Israel’s Leaders, Defiant, Visit Damaged Buildings, Air Bases

Israeli leaders struck a tone of defiance Monday as they visited apartment buildings that had been hit by Iranian missiles — and air force bases preparing for missions against Iranian regime targets in Tehran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Tel Nof base of the Israeli Air Force (IAF), south of Tel Aviv, and spoke with pilots there (remarks translated from Hebrew by the Government Press Office):

On behalf of the people of Israel and the State of Israel, you are doing amazing things. The Israeli Air Force controls the skies over Tehran. This changes the entire campaign.

We are on the way to achieving our two objectives: Eliminating the nuclear threat and eliminating the missile threat. When we control the skies over Tehran, we strike regime targets, as opposed to the criminal Iranian regime which targets our civilians and comes to kill women and children. We tell the people of Tehran to evacuate – and we act.

We are on the way to achieving victory, and it is being achieved thanks to our heroic pilots, and our magnificent ground crews who are also doing amazing work. I salute you. All citizens of Israel salute you. I would like to tell you that many people around the world also salute you and are impressed by you.

Israel’s ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, visited the high-rise apartment buildings in Bat Yam that had been hit by Iranian missiles over the weekend.

He said (translated by the Government Press Office):

What I’ve seen upstairs in the destroyed apartment is evil, pure evil in and of itself. It’s evil aimed at innocent civilians all over Israel. But I have news to for the Iranian regime. You think you’re going to tire us or fatigue us, you’re absolutely wrong. We’re a very strong, resilient nation with very strong capabilities in all fields. I think you’re feeling it out there in Iran, and I think the Iranian people are fed up, and they want change. And so, of course, do the entire region, we deserve change.

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Iran has been for decades, been spreading havoc and terror, radicalizing nations, creating an unstable atmosphere in so many places, having terror cells all over the world and placing its proxies, armed to the neck, in order to annihilate Israel – of course, rush to the nuclear bomb.

Well, we don’t intend to be the scapegoats again, and we are fighting as much as possible. I call upon the leaders of the free world convening in Canada, in the G7 Summit. They all should stand up with us, and make clear two things: Iran must not have any capability of nuclear weapons, and secondly, bring back our hostages as soon as possible, till the last one of them, immediately.

Israel’s leaders appear to have sought deliberately to create a contrast between their own behavior — out in the open, among the people — and those of Iranian leaders, who are hiding in bunkers or fleeing Tehran.