Netanyahu Says His Directive to the Israeli Military Is to ‘Overthrow the Iranian Regime’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that his directive to the Israeli military is to “overthrow the regime in Iran” as he continues to ramp up his rhetoric in the days before the October 27 Israeli elections. “My directive to the IDF, the Mossad, and the defense establishment… [is] to overthrow the regime in Iran,” Netanyahu told a group of graduating IDF officers, according to The Jerusalem Post . The Israeli leader went on to claim that Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, is pursuing nuclear weapons, a claim he’s been making about the Islamic Republic for decades.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech during a graduation ceremony of new Israeli army officers at a base near Mitzpe Ramon, Israel, October 21, 2026. REUTERS/Amir Cohen “The Iranian regime still has not learned its lesson. Mojtaba Khamenei decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and has released the safety catch, and Iran is once again trying to develop weapons of death,” he said. “Iran is once again attempting to develop a nuclear bomb.”

While both Netanyahu and President Trump continue to frame the conflict as being about preventing a nuclear-armed Iran, there was no evidence either before the June 2025 war or the current war that Tehran had decided to pursue nuclear weapons, and that was the consensus of the US intelligence agencies. Netanyahu also referenced Trump’s suggestion that the US and Israel will “finish the job” against Iran, something the US president said when endorsing Netanyahu for Israel’s elections.

“And so, as long as they are here, as long as they are willing to join a threatening and terrible weapon, the State of Israel is in existential danger. And our role, the role of all of us, is to save the nation. My good friend, President Trump, also believes that this is the only way,” Netanyahu said. “He said a few days ago, ‘We are ready to finish the job, to finish the job, he said. We are ready to finish the job, but we will do it only with you, the State of Israel.’

And this is exactly what we will do,” he added. The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that Netanyahu wanted to resume bombing Iran earlier this month and that the IDF was ready to start the strikes on October 10, but that Trump decided not to restart the conflict before the November 3 US midterm elections. The report said that the strikes would have targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities, government sites, and civilian infrastructure, and that if Trump had given the green light, the attacks would have been heavier than the ones launched when the war began on February 28.

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