Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett slammed President Joe Biden on Sunday for trying to pressure Israel into not responding to Iran’s unprecedented attack this weekend.
Bennett’s remarks on social media comes after Iran fired hundreds of projectiles — ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones — at Israel.
Bennett said that claims that Iran launched its attack as a show for its own people were false.
“When you shoot 350 flying objects timed to hit Israel at the same moment, when you use three fundamentally different weapon types — cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and UAVs, you’re looking to penetrate Israel’s defenses and kill Israelis,” he said.
Bennett directly pushed back against the Biden administration for telling Israel that it got a “win” and that they should take the win. The “win,” according to the Biden administration, was the fact that 99% of the projectiles were shot down by Israel and its allies in the region.
“No, it’s NOT a victory,” Bennett wrote. “When a bully tries to hit you 350 times and only succeeds seven time, you’ve NOT won. You don’t win wars just by intercepting your enemy’s hits, nor do you deter it. Your enemy will just try harder with more and better weapons and methods next time.”
He said that the only way to deter further aggression was by “exacting a deeply painful price.”
Bennett said that the attack was a “big mistake” by Iran — which he referred to as “a terror-octopus whose head is Tehran, and its tentacles are in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Gaza.”
“Israel’s strategic mistake for the past 30 years was to play along this strategy,” he said. “We always fought the Octopus’ arms, but hardly exacted a price from its Iranian head.”
“This should change now: Hezbollah or Hamas shoots a rocket at Israel? Tehran pays a price,” he added.
Bennett said that Israel’s enemy was the Iran’s oppressive government, not the citizens of the country, and that the country would eventually collapse in a similar manner as the Soviet Union did.
“I’ll be clear: if these crazy fanatic Islamic terrorists get away with murder by hiding among civilians, this method will be adopted by terrorists worldwide,” he concluded. “We’re not asking anyone to fight for us. We’ll do the job. But we do expect our allies to have our back, especially when it’s tough — and now it’s tough. Be on the right side and help us defeat these horrible and savage regimes.”
Some points regarding the overnight Iranian missile attack on Israel:
1. Contrary to what pundits are saying, this wasn’t designed merely as “bells and whistles” with no damage.
When you shoot 350 flying objects timed to hit Israel at the same moment,
when you use three…— Naftali Bennett נפתלי בנט (@naftalibennett) April 14, 2024
