Marking 50 years since the loss of his brother Yoni Netanyahu at Entebbe, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the annual memorial that he will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons and that Israel will remain in the southern Lebanon buffer zone as long as needed to protect northern residents.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday evening delivered a dual security pledge at the annual memorial ceremony marking 50 years since his elder brother, Lt. Col. Yoni Netanyahu, fell during Operation Entebbe (1976). The remarks, first reported by The Zioneer at 18:09 Jerusalem, deepened a sequence of public statements made over recent weeks regarding Iran's nuclear ambitions and the Lebanon buffer zone.
Netanyahu's vow that "I will not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons, and we will remain in the southern Lebanon security buffer zone as long as needed to protect our dear northern residents" echoed a guarantee he had issued at multiple public events in June (The Zioneer, June 12 and 15). Earlier in the evening, at 18:09, The Zioneer also reported that Netanyahu framed the recent military operations in southern Lebanon — including operations 'Rising Lion' (עם כלביא) and 'Roaring Lion' (שאגת הארי) — as 'tremendous gains' that Israel would not relinquish. The buffer-zone commitment comes after months of ongoing IDF operations in southern Lebanon; on the same day, four soldiers were killed in the sector, as The Zioneer reported at 09:57.
As The Zioneer reported on June 15, Netanyahu reiterated that as long as he is prime minister, Iran will not obtain a nuclear weapon 'with or without a deal' — a statement made as the Trump administration advances a U.S.-Iran memorandum. The earlier context also included a letter from Netanyahu to the family of a fallen soldier, Sergeant Ohad Yaari, on the same date, in which he vowed to 'continue to strike those who seek our harm.'
The memorial speech, broadcast by Israeli media, did not address the precise conditions under which the Lebanon buffer zone might be withdrawn. The nuclear pledge, while consistent with Netanyahu's recent public posture, also leaves open the question of how the commitment interacts with the emerging U.S.-Iran agreement.
4 developments
- StrongNetanyahu: Iran will not get nuclear weapons — with or without a deal
- ConfirmedNetanyahu: Israel will stay in security buffer zones as long as needed to defend itself
- StrongNetanyahu: Israel will maintain security presence in southern Lebanon 'as long as needed'
- DevelopingNetanyahu tells Trump Israel won't withdraw from Lebanon, abandon north
Source and signal
- Internal intake