Early on Friday, Israel launched a major attack on Iranian nuclear sites and weapons facilities, targeting many of its senior military officials. In revenge, Iran fired dozens of ballistic missiles in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem late Friday. Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, said the strikes “will continue for several days, as required to remove this threat.” In response, President Trump, who recently said he wanted to negotiate a nuclear agreement with Iran – after his first term, withdrew from the original nuclear deal signed during the Obama administration – as an expression of strong support for the Israeli attack, saying: “I think it was excellent. We have given. [the Iranians] An opportunity and did not take it. They were wounded, very difficult. . . . There is more in the future. “
On Friday, I spoke on the phone with Aluf Benn, Editor -in -Chief Haritz. During our conversation, which was liberated for length and clarity, we discussed Netanyahu’s motives for a strike, and how the Prime Minister uses his understanding of Trump to follow his own agenda, and what does this attack mean for the future of the region.
Why do you think this is happening now, in June 2025, not earlier or in the future?
First of all, Israel was in war with the Iranian “Axis of Resistance” for about two years. Secondly, Israel is, for more than twenty years, to design and prepare a plan to attack Iran under successive leaders. During most of that time, Netanyahu was responsible, but the military leaders have long been thinking of dismantling the nuclear facilities of Iran in the same way that Israel bombed a nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981, then in Syria in 2007.
So the idea of bombing Iran has been present for two decades. Its peak was about 2012, during the era of Netanyahu and then Defense Minister Ehud Barak, but was stopped by the Obama administration, which eventually had a deal with Iran to reduce its nuclear program. At that point, some Israeli security and intelligence chiefs believed that Israel should not go alone and never attack Iran without American approval and previous knowledge. In 1981, Menachem, the Prime Minister, bombed the nuclear reactor near Baghdad without informing the Americans. This creates tension between the two governments for a period of time. However, in 2007, Ehud Olmert George W. Bush told a reactor that was built in the Syrian desert at the time. It was a secret facility. We participated in Bush, and Bush was thinking for a while to attack the American forces. But then the Americans decided not to do so, and they allowed Israel to destroy the facility. Israel did not bear the responsibility for the strike for nearly a decade in order not to embarrass Bashar al -Assad and force him to take revenge.
The estimated authority is not the case today. This attack is very clear and follows two exchanging fires between Iran and Israel last year, which Iran took revenge on April due to the assassination of one of its generals in Damascus. They launched all kinds of drones in response. But their attack failed because Israel was protected by a coalition that guarantees Centcom [the U.S. Central Command]. Then, in October, again, there were missile attacks by Iran and an Israeli attack that succeeded in dismantling the Iranian air defenses. This was followed by the collapse of Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Assad regime in Syria, the main allies of Iran in our neighboring. This is the cradle of the road and the corridor opened a final attack on nuclear facilities. But they waited for Trump to give the green light.
There was anxiety among some of the most believers that Trump would not give a green light for this strike, because he wanted a deal with Iran. But what you seem to say is that the decisive thing that has changed is, in fact, timing and Trump in his position.
First of all, the operational opportunity was to get an open corridor due to the suppression of Iranian air defenses in October, and the Russians did not renew the Iranian stocks and regulations after that. Then there was the subsequent defeat of Kazbla by the Israeli Defense Army, beheading its leadership, and destroying most of its strong ballistic strength, then the lion’s fall. So far, you can spread a very large power to destroy the targets inside Iran. He recently stated that Israel ended its preparations and that Netanyahu was pressuring for an attack on Iran. There have been some different signs, such as the general opposition by Trump, even recently as this week, but Netanyahu is clearly informed of it in advance.
Today, Trump was very supportive.
Under this presidential support, we have one decisive thing, and that was one of the last decisions from Trump’s first state, which included Israel in Centcom. This enabled Israel to be part of the regional defense system to defend air and missile defense. So, Israel is now dependent on American bombers and American soldiers on the ground, but you suffer from cooperation, cooperation, intelligence participation, etc.
Netanyahu seems to have a good understanding of Trump in terms of Iran and Gaza. Trump will say he wants to make a deal with Iran. He will say that he wants to stop the shooting in Gaza, but whether he is his attention or his lack of attention to him actually, he will not really pressure Israel to prevent him from doing what he wants to do.
In Gaza, there were a lot of criticism of what Israel did. But on everything, historically, America gave Israel a free hand in exchange for the Palestinians. It was always different in regional matters, as America has always had the last word, even when he followed what Israel wanted. Like Trump’s decision to leave the nuclear deal in 2018 – it was always the last word. Also in this case, Trump wanted a deal. If the Iranians agree to the American conditions to stop uranium enrichment, they may have a deal. Trump gave them time, then they did not respond, so he attacked Israel. Likewise, Israel begged a ceasefire with Hezbollah in the north and the leader who is now died in Hezbollah at that time, “No, we will support our brothers in Gaza, and we will continue to shoot Israel and maintain that second open front.” It could have been saved.
You can say that Israel could have stopped the war in Gaza, and it could help things at the regional level as well.
definitely. But Netanyahu is still committed to the final occupation of Gaza and the destruction of the Palestinians. . . From Hamas, and in the end the Palestinians come out of there, and what he calls Trump’s plan: just giving the land to Israeli resorts and settlements. This is still the official Israeli policy in Gaza.
Is Israel now sufficient to attack Iran to abandon Gaza, or on the contrary, use the defeat of the resistance axis to conclude the occupation of Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians? It remains to see.
When reading your newspaper, it is very clear to me that many people believe that Netanyahu extends the war in Gaza for its own political reasons and that you cannot separate the war from Netanyahu’s personal desires. Is this the case here?
Well, first of all, with Iran’s attack, there is very strong support inside Israel, at least within the Jewish society – I would like to say a virtual consensus. We have written a written article, “Do not go to war”, but it is a minority position, and it will be a smaller minority if Israel succeeds in wiping the Iranian nuclear program and forcing Iran to surrender somehow, or if there is a change in the Iranian regime. However, besides that, one of Netanyahu’s capabilities throughout the war, even when he and his leadership are unpopular and are still backward in public sector polls, was following popular policies. The policy of destruction and even the partial occupation of Gaza was very common, to punish Hamas for what it did on October 7. Iran’s attacking policy is very popular, and there is no real opposition to that in Israel. The opposition was only the fear of alienation of the United States, or the fear that this process would be risky so that it could not be successful.
