Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a new interview with Time Magazine, apologized for the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas terrorists happening on his watch, and warned that the country now faces a “full-fledged Iranian axis.”
Netanyahu had been prime minister for almost a year when Hamas terrorists launched the attack on southern Israel that left 1,200 people dead and hundreds more taken as hostages in Gaza.
In an interview conducted on Aug. 4 at the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem, Time asked Netanyahu whether he would apologize for the Oct. 7 attack, noting his 17-year cumulative political career has been built on the argument that he is the best leader to ensure Israel’s safety.
“Apologize?” Netanyahu asked. “Of course, of course. I am sorry, deeply, that something like this happened. And you always look back and you say, ‘Could we have done things that would have prevented it?’”
ISRAEL ISSUES MESSAGE TO LEBANESE CITIZENS AMID REPORTS OF POTENTIAL PREEMPTIVE STRIKE ON HEZBOLLAH
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on July 24, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
Ten months after what amounted to the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, the Biden administration has increasingly grown frustrated with Netanyahu for failing to deliver a plan to end the war and get the more than 100 hostages still held by Hamas home.
Israel now faces more fronts – in the north with Hezbollah in Lebanon, in the Gulf with the Houthis in Yemen – and now is bracing for an aerial assault from its main enemy, Iran.
“We’re facing not merely Hamas,” Netanyahu told TIME. “We’re facing a full-fledged Iranian axis, and we understand that we have to organize ourselves for broader defense.”
According to a July poll by Israel’s most watched television station, 72% of Israelis believe Netanyahu should resign now or after the conflict ends.
Critics, including former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, have accused Netanyahu of prolonging the war to further his own political ambition.
“Netanyahu is focused on his longevity in power more than the interests of the Israeli people or the State of Israel,” Barak told Time. “It will take half a generation to repair the damage that Netanyahu has caused in the last year.”
Netanyahu argued that Israel must demolish every element of Iran’s “axis of resistance” in the region to ensure that Israel is never subjected to future…
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