Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC News on Monday night that eliminating Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei would not escalate but rather end the conflict between Tehran and Jerusalem.
Asked by ABC News‘s Jonathan Karl about reports that U.S. President Donald Trump had rejected an Israeli plan to assassinate Khamenei, concerned that it would escalate the conflict, Netanyahu responded, “It’s not going to escalate the conflict, it’s going to end the conflict.”
Pressed on the issue, the prime minister told ABC that Jerusalem was “doing what we need to do” to address the threat posed by Tehran.
“I’m not going to get into the details, but we’ve targeted their top nuclear scientists,” Netanyahu said, adding: “It’s basically Hitler’s nuclear team.”
“We’ve had half a century of conflict spread by this regime that terrorizes everyone in the Middle East,” the premier noted. “The ‘forever war’ is what Iran wants, and they’re bringing us to the brink of nuclear war.”
An Israeli official told The Wall Street Journal on Saturday that Khamenei is “not off limits” as a target in the IDF’s ongoing campaign against Iran.
“The official said Israel wasn’t ruling out any potential targets to destroy the nuclear program, including Khamenei, in response to a question from the WSJ in an interview,” the newspaper stated.
The Reuters news agency subsequently reported that Trump had “vetoed” a plan to assassinate the supreme leader, which Israeli officials denounced as fake news.
Jerusalem launched “Operation Rising Lion” against the Iranian regime because intelligence indicated that Tehran had amassed enough highly enriched uranium for nine bombs, Netanyahu told Fox News on Sunday.
“All they had to do was weaponize them. We stopped that by attacking their nuclear scientists,” he said.
Asked whether regime change was part of Jerusalem’s plans for the future of the Islamic Republic, the Israeli leader said that it “could certainly be the result, because the Iran regime is very weak.”
“Eighty percent of the people would throw these theological thugs out,” he said of internal opposition to the regime. “They murder them, they oppress them—for 46 years they’ve yearned for freedom,” he added.
“The Persian people and the Jewish people have had an ancient friendship that goes back to the times of Cyrus the Great; that could happen again,” Netanyahu told Fox, while saying that “the decision to act, to rise up, at this time is the decision of the Iranian people.”
According to United Torah Judaism lawmaker Moshe Roth, the goal of the ongoing operation is clear: neutralizing the imminent threat from Iran.
The first element is the nuclear danger, which he described as an existential threat to Israel. “Under no circumstances should Iran possess a nuclear weapon. Iran has expressed a desire to eliminate Israel by any means, and they are definitely religiously motivated to do so, God forbid,” Roth told JNS on Tuesday.
The second part involves Iran’s ballistic missiles, with Roth emphasizing Iran’s expressed intent to destroy Israel and kill every Jewish person in the country. “Since Nazi Germany, we have not faced such a threat to our people, and to this extent. Iran has provided ammunition and support to every enemy of Israel, including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and others,” he said.
Roth also pointed to the Islamic Regime’s history.
“They’ve killed hundreds of Americans and Israelis, both in Israel and abroad. When they say ‘death to America, death to Israel,’ they mean it literally. Therefore, Israel has no choice but to go to war with Iran and eliminate this threat,” he said.
The war, he said, would continue until the threat is eradicated. “In fact, Israel is fighting the war of the free world because, to Iran, all of America and the free world are doomed. This is a jihad, a religious war, nothing less.”
Yesh Atid lawmaker Meirav Cohen emphasized unity during the ongoing conflict, telling JNS that in times like these, all factions stand together in support of Israel’s security forces. As part of that commitment, she noted that opposition lawmakers had removed all legislative proposals from the agenda to avoid distractions.
Cohen expressed support for the government’s operation against Iran, while also urging the leadership to remain focused solely on war-related matters. She highlighted that opposition leader Yair Lapid had engaged in international diplomacy and contributed op-eds to global media to reinforce the legitimacy of Israel’s actions.
“While there are many political disagreements between the opposition and the coalition, when it comes to Israel’s security, we are united,” she said.
Cohen added that there was no choice but to act against Iran, stressing that it was the right decision not to let the situation escalate further. Though not privy to all intelligence, she said she trusted Israel’s security and intelligence agencies, particularly in light of Iran’s growing threat and the strategic dynamics in Syria and Lebanon.
She pointed to the lesson of Oct. 7, 2023, saying Israel must take enemy threats seriously and act before it’s too late. “If the enemy says he plans to destroy us, we have to believe him and act accordingly,” she said.
Defense Minister Israel Katz suggested on Tuesday that Khamenei could suffer the same fate as former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who was executed following the 2003 U.S. invasion of his country.
“I warn the Iranian dictator against continuing to commit war crimes and launching missiles at Israeli civilians,” Katz said, adding:. “He would do well to remember the fate of the dictator in the country neighboring Iran who chose this same path against the State of Israel.”