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Source: https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/pm-bennett-s-remarks-at-the-inss-conference-1-feb-2022
The Campaign to Weaken Iran Has Begun
(Prime Minister's Office) Prime Minister Naftali Bennett - Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv on Tuesday: In a Middle East that is constantly changing, "we must make friends and neutralize enemies. The United States has been, and will always be, our best friend, but Washington has its own set of interests, which we must honestly admit do not always overlap with ours....Its interest in the region is dwindling. The United States is currently focused on the Russian-Ukrainian border and it is in a strategic conflict with China." "This is the reality....We must act within existing circumstances, not in a world that we wished existed....In the geopolitical arena...a void that is created is immediately filled. The U.S. presence in the region can be filled, God forbid, by the forces of terrorism and hatred or, with the right steps, it can be filled by Israel." "Our region is full of people who get up in the morning, every morning, with one purpose: to disturb the peace...and create a perpetual state of chaos and war. This is prevalent from the Houthis in Yemen to Hizbullah in Lebanon, from Shiite militias in Iraq to Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza. What these extremists all have in common is that their invoice is sent to Tehran at the end of the month....When it comes to the majority of threats against us, Iran is the head of the axis and the 'head of the octopus'." "The campaign to weaken Iran has begun. This campaign is being conducted in multiple fields: nuclear, economic, cyber, overt and covert operations, both by ourselves and in collaboration with others." "The missile may have been launched from Beirut or from Gaza but the address is Tehran. The weaker Tehran is, the weaker its affiliates are. The hungrier the octopus is, the less reach it has with its tentacles. Then on our border we encounter something much weaker. The logic is clear." "On the other hand, the removal of sanctions and the flood of billions of dollars for this regime means more rockets, more UAVs, more terrorist cells, more cyber attacks and malign activities...not only against us but also against our American allies in the region and other allies....No agreement will prevent us from protecting the citizens of Israel."