Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a video message to the Iranian people (Photo: Screenshot)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Iranian people that Israel desires peace in a video message published on Thursday.
“I want to make clear. Israel wants peace. We want peace with all those who truly want peace with us. I know that just as we want peace with you, you want peace with us,” Netanyahu stated.
At the same time, the Israeli prime minister condemned the ayatollah regime as a destructive force for the Iranian people, the State of Israel and the wider Middle East region.
“You suffer under the rule of a regime that subjugates you and threatens us,” Netanyahu said, adding that Iranian leaders prioritize their regional proxies at the expense of its own citizens.
“Your oppressors spent over $30 billion supporting Assad in Syria, a regime which in just eleven days of fighting collapsed into dust,” Netanyahu stated. “Your regime spent over $20 billion supporting Hezbollah in Lebanon – in a matter of weeks, most of Hezbollah’s leaders, its rockets, and thousands of terrorists went up in smoke,” he added, referring to the severe blows that Israel has delivered to Hezbollah.
He further linked the recent collapse of the Assad regime in Syria to Israel’s dramatic degradation of Iran’s terror proxies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“The events of today are a chain reaction to the pounding of Hamas, the decimation of Hezbollah, the targeting of Nasrallah.”
Hezbollah reportedly played a critical role in backing the increasingly weak Assad regime.
Netanyahu addressed the widespread frustration and anger among ordinary Iranians over the ayatollah regime’s decision to prioritize funding international terrorism over improving the living conditions within Iran.
“You must be furious imagining the new roads, schools, hospitals that could have been built with the tens of billions of dollars your dictators wasted backing terrorists who lose over and over and over again,” Netanyahu said.
Looking ahead, the Israeli leader concluded his message with optimism and words of hope about the future.
“One day, Iran will be free,” Netanyahu stated. “Together, we will transform the Middle East into beacon of prosperity, progress and peace,”
For years, Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have stressed that the Jewish state is in conflict with the ayatollah regime but not Iranians. By bypassing the regime in Tehran, Netanyahu likely hopes to strengthen direct ties with ordinary Iranians who are overwhelmingly opposed to their regime and its wars in the Middle East.
This is not the first time that Netanyahu has directly addressed the citizens of Iran.
In September, Netanyahu stressed that Israel stands with the oppressed Iranian people. At the time, he also blasted the ayatollah regime for neglecting the Iranian people.
“If [the ayatollah regime] 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,” Netanyahu said .
In another video message last month to the Iranian people, Netanyahu lamented the fact that the ayatollah regime prioritized Israel’s destruction over building Iran and improving the lives of millions of Iranians.
“But that’s what Khamenei’s regime denies you every single day. They obsess about destroying Israel, rather than about building Iran. What a shame,” Netanyahu stated .
While the Israeli leader stressed that the ayatollahs were losing their war against Israel, the regime in Tehran is even more fearful of the Iranian people.