{"id":279156,"date":"2023-12-30T06:30:34","date_gmt":"2023-12-30T06:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=279156"},"modified":"2023-12-31T09:36:10","modified_gmt":"2023-12-31T09:36:10","slug":"bennett-reveals-details-of-two-direct-strikes-on-iran-in-2022-while-he-was-pm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=279156","title":{"rendered":"Bennett reveals details of two direct strikes on Iran in 2022 while he was PM"},"content":{"rendered":"

Times of Israel \u2013 Dec 29, 2023<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett revealed that he directed Israel\u2019s security forces to strike Iran on two separate occasions in 2022, in an op-ed<\/a> published by The Wall Street Journal Thursday.<\/p>\n

Bennett gave details of the two strikes in the short article, in which he argued that Israel and the US need to topple the Iranian ayatollahs\u2019 regime, \u201cthe source of endless war, terror and suffering throughout the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The article was headlined, \u201cThe US and Israel need to take Iran on directly,\u201d with the underline urging: \u201cMake the ayatollahs pay for sowing chaos through their Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi proxies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first time Israel struck Iran under Bennett\u2019s watch was in February 2022, according to the former premier, when he authorized a strike<\/a> against a UAV base on Iranian soil in response to two failed drone attacks launched at Israel by Tehran.<\/p>\n

In the second instance, in March 2022, Bennett indicated that he authorized security forces to assassinate senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officer Hassan Sayyad Khodaei<\/a> \u2014 though he didn\u2019t mention him by name \u2014 after an Iranian attempt to kill Israeli tourists in Turkey.<\/p>\n

As prime minister, Bennett wrote, \u201cI directed Israel\u2019s security forces to make Tehran pay for its decision to sponsor terror. Enough impunity. After Iran launched two failed UAV attacks on Israel in February 2022, Israel destroyed a UAV base on Iranian soil. In March 2022, Iran\u2019s terror unit attempted to kill Israeli tourists in Turkey and failed. Shortly thereafter, the commander of that very unit was assassinated in the center of Tehran.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennett hinted in the past that Israel was responsible for the killing of Khodaei but had stopped short of acknowledging it.<\/p>\n

Israel has been linked to numerous strikes in Iran over the years, primarily against the country\u2019s nuclear program, as well as assassinations of senior figures, but rarely publicly confirms Jerusalem\u2019s role.<\/p>\n

In The Wall Street Journal article, after citing Israel\u2019s retaliatory strikes on Iranian targets, Bennett leveled scathing criticism on Tehran.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt turns out that Iran\u2019s tyrants are softer than one might expect. They gleefully send others to die for them. But when they\u2019re hit at home, suddenly they become timid,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Bennett argued in the article that Israel and the US should focus on bringing down the Iranian regime directly \u2014 rather than continuing to fight its proxies across the Middle East \u2014 noting that he experienced Iran-backed terror directly when he battled Hezbollah in Lebanon as a soldier.<\/p>\n

He opened the article by listing terror groups serving as proxies in Iran\u2019s so-called Axis of Resistance: \u201cHamas and Islamic Jihad, backed by Iran, massacred 1,200 Israelis on October 7, resulting in full-scale war in Gaza. Hezbollah, also backed by Iran, has launched more than 1,000 rockets at northern Israeli communities since then, risking regional conflagration. Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen are attacking and hijacking ships in the Suez Canal, threatening one of the world\u2019s most vital waterways. Militias in Syria and Iraq, with support from Iran, are attacking US bases and\u2014as always\u2014threatening moderate Arab nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNotice a pattern?\u201d Bennett asked. \u201cThe Iranian regime is at the center of most of the Middle East\u2019s problems and much of global terror.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former prime minister compared the current situation to the Cold War standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1980s: \u201cOn one side, there is a corrupt, incompetent and hollow empire \u2014 the Islamic Republic of Iran \u2013similar to the Soviet Union in the 1980s. On the other side, there is a thriving, free and strong democracy \u2014 Israel (and its allies) \u2014 reminiscent of the US in the original Cold War.\u201d<\/p>\n

He argued that \u201cjust as the demise of the Soviet Union didn\u2019t result from total war,\u201d Israel and the US can use non-military efforts to \u201cweaken Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

Specifically, he recommended empowering domestic opposition to the Islamic Republic, taking steps to ensure internet continuity during riots against the regime, strengthening Iran\u2019s enemies, and increasing sanctions and economic pressures.<\/p>\n

The short opinion piece ended by restating Bennett\u2019s primary point, that Israel and the US should be focused on \u201cbringing down Iran\u2019s evil regime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennett served as prime minister from June 2021 to June 2022.<\/p>\n

A number of Israeli officials were quick to react to the article on Friday, criticizing Bennett for revealing classified information and saying that he was potentially putting the country in danger.<\/p>\n

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Friday during a visit to an air force base that \u201cthe operations of the air force in all sectors is very impressive and it\u2019s fitting that the roar of the jets drown out the superfluous talk and allow IDF forces to carry out their mission quietly and securely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, chair of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, shared the emblem of the Israeli Military Censor in his post on X, and said<\/a>, \u201cThere are those who mobilize for the sake of the state, and there are those who mobilize the state for their own sake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennett defended himself in a written statement, in which he reiterated the importance of \u201cmobilizing the US and other allies for the overarching goal\u2026 overthrowing the Iranian regime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue with Iran is not the publication of moves we made against it that were already public knowledge, but that they hold us hostage through Hamas and Hezbollah, and even the Houthis,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe governments of the last decade talk and preach, but don\u2019t exact a painful price from the leaders of Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennett\u2019s op-ed came days after the International Atomic Energy Agency reported<\/a> that Iran had increased the rate at which it is producing near-weapons-grade uranium in recent weeks, reversing a previous slowdown that started in the middle of this year.<\/p>\n

Diplomats believe Western powers have been reluctant to get tough on Tehran in recent months for fear of aggravating Middle East tensions as Iran grows its nuclear program and reduces cooperation with the UN watchdog. Worries of a wider regional conflict have sharpened since Hamas\u2019s devastating October 7 onslaught and Israel\u2019s subsequent offensive aimed at eliminating the terror group in Gaza.<\/p>\n

War erupted when thousands of terrorists from the Iran-backed group stormed into southern Israel, brutally massacring at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians in their homes and at a music festival, and seizing some 240 hostages.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a rare public admission former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett has revealed that he authorised a drone strike on UAV base inside Iran. Two months later, in March 2022, he approved the assassination of a senior IRGC commander in Iran <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[51,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Iran","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=279156"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279159,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279156\/revisions\/279159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=279156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=279156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=279156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}