Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed this evening (Monday) that Iran tried to eliminate one of his sons.
According to Channel 12, the military censor was surprised by the revelation on Channel 14, as until now it had rejected any publication of information on the subject.
A day after the Prime Minister published his phone number to the public, as part of a move in which he invited citizens to call him, the "Sheva" program on Channel 14, hosted by Noam Amir, decided to try the number live.
Netanyahu picked up the phone, and at the beginning of the conversation he even joked after the studio asked to verify that it was indeed him: "What is 'like his'? What, is Topaz imitating me? It's clear it's me.".
He later referred to the number he published himself and said: "By the way, you called a phone number we published, I don't know if you know what happened..." The studio replied that according to the information received, the system to which the calls were directed crashed due to the load. What began as an attempt to check the number turned within minutes into a long conversation with the Prime Minister, who was on his way to a cabinet meeting.
One of the dramatic moments in the conversation was when Netanyahu was asked about the discussion surrounding Gadi Eisenkot's security and the comparison to the security his sons receive. Netanyahu first said that he had already spoken with the head of the Shin Bet and asked to ensure appropriate security for someone running for prime minister.
He then revealed: "As for my sons - here I think there is something here that is unbelievable. Iran targeted one of my sons. Iran tried to murder, to kill one of my sons. Tried to murder him.".
When asked whether this was intelligence information that was presented to him, Netanyahu did not elaborate and repeated his words: "Iran tried to assassinate one of my sons.".
He said that security for his sons is not a luxury: "It's something that without it they will simply succeed." He added that people should "restrain themselves" on the issue, even during an election campaign.
According to a report by Shahar Glick on Kan News, even though Netanyahu revealed the story live, censorship does not allow details about the Iranian assassination attempt on one of the prime minister's sons to be published.
The Prime Minister was later asked about the claims that a security escalation might serve him during the election period, and in particular about the activity in Syria intended to prevent Turkish entrenchment. Netanyahu rejected the claims, saying that serious security discussions had taken place on the issue, he said at the initiative of the IDF, and that all security officials had recommended preventing the Turkish move.
""I am fighting against Turkey's attempt to essentially establish forward bases against the State of Israel," he said.
According to him, he acts "responsibly but also with great determination and firmness" in the face of threats to Israel, even when this requires withstanding pressure.
The conversation also dealt with the splintering of the parties competing for the right-wing votes. Netanyahu warned that such a split could decide the election campaign and lead to the bloc's defeat. "It could bring down the right, in a simple way," he said.
He claims that small right-wing parties could cause a loss of votes if they do not pass the threshold, and in another scenario, cause another party in the bloc to fail to pass. Netanyahu twice repeated his message to these parties: "Either unite – or resign.".
He compared the danger to the 1992 elections and claimed that a split on the right then contributed to the fall of the Likud government and the rise of the left-wing government, which was followed by the Oslo Accords.
At the beginning of the conversation, Netanyahu said that he was making his way to the cabinet meeting after attending an event following the discovery of the remains of the Altelna, and before that he visited the Central Command.
The prime minister said he intends to work to raise the ship from the wreckage, so that it can serve as, in his words, a "tangible monument" to the message left by Menachem Begin: "Never again. There will be no civil war.".
Two years ago, it was revealed that the Shin Bet and the police arrested Motti Maman, a 73-year-old resident of Ashkelon, who had been recruited by intelligence officials in Iran for the purpose of assassinating Israeli figures. Among the targets were Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Galant, and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar.
According to the security establishment, Maman was smuggled into Iranian territory twice and received payment for carrying out missions. The background to the Israeli's actions is an attempt to obtain "easy money" after he got into debt.
