Evening Update: - Netanyahu: "In My Tenure, Iran Won't Develop Nuclear Bomb"

Netanyahu: 'Not In My Tenure'

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has pledged that Iran will not develop nuclear weapons if he is reelected on January 22.

“As long as I am prime minister Iran will not have nuclear weapons,” he said.Netanyahu said international leaders including US President Barack Obama and French President François Hollande have agreed that Israel has a right to defend itself.

The program flipped to a clip of former prime minister Ehud Olmert speaking, in which he noted that Israel was obviously not acting alone against Iran, given that the Jewish state would use weapons purchased from other countries.Netanyahu said that at the end of the day, it was his responsibility as prime minister to stop Tehran’s nuclear threat.

“Iran is serious,” he said. He would be happy if other nations would prevent a nuclear Iran either through sanctions or other means. But if there is no other choice and our back is to the wall, we will do what we need to do to defend ourselves.”“There is doubt about Iran’s intention’s to destroy Israel,” he said. “It’s not a bluff. If there is no other way to stop Iran, Israel is prepared to act.”

He rejected claims that he was not capable of acting against Iran.“Of course I am capable,” he said.Netanyahu ducked the question as to whether he would reappoint Ehud Barak to the post of defense minister in the next government.But he said, “I and the defense minister see eye to eye on the Iranian threat.”

Netanyahu: I Will Attack Iran Alone If Necessary

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu promised on Monday that by the time his term as Prime Minister is over, Iran will not have a nuclear weapons program.
Speaking to Channel 2, Netanyahu said that if it is necessary, he will lead an independent Israeli attack against Iran, even without the support of the United States.
“When former Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel, was it with the consent of the Americans? When former Prime Minister Menachem Begin bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor, was that with the consent of the Americans?” asked Netanyahu.


“If there someone here who, as Prime Minister of Israel, cannot act on things that are fundamental to the State, to its future and to its security and depends only on approval of others, he does not deserve to lead,” said Netanyahu.“When we didn’t have a state, when we didn’t have an army, and when someone threatened to destroy us and then actually annihilated us, we went and pleaded with others,” he said. “Today we don’t plead, we prepare.”

Netanyahu Vows To Stop Iran, Even In Defiance Of The United States

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Monday night to put a stop to Iran’s nuclear program by whatever means necessary — even in outright defiance of American objections — if neither sanctions, nor other international action, achieves that goal.“There is no doubt about Iran’s intention — to destroy us,” Netanyahu said. “I won’t be reconciled to that.”

Asked in an interview whether, if reelected in January, he would “pledge that Iran won’t have a nuclear program by the end of your next term,” Netanyahu said simply, “Yes.”When it was put to him that the US has opposed a unilateral Israeli resort to force, Netanyahu said President Barack Obama had stated that Israel has the right to defend itself as it sees fit, and that Israel dare not entrust its future to others, even to the United States. Israel’s prime ministers had ignored US disapproval in establishing the country in 1948 and preempting the Arab attack in the 1967 war, he noted.

Netanyahu was interviewed as part of an investigative TV report that traced Israel’s efforts over the past decade to thwart Iran’s march toward the bomb. The documentary, which included interviews with several serving and former top politicians and security chiefs, detailed sabotage, assassinations of scientists and other measures used by Israel — as reported in foreign publications — to slow the Iranian program. It described the 2007 air strike that destroyed Syria’s nuclear reactor as “a general rehearsal for an attack” on Iran.Asked whether he believed Netanyahu had the guts to order a strike on Iran, the prime minister’s former national security adviser, Uzi Arad, said he had “no doubt.”
Vowing that Israel “is ready to act” against Iran, Netanyahu said he was watching the Islamist regime “advancing step by step… toward producing nuclear bombs.” When the Jews were being murdered by the Nazis, they were unable to save themselves, he said. But he, as Israel’s prime minister, did have the capacity to protect the Jewish nation. “When we didn’t have a state, we begged others” to defend the Jews, he said. “Today, we’re not begging, we are preparing.”