Netanyahu Claims Israel Foiled Iranian-Backed Attack on UK Air Base

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated in an interview with the British "Daily Mail" that Israeli intelligence provided advance information to their British counterparts regarding a "murderous attack" planned with Iranian support against the RAF Brize Norton air base. "It was stopped. It was prevented," Netanyahu said, emphasizing that without Israel's intelligence, "it probably would have happened and we don't know how many lives (of British citizens) we would have lost."

Netanyahu referred to Britain as an ally but criticized the Labour government, led by Andy Burnham, for its approach to intelligence sharing, calling it "hypocrisy that is hard to grasp." He accused the British government of appeasing Islamists while attacking Israel, a nation fighting terrorists from a regime that attacks it. He added that the UK government tends to be conciliatory towards its enemies while being aggressive towards those who defend against them.

Quoting Churchill's "slumber of democracies," Netanyahu suggested that democracies "slumber while their enemies begin to attack them until they hear the frightening gong of danger." He asserted that despite current events, Britain has not yet "woken up." When asked about UK-Israel relations, Netanyahu responded, "They are not so good, are they? When they appease our common enemies and attack us, that tells the story."

He described the situation as "the battle for Britain. The battle of Western culture against the barbarians." Netanyahu decried the "misleading" and "propaganda" that attempts to "glorify Hamas" and praise Islamists who have murdered Britons, Americans, Israelis, and citizens of many other countries. "We are not the villains," he stated, calling Israel a "tiny country fighting in the heart of the Middle East not only to defend ourselves but also to defend moderate Arab states against Iranian domination and its murderous proxies."

Separately, Marco Rubio commented that a "foreign element" was involved in the attempted attack on the British base.