Netanyahu Announced Israel Stance should Iran Return Attack

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the end of an IDF combat officers training course at Bahad 1 near Mitzpe Ramon, October 31, 2024. (Screenshot/IDF Spokesperson)

At the end of an IDF combat officers training course at Bahad 1 near Mitzpe Ramon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israeli freedom to stop Hezbollah attacks is more important than ceasefire agreements in Lebanon.

“The agreements, the papers, the proposals, the numbers [UN Security Council Resolution] 1509, 1701 — all these have their place, but they are not the main thing,” he says, hours after meeting and making a similar point to top White House Middle East aides. “The main thing is our ability and our determination to enforce security, to thwart attacks against us and to act against the arming of our enemies as much as is necessary despite all the pressures and constraints — that is the main thing.”

Amid chants of “Bibi, Bibi” and regular applause, Netanyahu says Israel attacked Iran’s “soft underbelly” in its recent strikes.

“The brash words of the leaders of the regime in Iran cannot cover up the fact that Israel has greater freedom of action in Iran today than ever before. We can reach anywhere in Iran as needed.”

Last week, the Israeli Air Force attacked anti-aircraft batteries and radar sites in Iran in retaliation for a massive Iranian ballistic missile attack on October 1.

The IDF’s supreme goal is stopping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, the premier says.

“I have not removed, we have not removed and we will not remove our eyes from this goal. For obvious reasons, I cannot detail our plans for achieving this supreme goal.”

Netanyahu says that the fight against the Iranian axis is guided by the “total victory concept.”

“I am not establishing a date for the end of the war, but I am establishing clear goals for victory in the war,” he says.

Seemingly pushing back against criticism that the military effort since October 7, 2023, has been mismanaged, the premier says: “There is a way, there is a direction. There are clear goals.”

“We chose to focus initially on pounding Hamas militarily in Gaza, and not to divide our forces between two main efforts at the same time,” Netanyahu explains.

“After we destroyed Hamas’s organized force, after 90 percent of the residents returned home safely in the south, we focused our efforts on the north.”

Israel is “changing the strategic reality in the Middle East,” he boasts, but warns that Israel is still “in the eye of the storm.”

“I really, really appreciate the support of the US,” says Netanyahu. “When possible — I say yes. When I have to — I say no.”

Netanyahu blasts “those who pushed for a premature diplomatic arrangement in Lebanon before we destroyed the tunnel network on our border, before we eliminated [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah and his replacement, and his replacement’s replacement. Before we destroyed much of Hezbollah’s rocket arsenal.”

He notes that more than half of the hostages taken in Hamas’s October 7 onslaught have been brought home from Gaza, and adds that Israel is working to get the rest back, but contends that this is a matter for action behind the scenes rather than talking about publicly.

Netanyahu also goes out of his way to praise IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi.