Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated Thursday evening that Israel is “ahead of schedule” in its military campaign against Iran, exceeding prior expectations and poised for further success.
In a rare Hebrew-language interview with the Kan public broadcaster, Netanyahu said Israel has destroyed at least half of Iran’s missile launchers, eliminated key military leaders, is targeting paramilitary forces and will hit all of Iran’s nuclear sites — including the heavily fortified Fordo nuclear facility.
“We are ahead of the schedule we set, both in terms of timing and results,” the premier said, nearly a week after Israel launched what it says is a preemptive campaign to neutralize an existential nuclear threat from Iran.
“The work has been outstanding,” Netanyahu said, explaining that he decided on the plan when a series of IDF operations left Iran’s strongest proxy, Hezbollah, “on its knees” toward the end of last year, and it became clear that Iran “was racing toward a nuclear capability.”
“The elimination of [former Hezbollah head Hassan] Nasrallah,” along with Israel’s gains against the Hamas terror group, “broke the Iranian axis. What does [Iran] have left?… This operation has been in planning for many months,” the prime minister added.
Addressing concerns over Israel’s reportedly depleted stock of Arrow missile interceptors, Netanyahu said the US was resupplying them and emphasized that “We’re striking [Iran’s] launchers. It doesn’t matter so much how many rockets they have. What matters is how many launchers they have — and we’re already getting there. I think we’ve already passed the halfway mark of their launchers.”
A day earlier, the IDF had said around 40% of launchers were destroyed.
Netanyahu praised Israeli resilience under fire, comparing the home front to British society during the Blitz, the WWII German bombing campaign against Great Britain.
With or without the US
Netanyahu said the “one thing” he can say is that “the United States recognized our right to defend ourselves from an existential threat,” and that unlike Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, the incumbent US president at no point “tried to stop us.”
Netanyahu accused Biden of trying to block earlier operations against Iranian proxies: “He imposed an embargo, said: ‘Don’t enter Gaza, don’t go into Rafah.’” The premier stated that he resisted Biden’s warnings, which Netanyahu said set a precedent for how he’ll act if Israel faces similar pressure during the Iran war.
“I told him, ‘Joe, I have no choice. You’re the president of the United States, I’m the prime minister of the Jewish state — we’re going in.’ So first of all, there’s already a precedent: Even if a US president tries to stop us — he won’t,” said Netanyahu.
“By the way, this time, he didn’t try to stop us,” added the premier in reference to this Trump.
Netanyahu also declared that during internal discussions about the operation over the last six months, other senior Israeli officials fretted over not receiving “a green light from the Americans.”
“You know what my answer was? We’re not asking for a green light. Either way, we’re going to do this, because we have no choice. We will not allow 3,500 years of Jewish history to come to an end because of this deranged ayatollah,” said Netanyahu, appearing to reference Khamenei.
Netanyahu added that Israel was prepared for the cost of the conflict: “We were told towers will fall in a war with Iran. But any outcome, no matter how difficult, is not the destruction of millions. Not the destruction of Jewish history. That’s why I had no doubt.”
“Whatever the outcome is — even the worst-case scenario — we don’t dwell on predictions. Despite…the pain of losing precious civilians, we’re talking here about the possible destruction of millions…of Jewish history, of the people of Israel, God forbid…There was no other option.”
Turning to the war in the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu argued that the conflict with Iran helps advance the return of the remaining hostages held by Hamas in the territory.
The “only real thing” preventing an end to the Gaza war is the hostages, according to the premier, who said the operation against the Islamic Republic helps secure the captives’ return since “Hamas relies on Iran.”
Netanyahu would not provide Hasson with even a rough timeframe for the campaign against Iran, declaring simply that it will be over “by the end of the operation.”
