How the Iran Strikes Seal Netanyahu’s Legacy
Amit Segal:
Netanyahu operates with a profound historical awareness of the existential dangers facing the Jewish people. In 2009, I interviewed Netanyahu along with his father, Professor Benzion Netanyahu. The elderly historian, nearly a century old at the time, said beside his son, “People think the Holocaust ended. It hasn’t. It continues all the time. ” He meant the intention to eliminate Jews had never vanished; the only difference was Israel’s defensive capabilities, symbolized by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Israel can be crossed from east to west in 50 minutes. One or two nuclear bombs would destroy it—this was the “second Holocaust” father and son Netanyahu envisioned.
And so Netanyahu’s life mission became dismantling Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Over the years, in meetings with U.S. presidents, the incumbent president would raise the Palestinian issue, while Netanyahu would focus on the Iranian threat. Menachem Begin destroyed Iraq’s nuclear reactor in 1981, Ehud Olmert did the same to Syria’s reactor in 2007, and Netanyahu vowed to do likewise with Iran.
Yet, despite several near-attempts, this promise went unfulfilled. Israel’s defense establishment blocked Netanyahu’s intended attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities repeatedly, in 2010, 2011, and 2012, leaving many convinced it would never happen. And American presidents, namely Barack Obama, backed by the American defense establishment, would not permit an Israeli strike.
Before his most recent electoral victory, in September 2022, Netanyahu promised me this time would be different. Noticing my skepticism, he clarified: “This time, I’m not a 60-year-old with one term behind me facing a military establishment, but a 73-year-old with another decade of experience. This time, nobody will stop me.”