Netanyahu says campaign against Iran ‘not over,’ touts ‘historic achievements’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu contended Saturday evening that the campaign against Iran “is not over,” in a video statement that repeated many of his previously stated arguments about the achievements in the recent US-Israeli war.

The statement drew criticism from the opposition, whose leaders said the war had failed to achieve its stated objectives.

Netanyahu claimed in his video that Iranian propaganda minimizing Israel’s achievements “is echoed in our media, and the propaganda of our political rivals is echoed in Iran.”

Highlighting Israel’s “historic achievements” thus far and using a map of the Middle East with the Iranian axis highlighted in red as a prop, Netanyahu said that “they wanted to strangle us, and we are strangling them.”

“We hit them, we still have more to do,” he said.

Netanyahu said that Israel “broke the barrier of fear” by striking Iran last June.

He obliquely criticized Israel’s intelligence agencies — and again sought to absolve himself of blame — over the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack, stressing that in June 2025, “this time, precise intelligence reached me on time.”

The premier said he decided to go to the second war with Iran in February because the Islamic Republic “was very close to achieving a nuclear weapon” and to gaining the ability to produce thousands of missiles.

If Israel hadn’t attacked Tehran “would already have a nuclear weapon,” he claimed, citing intelligence last year that Iran was preparing to turn its enriched uranium into a nuclear weapon.

“The moment we received that intelligence, we went into action,” he said.

Netanyahu added that only months later, he received new intelligence that Iran wanted to expand its missile and nuclear projects, and bury them deep underground.

Israel killed eight nuclear scientists dealing with weaponization during the recent war, he said, adding that Israel also destroyed the heavy water reactor in Arak and Iran’s centrifuge production and uranium lines.

“We succeeded in smashing its nuclear program, in smashing its missile program,” he asserted.

Beyond “smashing” its nuclear and missile programs, Israel also wanted to “smash the Iranian regime,” he said, in order to bring it “to its weakest point” since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

He said Israel had “massive achievements” in Operation Roaring Lion, claiming that Iran was “begging for a ceasefire, there are internal disputes among the leadership… We see their growing difficulty in meeting citizens’ demands.”

Turning to the fight against Iran’s terror proxies, Netanyahu boasted once again that Israel created security zones in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon.

“We will deal with” Hamas in Gaza, he promised.

Israel is also dealing with the missiles that Hezbollah still has, said Netanyahu.

Hezbollah had allegedly planned for “thousands of Radwan terrorists to covertly reach the border, invade and conquer the Galilee.”

“We are still fighting them, it’s not over,” he said.

Netanyahu said that Lebanon had asked Israel several times over the past month to begin direct peace talks.

“I approved it,” he said — following reports that he only did so under heavy international pressure, including from US President Donald Trump — adding that there are two conditions: disarming Hezbollah, and a “real peace agreement” that will last for generations.

He asserted that other countries were also reaching out to Israel.

Opposition leaders slammed the premier, asserting that he had failed to achieve the war aims he himself set out.

“Netanyahu is under pressure, because he knows the goals of the war [against Iran] were not achieved,” wrote The Democrats party leader Yair Golan on X.

“When you are victorious and win, you don’t need to declare every few days that you were victorious and won,” he quipped.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid made similar comments, stating that “Netanyahu once again is taking pride in the accomplishments of the army, so that we forget his total failure.”

“He did not achieve any of the war aims that he himself defined,” added Lapid. “The entire people of Israel salutes our security services and is waiting for the moment when we will have leadership that is able to win wars and not steal money from Israeli citizens while they are in bomb shelters.”

The latter part was a reference to hundreds of millions of shekels the government has allocated to ultra-Orthodox needs, which has drawn intense criticism as the community continues to oppose sending its men to military service.