Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during a speech delivered at the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) international policy conference in Jerusalem, on April 27, 2025. (Screenshot from the broadcast of the address by CNN-News18)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the explosion of pagers and the full-scale war against Hezbollah launched in September, reiterating that it was initially supposed to occur a month later, and revealing that his army bombed a scanner sent by Iran to examine the pagers, during a nearly hour-long address at the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) international policy conference in Jerusalem on Sunday night. He also repeated his desire for Iran to "completely lose its capability" to enrich uranium and rejected again the idea that the Palestinian Authority (PA) could be an alternative to Hamas in Gaza.
"In the third week of September, we learned that Hezbollah had sent three pagers to Iran to have them scanned. I was told that it would take them a day. I said: we must act," explained Netanyahu, who had already stated in mid-November that the pager explosions were launched ahead of the scheduled time because the operation risked being discovered. He stated for the first time that Israel targeted a scanner that Iran intended to send to Lebanon to examine the pagers: "We bombed the scanner; that's how we confirmed they were sending the pagers to Iran for inspection," without specifying where this strike took place.
The detonation of Hezbollah's communication devices, carried out on Sept. 17 and 18, 2024, a week before the launch of the deadly "Northern Arrows" campaign across Lebanon, resulted in at least 40 deaths, including a child, and more than 2,900 injuries.
'Eliminating Nasrallah broke the axis of resistance'
"We launched the campaign in Lebanon three weeks earlier than planned, while the army still needed time to prepare for war," he stated. Mocking the proposition to seize Beirut and conquer Lebanon, he explained that Israel, while "preventing civilian casualties" through warnings, decided that the bombing campaign in Lebanon would "target the stock of ballistic missiles that [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah had accumulated over the years inside private homes."
From the opening of the "support front" in Gaza on Oct. 8, 2023, by Hezbollah, to the cease-fire between Lebanon and Israel on Nov. 27, 2024, over 4,000 people were killed and 16,500 were injured, according to a provisional report from Lebanese authorities following the war. Based on four "emblematic" strikes in Lebanon, carried out on residential buildings without warning, resulting in at least 49 civilian deaths and entire families wiped out, an Amnesty International report published on Dec. 12 accused Israel of "war crimes" in Lebanon.
Reflecting on the assassination of the charismatic Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in a massive bombing run on the southern suburbs of Beirut on Sept. 27, he stated that "eliminating Nasrallah broke the axis of resistance," arguing that "some people are irreplaceable — and so far, he has no successor." On Oct. 29, Hezbollah appointed Naim Qassem, who was the party's deputy, to succeed him.
'Eliminate Iran's ability to enrich its uranium'
Netanyahu again advocated for the complete dismantling of Iran's nuclear program, at the time of the negotiations between the United States and Iran on the Persian Gulf country's nuclear program, progressing towards technical discussions in the third round of talks. "A bad deal is worse than no deal at all," he argued, reiterating his position that "the only good deal" would be patterned after the one Libya consented to in 2003.
"A truly effective agreement is one that eliminates Iran's ability to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons," he said, urging for "the dismantling of the entire infrastructure of Iran's nuclear program."
He also stated that Iran's ballistic missile production should be part of the negotiations. Iran claimed Saturday that its defense capabilities and ballistic program were not on the agenda of the ongoing talks with the United States in Oman.
'We will not put the Palestinian Authority in place'
Netanyahu also revisited the fall of Bashar Assad's regime on Dec. 8, 2024, following a lightning offensive by rebels. According to him, Israeli F-16 fighter jets were deployed to "intercept" Iranian planes coming to aid the Syrian dictator. "Without our help, Assad's regime would not have fallen," he claimed.
The prime minister also harshly criticized the Palestinian Authority (PA), whose governance of Gaza for the "day after" the war is desired by the international community. This governmental entity, administering the Palestinian territories in the occupied West Bank, is perceived as entirely submissive to Israel's desires and lacking any legitimacy in the eyes of large sections of its public opinion. "Sons of dogs, return what you have," said its leader, Mahmoud Abbas, to Hamas on Wednesday, referring to Israeli hostages held in the Palestinian enclave.
Netanyahu nevertheless equated Hamas and the PA, stating that Israel would continue to exercise "military control" over Gaza after the war, which will only end with "the elimination of Hamas and the return of captives."
"Hamas says: we will destroy them militarily now. The PA says: we will push them back to the 1967 lines then conquer them militarily ... Why replace a regime that vows our destruction with another (identical) regime?" Netanyahu questioned.
