Gantz Slams Netanyahu over Threat that Israel will Ignore US on Iran

Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz clashed on Tuesday after the prime minister issued a veiled threat against the Biden administration's continued effort to return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

“Our greatest threat is the existential threat posed by Iran’s efforts to arm itself with nuclear weapons, whether to threaten us directly with atomic weapons, with the destruction of a small state or to threaten us with tens of thousands of missiles or a great many missiles backed by a nuclear umbrella,” Netanyahu said at a ceremony for incoming Mossad Director David Barnea. “This is a threat against the continuation of the Zionist enterprise, and we must fight this threat relentlessly.”

Addressing the Mossad agents seated in front, he said: “All of you do this. We spoke yesterday about the actions that have been taken, and these actions must continue. I have said these things to my friend of 40 years, [US President] Joe Biden, and I told him, ‘With or without an agreement, we will continue to do everything in our power to prevent Iran from arming itself with nuclear weapons.’”

Following Netanyahu’s veiled threat against the Biden administration’s policy of seeking to return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Gantz said differences should be resolved quietly and without unnecessarily “defiant rhetoric.” (JPost / VFI News)