Assailing Netanyahu’s ‘historic failure,’ Bennett says Iran regime will only be replaced after Israeli leadership changes

Following the announcement of a deal between the United States and Iran to end the war between them, former prime minister Naftali Bennett slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war, arguing that he would have been a better wartime leader and that regime change in Tehran will only happen after the government in Jerusalem is replaced first.

“The term of this Netanyahu government began with a civil war, continued with the October 7 massacre, and is now ending with a historic failure against Iran,” Bennett tells reporters at a press conference in Tel Aviv.

Promising to “restore security for Israel,” Bennett says that he would have done “everything” differently, including diplomatically by using his “credit with the president most sympathetic to Israel that we have ever had, solely for the benefit of Israel’s national interests,” an apparent dig at US President Donald Trump’s repeated calls to pardon Netanyahu in his ongoing criminal trial.

A Bennett government would also see “a return to the security concept of fast, strong, and decisive wars,” rather than “dragging things out” like Netanyahu, while also “revitalizing the national public diplomacy directorate… that this government dismantled.”

These moves would be accompanied by the implementation of “mandatory conscription for all and halting the funding of draft evasion,” because when the IDF lacks soldiers, “you have to conquer the same places over and over again, and you can’t win that way,” he continues.

Under a Bennett government, Israel would engage Iran via an “octopus doctrine,” “with one hand, preventing Iran from going nuclear, and with the other, accelerating the collapse of the regime with political, economic, technological, and military tools.”

“The countdown to replacing the regime in Iran will begin as soon as the government in Israel is replaced,” he asserts.