In an interview aired on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against claims that he was prolonging the war in Gaza for political reasons, telling broadcaster Channel 13 that dismantling the Iranian axis takes time.
“This is both a malicious and false premise or question,” said of such claims. “We did not need to only defeat Hamas, but needed to defeat the entire Iranian axis, including in a war against Iran itself,” said the Israeli premier.
He then enumerated the unique challenges that Israel faced in the aftermath of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 massacre.
Apparently referencing the Second Battle of Fallujah, in which a joint U.S.-British-Iraqi offensive in 2004 cleared the city’s Al Qaeda insurgents in extensive house-to-house fighting, Netanyahu emphasized that the conditions in Gaza were much more difficult.
“The whole world converged on 3,000 terrorists in a place that’s much less complicated than Gaza... and we’re doing it much faster than all these armies together,” Netanyahu stressed.
“Second, we are fighting this war under difficulties that no one else faces. This is, first of all, a war with hostages. When there are hostages, you’re careful, you call ceasefires,” he continued.
“Third, you have an American administration that, after a few weeks of unwavering support, not only began to express reservations but also started blocking us,” he added, referencing the Biden administration that reportedly imposed partial arms embargoes on Israel.
Netanyahu went on to mention the strategic accomplishments of the war.
“We eliminated the [Iranian] axis’s cells one by one. First, we went after Hamas, we had to enter Rafah, take control of the Philadelphi Corridor [along the Strip’s border with Egypt], then head north [to Lebanon], execute the beepers [mission], eliminate Hezbollah, and advance. As a result, the Assad regime fell. All of these stages essentially dismantled the Iranian axis as they had prepared it for Israel’s destruction,” Netanyahu stressed.
The Islamic Republic had planned to encircle Israel with its proxies and “very carefully” advance the final stages of its nuclear program, which consisted of producing nuclear weapons, he said.
“I said on the second day of this war: we will change the face of the Middle East. We are not fighting only against Hamas but against the entire Iranian axis, of which Hamas is only one part of,” he concluded.
