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Netanyahu under fire from right-wing for ‘limited’ attack on Iran

Addressing Netanyahu, a right-wing journalist wrote “in the face of the war against Iran, you have not answered the call of the hour.”

By World Israel News Staff

A right-wing commentator and journalist, who is usually a staunch supporter of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, slammed the premier over what he said was a failure to deter Iran with Saturday’s airstrikes.

Shimon Riklin, a Channel 14 presenter who hosts The Patriots, one of the highest-rated news programs on Israeli television, wrote on social media platform X that the retaliatory attack on Iran represented a surrender to American pressure on Netanyahu’s end.

“When the war began [on October 7th], Israel rose to the occasion. Civilian, soldiers, and police officers went to battle. Thousands were killed and wounded. Tens of thousands more lost their places of employment, studies, and plans” for the future,” Riklin wrote.

Addressing Netanyahu, Riklin wrote that “in the face of the war against Iran, you have not answered the call of the hour.”

By not striking Israel’s nuclear development sites, Netanyahu “squandered a historic opportunity, the importance of which you have [previously] stressed to the public.”

“A great leader is not judged by his length of time in office, but the critical decisions he makes,” Riklin continued.

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The journalist said he believed that Netanyahu had folded under pressure from the Biden administration to avoid striking Iran’s nuclear and oil sites.

“At the moment when the people of Israel needed you to rise to the occasion, we heard you obeying – in English – a president who’s almost out of office,” he wrote.

“You now owe the people of Israel an explanation. Why did you hesitate and miss the opportunity?”

Riklin also referred to the October 1 Iranian attack, which saw Tehran shoot nearly 200 ballistic missiles at the Jewish state.

He also mentioned the drone attack on Netanyahu’s Caesarea residence, which was likely ordered by Iran but carried out by Hezbollah.

“How many more times should Iran shoot at us and you personally?” Riklin asked.

He asked when Netanyahu will “have the courage to react to the threat that you have rightly defined as existential.”