Lawmakers call for ‘strong hand’ against Iran after PM’s presentation

Lawmakers on Monday night largely praised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s revelation of a trove of Iranian files he said showed Tehran has long pursued atomic weapons — and continued to do so after the 2015 deal meant to curb its nuclear program.

Housing Minister Yoav Galant said Iran now understands “the lie is exposed.”

“Iran is the source of terror in the world — a nuclear Iran is a clear and immediate danger to the peace of the world and especially Israel,” he tweeted, while praising Israel’s intelligence agencies and Netanyahu for his “bravery and determination.”

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said Netanyahu’s revelation showed a “strong hand” was needed to deal with Iran.

“The nuclear agreement with Iran doesn’t work. Opposite the Iranian fraud, a strong international coalition led by the Americans is needed that will act with a strong hand against a regime that has not abandoned its nuclear ambitions for a moment,” she wrote on Twitter.

Danny Danon, Israel’s envoy to the UN and a former Likud minister, said the speech showed once again that Iran “cannot be trusted.”

“We once again call on the international community to join the path the US has charted and demand the necessary changes to the failed JCPOA or exit it completely,” he said in a statement.

Culture Minister Miri Regev said she “salutes the intelligence community…and the prime minister.”

Opposition MK Amir Peretz (Zionist Union), a former defense minister, said the files revealed Iran as “not only a serial terror exporter, but also an obsessive nuclear developer.”

Peretz called on the world to tighten monitoring of Iran’s nuclear program in light of the files and said Israel must take steps to guarantee its military superiority in the region.

Yair Lapid, head of the opposition Yesh Atid party, praised the “incredible achievement” of Israeli intelligence and warned Israel’s foes against threatening the Jewish state.

“We have the right to defend ourselves against any threat and our enemies should know that we have the ability to reach anywhere in the world,” he said. “If anyone in the international community needed evidence that Iran has lied all these years, Israel’s intelligence services have the proof.”

Netanyahu accused Iran of lying about its nuclear program in a speech broadcast live Monday, revealing information he said showed the Islamic Republic had for years worked on developing nuclear weapons, and continued to pursue such weapons even after signing the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

“Iran’s leaders repeatedly deny ever pursuing nuclear weapons,” he said. “Iran lied. Big time.”

The premier, who has repeatedly called for the accord between world powers and Iran to either be altered or scrapped, said Israel had obtained 100,000 secret Iranian files a few weeks ago in one the “greatest achievements” of Israeli intelligence, that detailed Tehran’s efforts to build nuclear weapons.

A number of opposition lawmakers criticized both the speech and the premier personally, while warning abandonment of the nuclear deal could lead to war.

While she praised the intelligence-gathering achievement, Labor MK Shelly Yachimovich said Netanyahu, in dramatically announcing the speech hours ahead of time and mysteriously promising “significant” developments on Iran, had “led and entire nation into a panic” that war was brewing.

“Passing [the information] on to the intelligence bodies of relevant nations would have been enough,” she said. She added that though the accord with Iran was far from perfect, “it’s entirely unclear that thwarting it will help Israel.”

Meretz MK Issawi Frej said the speech revealed nothing new. “Netanyahu proved that Iran wants a nuclear weapon and is working to achieve it. We weren’t knocked off our chairs,” he said.

“The binders and CD speech didn’t produce a smoking gun and time will tell if it benefited or hurt Israel’s international ties and the fight against Iran,” he added.

Joint (Arab) List MK Dov Khenin said: “The international agreement on the nuclear issue was the right move, and it must continue instead of leading to a terrible regional war, that no one will win.

“All the empty folders, CDs and English, and for what? Netanyahu gave an election speech this evening in which he heated up old noodles, which were cooked many years before the nuclear deal was signed,” he added, while saying Netanyahu was using the speech to distract from corruption investigations against him.

Netanyahu’s announcement came a day after he met with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said will withdraw from the nuclear accord on May 12 barring significant changes. Netanyahu reportedly also discussed the intelligence material with the secretary.

Both US President Donald Trump and Netanyahu have harshly criticized the 2015 nuclear deal, taking aim at its “sunset” clauses and saying it does not address Iran’s ballistic missile program or involvement in numerous regional conflicts.

With Trump’s May 12 deadline to “fix or nix” the deal looming, Netanyahu said he was sure Trump would “do the right thing.