Netanyahu: Defeating Iran could lead to end of Hamas, Hezbollah

The prime minister said Jerusalem would have to keep acting to stop Tehran from rebuilding its capabilities.

By JNS

Victory over the Iranian regime could bring about the elimination of the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist groups, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday night.

“It is clear that if this regime is defeated, the path to the final elimination of Hamas and the elimination of Hezbollah is not far off, and we will complete it,” he told Channel 14’s “The Patriots” current affairs program, speaking in Hebrew.

Netanyahu said Israel still had unfinished business in the War of Redemption, which began with the Hamas-led massacre of Oct. 7, 2023. He also pointed to dangers beyond the Iranian-backed terrorist organizations.

“There are missions to complete, and there are also new threats,” he said.

Netanyahu then turned to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, saying that the Turkish leader “does not like us and does not like me. We are in an environment that is still challenging. The job needs to be finished.”

He went on to say that Israel’s existence is at stake in the Oct. 27 election, warning that if his challengers form a government, they would withdraw the Israel Defense Forces from security zones established during the war and agree to a Palestinian state.

A coalition government led by Yashar Party leader Gadi Eisenkot would “leave Lebanon, Gaza and Syria, and establish a Palestinian state,” the premier warned. “It will be a state with the backing of great powers behind it, and that will be the beginning of the end of the State of Israel.”

Israel’s longest-serving prime minister stressed that Tehran has not abandoned its pursuit of nuclear weapons, despite the damage its program sustained during the joint military campaign launched by Israeli and U.S. forces on Feb. 28, “Operation Roaring Lion/Epic Fury.”

“Iran has not given up on the nuclear program. They were hit hard, we pushed it back,” the premier told host Yinon Magal.

Netanyahu likened the Iranian program to a disease. “We uprooted this cancer, but a cancer also has metastases, and it could develop into a renewed threat,” he said.

The prime minister said Jerusalem would have to keep acting to stop Tehran from rebuilding its capabilities. “Iran wants to renew the nuclear program. I prevented it and I will prevent it again,” he said. “Iran will not have a nuclear weapon as long as I am prime minister.”

Netanyahu: Those who refuse to enlist—go straight to prison

Netanyahu also spoke about an incident that took place on Saturday in central Samaria in which Jewish Israelis allegedly initiated a violent confrontation with local Palestinians.

IDF and Border Police forces rushed to the area of the Palestinian villages of Qusra and Jalud following a report of Israelis hurling rocks at Palestinians, according to the military.

“Dozens of rioters” barricaded themselves inside a Palestinian home while residents were inside,” the IDF said on Saturday evening, adding that the security forces removed the intruders from the house.

Speaking to the panel of “The Patriots,” the prime minister vowed to stop vigilante violence by Jewish youths in Judea and Samaria.

“This is a small handful—young people who come with all sorts of hardships from home, and I am determined to stop this,” he said.

“I am not prepared to tolerate this, and I am saying it here in front of an audience that certainly identifies with the settlement movement.”

Recent violent incidents involving Jewish rioters have inflicted “enormous damage to a huge, law-abiding public,” he continued, noting that Judea and Samaria residents are facing an onslaught of Palestinian terrorism.

The premier said the incidents were being amplified out of proportion. “The international and local media inflate it,” Netanyahu said.

“It is not justified, but it is very bad for the settlement enterprise. I want to strengthen the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria.”

Netanyahu further discussed the conscription of ultra-Orthodox men into the IDF—a topic driving much of the rhetoric revolving around the upcoming Knesset election.

Ultra-Orthodox men who are not studying Torah full-time should be conscripted, he stated.

“I very much respect the Torah world. My grandfather went to the famous yeshivah where Chaim Nachman Bialik studied. I have enormous respect for the Torah world, but whoever does not study Torah—let him enlist,” he said. “And whoever says, ‘We will die and not enlist’—let him go straight to prison.”

The premier said a conscription bill proposed by his coalition stalled over errors in its handling, adding, “It is possible and necessary to manage this differently.”

Netanyahu pointed to rising haredi enlistment, noting that 5,000 ultra-Orthodox have joined the IDF. “There was no such thing before. Today 500 enlisted, 300 of them for combat,” he said.

Young Haredi men have been historically exempt from military service since the inception of the Jewish state in 1948.

In an unanimous decision, Israel’s High Court of Justice in 2024 ruled that the exemption is illegal and harms the principle of equality established under the nation’s laws.

The Knesset has yet to pass a law that establishes a full legal framework for the country’s conscription laws.