Netanyahu to present plan to combat Iranian regime’s regional aggression during Congress speech

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will use his upcoming speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday to outline a new strategy for addressing the regional aggression of the Iranian regime.

“Netanyahu will present the challenge facing Israel, the countries of the region, and the United States from Iran’s axis of evil – and present a new way of dealing with this challenge,” a source traveling with the prime minister told The Jerusalem Post, without providing further details.

The prime minister’s speech will reportedly take place against the backdrop of the ongoing war, in which Israel is actively fighting at least three Iranian-funded terror groups: Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen.

In addition, the Iranian regime launched a direct attack on Israel in April. Boaz Bismuth, a Knesset member for Netanyahu’s Likud party, told The Wall Street Journal that while Netanyahu’s last speech to Congress in 2015 was a warning about Iran’s growing threat, today, it has materialized.

“In 2015 it was theoretical,” Bismuth said. “Now everything is all too real.”

Before boarding the plane to Washington, Netanyahu stressed he would seek during his visit to “anchor the bipartisan support that is so important for Israel,” by telling “both sides of the aisle that regardless of who the American people choose as their next president, Israel remains America’s indispensable and strong ally in the Middle East.”

He also said he was planning to discuss the “goals that are important for both our countries” in a planned meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, just hours after he announced his withdrawal from the presidential race.

These goals included: “achieving the release of all our hostages; defeating Hamas; confronting the terror axis of Iran and its proxies,” Netanyahu said.

Now, the prime minister faces the challenging task of striking the right tone on Iran in his meetings with Biden, who may soon enter a “lame duck” period in the final months of his presidency, with Harris, who has recently been a strong critic of Israel, and with Trump, with whom Netanyahu aims to restore a damaged relationship.

After dominating Netanyahu’s international discussions for the past decade, the issue of Iran, particularly its nuclear ambitions, was overshadowed by the months-long war in Gaza.

Recent reports that Iran is accelerating its program have refocused attention on the issue in Israel and apparently prompted Netanyahu to make Iran one of the main points in his speech.

Just last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that if the Iranian regime decided to do so, it is “now probably one or two weeks” away from producing enough weapons-grade material to create a nuclear weapon.

“Iran, because the nuclear agreement was thrown out, instead of being at least a year away from having the breakout capacity of producing fissile material for a nuclear weapon, is now probably one or two weeks away from doing that,” Blinken said at the Aspen Security Forum.

Within Israel, the Air Force’s historic bombing run in Yemen, covering a distance of over 2,000 km (1,200 miles), was widely interpreted as a message to the Iranian regime, as its capital Tehran is closer to Israel than the Yemeni port that was targeted.

According to Israeli officials cited by The Wall Street Journal, the port of Hodeidah was chosen as a target due to its “dual-use facilities,” which are part of “the main supply route for the transfer of Iranian weapons to Yemen.”

In addition, the drone used in the deadly attack on Tel Aviv the day before Israel’s response was produced in Iran before being transferred to Yemen, Israeli officials said.