
Barack Obama and his criminally negligent, if not outright criminal,
administration.
Netanyahu’s repeated appeals to the so-called “international community” not to
enter into a nuclear agreement favorable to Iran initially fell on deaf ears.
But it did not deter him from his two-pronged approach: gathering and exposing
intelligence about Tehran’s spinning centrifuges on one hand while launching
limited military strikes against Iranian and proxy Hezbollah targets in Syria
on the other.
Due to Israel’s policy of “strategic ambiguity,” which in the age of the
Internet is widely considered to be obsolete, Netanyahu and members of his
government occasionally allude to IDF cross-border operations without being
specific.
Take Wednesday morning’s missile attack on Tel Al-Hara, a military base in
southern Syria believed to contain Iranian militias. Everyone assumes that
Israel was behind it, and with good reason.
Nevertheless, Israeli Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi was raked
over the coals this week for “explosive comments” he made on Sunday during an
interview with KAN News Radio. When asked by host Aryeh Golan whether he was
concerned that Washington’s mild response to Iranian aggression against a
British tanker in the Persian Gulf bode ill for US support in the event that
“our little Israel” were to encounter a similar problem, Hanegbi replied that
he was not worried.
“For two years now Israel has been the only country in
the world killing Iranians,” he said. “We have hit the Iranians hundreds of
times in Syria. Sometimes they admit it, sometimes foreign publications expose
the matter, sometimes a minister, sometimes the chief of staff. But everything
is a coordinated policy. The Iranians are very limited in their responses, and
it’s not because they do not have the capabilities, but because they understand
that Israel means business. We are very firm on issues of national security.”
NATURALLY, NOBODY in the Hebrew or foreign press bothered to put Hanegbi’s
words in context, preferring to report that he had “boasted” about killing
Iranians when what he was actually saying was that Israel does not rely on the
help or approval of outside powers to deal with its own security and defense
needs.
Iran understood this message full well but took the opportunity to engage in a
Twitter war over it, with its state-run Press TV posting a meme of Hanegbi’s
quote and a caption reading: “This is how Israelis are freely and proudly talking
about killing Iranians! Just imagine what would happen if it was the other way
around!”
Hanegbi fired back, tweeting: “I saw that the murderous regime in Iran did not
like that I mentioned this morning that the IDF has been exacting from it a
heavy price for its unrelenting aggression against Israel. [Supreme Leader]
Khamenei and [President] Rouhani were very insulted. So I thought of a creative
idea that could ease Iran’s sensitivity: You will stop placing
surface-to-surface missile batteries, UAVs, bases of Shi’ite militias and
terrorist infrastructures on Syrian territory aimed at killing Israelis. You
will stop arming Hezbollah and the Islamic Jihad with deadly weapons systems
aimed at killing Israelis. When that happens, we will no longer have to destroy
Iranian terrorist arrays and there will be no more Iranian casualties.
Deal?”
Hanegbi’s radio and Twitter remarks were simply a nutshell summation of Israeli
policy vis-à-vis Iran. Furthermore, they followed two statements made by
Netanyahu earlier in the month – one aimed at Tehran and the other at Brussels
– voicing a similar sentiment.
On July 9, while visiting the Nevatim Air Force base and standing next to an
Adir F-35 jet, he said, “Iran has threatened recently to destroy Israel. It is
worthwhile for them to remember that these planes can reach everywhere in the
Middle East, including Iran and Syria.”
Less than a week later, on July 15, Netanyahu reacted harshly to the European
Union’s insistence that Iranian violations of the JCPOA were not severe enough
to warrant a reimposition of sanctions.
In a Hebrew video clip he said: “The response by the European Union to the
Iranian violations reminds me of the European appeasement of the 1930s. Also
then there was someone who buried his head in the sand and didn’t see the
approaching danger. It seems that there are those in Europe who won’t wake up
until Iranian nuclear missiles fall on European soil and then, of course, it
will be too late. In any case, we will continue to do everything necessary to
prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.”
Luckily for Israel, Netanyahu has a friend in US President Donald Trump, who
not only withdrew from the JCPOA – partly as a result of the trove of Iranian
documents seized by a daring Mossad raid on a nuclear archive in Tehran – but
has increased sanctions on the regime. Though necessary, these moves are not
sufficient, however, as Iran has been illustrating. This is why the close ties
between Netanyahu and Trump are just as beneficial to the United States.
THAT BRINGS us to a key reason that Netanyahu just broke the record, previously
held by Israel’s first premier, David Ben-Gurion, as the longest-serving prime
minister in the country’s history.
Though Israeli “Bibi-bashers” would have the world believe that Netanyahu’s
political longevity is due to a ruthless and bottomless hunger to “hang on to
his seat,” and that he stops at nothing to guarantee the fall of his rivals and
opponents, they fail to acknowledge the traits and accomplishments that have led
to his repeated reelection. In doing so, they cast aspersions on the electoral
system and the voters simultaneously.
Ironically, many of such nay-sayers wouldn’t have a shot at being in the
Knesset in the first place if it weren’t for Israel’s “parliamentary democracy
on steroids,” as the current campaign by tiny parties headed by swelled-headed
politicians proves.
As for the voters, well, some of us struggle with the dilemma of casting our
ballots for the party that most closely represents our ideological positions,
or opting instead to back the big party most likely to form a coalition that
best reflects our will.
Then there are those who are more focused on ousting Netanyahu than on
articulating or holding any particular views. Many such floaters are supporting
the Blue and White Party, headed by Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, who have a
rotation agreement.
At a surprise gathering in honor of his lengthy leadership record thrown for
him on Monday by his family and members of Likud, Netanyahu took an apt jab at
his defamers in general and the Blue and White chiefs in particular.
“If not for the actions we’ve taken, Iran would have had a nuclear arsenal a
long time ago, and its coffers with which to take over the Middle East would
have been even fuller. We’ve blocked it up until now but it hasn’t been
permanently blocked. No one knows what will happen... the Iranians are banking
on it being only a little while more until they’re free of [us].... The
Iranians are just waiting, they’re waiting for our opponents. Who will stop
[them]? Benny Gantz? Yair Lapid? [Those] who said we mustn’t walk away from the
[nuclear] deal? That it was alright?”
Though it was clear that Netanyahu was using the celebratory event as part of
his campaign to win again on September 17, he was right to stress his point.
Even one of his vocal critics, TV personality Avri Gilad, recently expressed
“anxiety” about the “day after” Netanyahu, whenever that might be.
The effort to portray him as a crazed and corrupt Captain Queeg ranting and
raving about “Iran, Iran, Iran” has thus been futile so far, due to his
deft stewardship of “our little Israel” through ayatollah-infested waters.
