The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has stated this Tuesday that Israel has inflicted "ten plagues" on Iran and its partners in the Middle East and that, consequently, they no longer pose "an existential threat" to the country.
In his speech, delivered in Hebrew and symbolically linked to the Jewish Passover holiday which begins on Wednesday night, the president has stressed that the Israeli Army has unleashed "five plagues" directly on the Persian country.
As he has detailed, these five blows include attacks against its nuclear program, against its ballistic missiles, against the infrastructure of the Iranian regime, against its security forces and against its high command, among them the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during the first day of the offensive, on February 28.
The rest of the "plagues" would have been directed against the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip, the Lebanese Shiite party-militia Hezbollah, the Houthi rebels of Yemen, Palestinian militias in the West Bank and the regime of Bashar al Assad in Syria, overthrown at the end of 2024 after an offensive led by the current Syrian president, Ahmed al Shara.
These ten "feats", he indicated, also include the establishment of "security zones" in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon. On this same day, Israeli Defense Minister, Israel Katz, has announced plans to "destroy all homes" in Lebanese villages near the border, with the aim of preventing the return of the 600,000 displaced people from that strip.
In a video disseminated on social media, Netanyahu has stressed that the investment of "one trillion dollars" made by Iran in ballistic missiles, nuclear weaponry and support for armed groups in other countries in the area "has gone down the drain."
Although he has admitted that the conflict is still ongoing, the head of the Israeli Government has maintained that a "strategic shift" has occurred regarding Iran. He has insisted that now it is Israel who is "strangling" the Asian country and has reiterated that, while the Iranian regime would be "weaker than ever", Israel would be "stronger than ever".
In a final message addressed both to the media and to his political critics, Netanyahu has urged that "they raise the morale of our side, not that of the enemy".
Shortly after, the opposition leader, Yair Lapid, has responded to his words and has denounced that "who does not fulfill his role, again and again, is Netanyahu himself." "Netanyahu is incapable of reaching a strategic solution," he added, before remarking that "the time has come to recognize that he is simply incapable."
Lapid has accused the prime minister of once again delivering a self-congratulatory speech: "Netanyahu delivered his arrogant speech tonight for the umpteenth time, saying: 'I changed the Middle East'. The only thing that changed was Israeli society. He dismantled us from within. The night before last, a coalition of corrupt individuals and tax evaders tried to steal 800 million shekels from the citizens of Israel," he stated in a video message disseminated on his social media, following the approval of a bill that exempts yeshiva students from military service amidst a personnel deficit in the Armed Forces.
"On the eve of the Jewish Passover, it is time to move from slavery to freedom, and replace this terrible government", Lapid concluded.