In a Hebrew-language interview broadcast tonight on israel’s Channel 14, Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu reiterated recent remarks supporting the idea of toppling Iran’s ruling regime and indicated that the current military conflict could help advance normalization with Arab countries under the Abraham Accords framework.
Responding to a question about whether regime change in Iran was a specific aim of the war, Netanyahu explained his perspective in historical terms. “Cyrus freed the Jews, and today the Jewish state might free the Persians. Not in the sense that we’re doing it for them…In the end, they have to rise up themselves, but we are creating the conditions. And that’s why it could be consequential.”
During the interview, Netanyahu made the assertion—twice—that “80 percent” of the Iranian population “hate” their ruling regime, although he did not cite any source for the statistic. He referred to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a “modern Hitler” and said that Israel intended to strike “additional regime facilities” as part of its military campaign.
Netanyahu expressed confidence that the current war signaled a major regional shift. “We’re going to see a different Middle East, a reality we haven’t seen until now,” he said, forecasting that the Arab nations would become more aligned with Israel and that the war might actually lead to further developments in the Abraham Accords.
“The Arab world has opened up to us,” Netanyahu said. “And the threat we face now is Iran. It’s either us or them.”
{Matzav.com Israel}
