Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published a video Monday in which he addressed the people of Iran and expressed solidarity with them against their leaders.
Netanyahu published the video as the Israeli military continued attacking Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, in Lebanon, in an unexpected military rout that could leave Iran without a deterrent against an Israeli attack on its nuclear program.
The Prime Minister’s Office published his speech, in full:
I speak a lot about the leaders of Iran.
Yet at this pivotal moment, I want to address you – the people of Iran. I want to do so directly, without filters, without middlemen.
Every day, you see a regime that subjugates you, makes fiery speeches about defending Lebanon, defending Gaza.
Yet every day, that regime plunges our region deeper into darkness and deeper into war.
Every day, their puppets are eliminated.
Ask Mohammed Deif.
Ask Nasrallah.
There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach.
There is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country.
With every passing moment, the regime is bringing you — the noble Persian people — closer to the abyss.
The vast majority of Iranians know their regime doesn’t care a whit about them.
If it did care, if it cared about you, it would stop wasting billions of dollars on futile wars across the Middle East. It would start improving your lives.
Imagine if all the vast money the regime wasted on nuclear weapons and foreign wars were invested in your children’s education, in improving your health care, in building your nation’s infrastructure, water, sewage, all the other things that you need. Imagine that.
But you know one simple thing – Iran’s tyrants don’t care about your future.
But you do.
When Iran is finally free and that moment will come a lot sooner than people think – everything will be different.
Our two ancient peoples, the Jewish people and the Persian people, will finally be at peace.
Our two countries, Israel and Iran, will be at peace.
When that day comes, the terror network that the regime built in five continents will be bankrupt, dismantled.
Iran will thrive as never before.
Global investment.
Massive tourism.
Brilliant technological innovation based on the tremendous talents that exist inside Iran.
Doesn’t that sound better than endless poverty, repression and war?
From Qom to Esfahan, from Shiraz to Tabriz, there are tens of millions of good and decent people with thousands of years of history behind them and a brilliant future ahead of them.
Don’t let a small group of fanatic theocrats crush your hopes and your dreams.
You deserve better.
Your children deserve better.
The entire world deserves better.
I know you don’t support the rapists and murderers of Hamas and Hezbollah, but your leaders do. You deserve more.
The people of Iran should know – Israel stands with you.
May we together know a future of prosperity and peace.
Netanyahu has addressed the Iranian people directly on at least one occasion, when he offered them Israeli water technology in 2018 amid shortages caused by the regime’s poor planning. Last week, Netanyahu published a speech addressed directly to the people of Lebanon, telling them: “Israel’s war is not with you. It’s with Hezbollah.”
Breitbart News asked the Israeli government Monday in a press briefing whether Israel was considering an attack on Iran’s nuclear program. The noncommittal answer was that Israel is capable of reaching any place in Iran and that the Israeli military is prepared both for defensive and offensive operations.
A successful attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities could destabilize the regime and offer an opportunity for internal opponents of Iran’s theocracy to overthrow it.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
