After years of warnings, Israel’s Netanyahu makes his move on Iran
Citing lessons from the Holocaust, Israel’s prime minister authorises a military operation to thwart Iran’s nuclear programme
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Israel launches strikes on Iran, targeting nuclear facilities in Tehran
Iran once ridiculed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the boy who cried wolf for his constant public warnings about Tehran’s nuclear programme, and his repeated threats to shut it down, one way or another.
“You can only fool some of the people so many times,” Iran’s then-foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said in 2018 after Netanyahu had once again accused Iran of planning to build nuclear weapons.
In an address to the nation, Netanyahu, as he has so often before, evoked the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust in World War II to explain his decision.
“Nearly a century ago, facing the Nazis, a generation of leaders failed to act in time,” Netanyahu said, adding that a policy of appeasing Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler had led to the deaths of 6 million Jews, “a third of my people”.