Netanyahu Claims Iran Already Had Nuclear Bombs; Rivals Deny and Criticize His Statements

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted in a Channel 14 interview on Tuesday that Iran "already had nuclear bombs," claiming he had conducted two covert operations inside Iran to prevent their use and promised a third if necessary. Netanyahu emphasized, "As long as I am prime minister, Iran will not have nuclear weapons."

However, his remarks were sharply disputed by political rivals. Gadi Eizenkot, chairman of the Yisrael party and former IDF Chief of Staff, called Netanyahu's claims "arrogant" and accused him of fabricating reality to scare the Israeli public during a Herzliya conference. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also rejected Netanyahu's statements as false, describing them as "back-engineering the story."

Bennett revealed that upon assuming office, he found no concrete plan regarding Iran's nuclear threat. He criticized Netanyahu for failing to rebuild Israel's strike capabilities or allocate budgets for necessary military production after the US and Iran exited the nuclear deal in 2018. Bennett recounted ordering defense manufacturers to produce weapons and initiating "Operation Octopus Weakening," a strategy developed with Mossad and the National Security Council to undermine the Iranian regime.

Bennett outlined his comprehensive plan, inspired by Reagan-era tactics against the Soviet Union, aimed at destabilizing Iran through diplomatic, technological, and covert measures. He highlighted the regime's repeated internet shutdowns during mass protests as a key vulnerability and lamented the missed opportunity to topple the regime between 2022 and 2026. Bennett concluded that kinetic military action alone, as Netanyahu favored, would not suffice to bring down the Iranian government.

The public dispute underscores deep divisions within Israeli leadership over the assessment of Iran's nuclear capabilities and the appropriate strategy to counter the Iranian threat moving forward.