After Years of Waiting, Israel’s Netanyahu Finally Makes His Move on Iran

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu points to a red line he drew on the graphic of a bomb used to represent Iran's nuclear program as he addresses the 67th United Nations General Assembly at the UN Headquarters in New York, September 27, 2012. (Reuters)
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu points to a red line he drew on the graphic of a bomb used to represent Iran's nuclear program as he addresses the 67th United Nations General Assembly at the UN Headquarters in New York, September 27, 2012. (Reuters)
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After Years of Waiting, Israel’s Netanyahu Finally Makes His Move on Iran

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu points to a red line he drew on the graphic of a bomb used to represent Iran's nuclear program as he addresses the 67th United Nations General Assembly at the UN Headquarters in New York, September 27, 2012. (Reuters)
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu points to a red line he drew on the graphic of a bomb used to represent Iran's nuclear program as he addresses the 67th United Nations General Assembly at the UN Headquarters in New York, September 27, 2012. (Reuters)

Iran once ridiculed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the boy who cried wolf for his constant public warnings about Tehran's nuclear program, and his repeated threats to shut it down, one way or another.

"You can only fool some of the people so many times," Iran's then-foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said in 2018 after Netanyahu had once again accused Iran of planning to build nuclear weapons.

On Friday, after two decades of continually raising the alarm and urging other world leaders to act, Netanyahu finally decided to go it alone, authorizing an Israeli air assault aimed, Israel says, at preventing Iran from obtaining weapons of mass destruction.

In an address to the nation, Netanyahu, as he has so often before, evoked the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust in World War Two to explain his decision.

"Nearly a century ago, facing the Nazis, a generation of leaders failed to act in time," Netanyahu said, adding that a policy of appeasing Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler had led to the deaths of 6 million Jews, "a third of my people".

"After that war, the Jewish people and the Jewish state vowed never again. Well, never again is now today. Israel has shown that we have learned the lessons of history."

Iran says its nuclear energy program is only for peaceful purposes, although the International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday declared the country in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost 20 years.

Netanyahu, a former member of an elite special forces unit responsible for some of Israel’s most daring hostage rescues, has dominated its politics for decades, becoming the longest-serving prime minister when he won an unprecedented sixth term in 2022.

Throughout his years in office, he rarely missed an opportunity to lecture foreign leaders about the dangers posed by Iran, displaying cartoons of an atomic bomb at the United Nations, while always hinting he was ready to strike.

In past premierships, military analysts said his room for maneuver with Iran was limited by fears an attack would trigger instant retaliation from Tehran's regional proxies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, that would be hard to contain.

But the past two years have upended the Middle East, with Israel hammering Hamas after it launched a massive surprise attack of its own against Israel in October 2023, and then dismantling much of Hezbollah in just a few days in 2024.

BLINDSIDED BY TRUMP

Israel has also sparred openly with Tehran since 2024, firing rocket salvos deep into Iran last year that gave Netanyahu confidence in the power of his military reach.

Israeli military sources said the strikes disabled four of Iran's Russian-made air-defense systems, including one positioned near Natanz, a key Iranian nuclear site that was targeted, according to Iranian television.

"Iran is more exposed than ever to strikes on its nuclear facilities. We have the opportunity to achieve our most important goal — to thwart and eliminate the existential threat," Defense Minister Israel Katz said in November.

But much to the consternation of Netanyahu, newly installed US President Donald Trump blindsided him during a visit to the White House in April, when he announced the United States and Iran were poised to begin direct nuclear talks.

Netanyahu has locked horns with successive US presidents over Iran, most noticeably Barack Obama, who approved a deal with Tehran in 2015 imposing significant restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

Trump pulled out of the accord in 2018, and Netanyahu had hoped that he would continue to take an uncompromising stance against Iran when he returned to office this year.

In announcing talks, the White House set a two-month deadline for Iran to sign a deal. Even though a fresh round of meetings was set for this weekend, the unofficial deadline expired on Thursday and Netanyahu pounced.

One Israeli official told state broadcaster Kan that Israel had coordinated with Washington ahead of the attacks and suggested recent newspaper reports of a rift between Trump and Netanyahu over Iran had been a ruse to lull the Tehran leadership into a false sense of security.

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Trump, who said after the strikes began that Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb but that he wants talks to proceed, has previously hailed the right-wing Netanyahu as a great friend. Other leaders have struggled with him.

In 2015, then-President Nicolas Sarkozy of France was overheard talking about Netanyahu with Obama. "I can't stand him anymore, he's a liar," he said.

The man once known as "King Bibi" to his supporters has faced a difficult few years and at 75, time is running out for him to secure his legacy.

His hawkish image was badly tarnished by the 2023 Hamas attack, with polls showing most Israelis blaming him for the security failures that allowed the deadliest assault since the founding of the nation more than 75 years ago.

He has subsequently been indicted by the International Criminal Court over possible war crimes tied to Israel's 20-month invasion of Gaza, which has reduced much of the Palestinian territory to rubble. He rejects the charges against him.

Polls show most Israelis believe the war in Gaza has gone on for too long, with Netanyahu dragging out the conflict to stay in power and stave off elections that pollsters say he will lose.

Even as the multi-front war has progressed, he has had to take the stand in his own, long-running corruption trial, where he denies any wrongdoing, which has further dented his reputation at home.

However, he hopes a successful military campaign against Israel's arch foe will secure his place in the history books he so loves to read.

"Generations from now, history will record that our generation stood its ground, acted in time and secured our common future. May God bless Israel. May God bless the forces of civilization, everywhere," he said in Friday's speech.



What to Know About the Flash Floods in Texas That Killed over 100 People

 Firefighters from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, transport a recovered body on the flooded Guadalupe River days after a flash flood swept through the area, Monday, July 7, 2025, in Ingram, Texas. (AP)
Firefighters from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, transport a recovered body on the flooded Guadalupe River days after a flash flood swept through the area, Monday, July 7, 2025, in Ingram, Texas. (AP)
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What to Know About the Flash Floods in Texas That Killed over 100 People

 Firefighters from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, transport a recovered body on the flooded Guadalupe River days after a flash flood swept through the area, Monday, July 7, 2025, in Ingram, Texas. (AP)
Firefighters from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, transport a recovered body on the flooded Guadalupe River days after a flash flood swept through the area, Monday, July 7, 2025, in Ingram, Texas. (AP)

Flash floods in Texas killed at least 100 people over the Fourth of July holiday weekend and left others still missing, including girls attending a summer camp. The devastation along the Guadalupe River, outside of San Antonio, has drawn a massive search effort as officials face questions over their preparedness and the speed of their initial actions.

Here's what to know about the deadly flooding, the colossal weather system that drove it in and around Kerr County, Texas, and ongoing efforts to identify victims.

Massive rain hit at just the wrong time, in a flood-prone place

The floods grew to their worst at the midpoint of a long holiday weekend when many people were asleep.

The Texas Hill Country in the central part of the state is naturally prone to flash flooding due to the dry dirt-packed areas where the soil lets rain skid along the surface of the landscape instead of soaking it up. Friday's flash floods started with a particularly bad storm that dropped most of its 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain in the dark early morning hours.

After a flood watch notice midday Thursday, the National Weather Service office issued an urgent warning around 4 a.m. that raised the potential of catastrophic damage and a severe threat to human life. By at least 5:20 a.m., some in the Kerrville City area say water levels were getting alarmingly high. The massive rain flowing down hills sent rushing water into the Guadalupe River, causing it to rise 26 feet (8 meters) in just 45 minutes.

Death toll is expected to rise and the number of missing is uncertain

In Kerr County, home to youth camps in the Texas Hill Country, searchers have found the bodies of 75 people, including 27 children, Sheriff Larry Leitha said Monday morning. Fatalities in nearby counties brought the total number of deaths to 94 as of Monday afternoon.

Ten girls and a counselor were still unaccounted for at Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp along the river.

For past campers, the tragedy turned happy memories into grief.

Beyond the Camp Mystic campers unaccounted for, the number of missing from other nearby campgrounds and across the region had not been released.

Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday had said that there were 41 people confirmed to be unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing.

Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said during a Monday news conference he couldn't give an estimate of the number of people still missing, only saying “it is a lot.”

Officials face scrutiny over flash flood warnings

Survivors have described the floods as a “pitch black wall of death” and said they received no emergency warnings.

Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, who lives along the Guadalupe River, said Saturday that “nobody saw this coming.” Officials have referred to it as a “100-year-flood,” meaning that the water levels were highly unlikely based on the historical record.

And records behind those statistics don’t always account for human-caused climate change. Though it’s hard to connect specific storms to a warming planet so soon after they occur, meteorologists say that a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture and allow severe storms to dump even more rain.

Additionally, officials have come under scrutiny about why residents and youth summer camps along the river were not alerted sooner than 4 a.m. or told to evacuate.

Rice said Monday that he did not immediately know if there had been any communication between law enforcement and the summer camps between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. on Friday. But Rice said various factors, including spotty cell service in some of the more isolated areas of Kerr County and cell towers that might have gone out of service during the weather, could have hindered communication.

Rice said officials want to finish the search and rescue and then review possible issues with cell towers, radios and emergency alerts.

Officials noted that the public can grow weary from too many flooding alerts or forecasts that turn out to be minor.

Kerr county officials said they had presented a proposal for a more robust flood warning system, similar to a tornado warning system, but that members of the public reeled at the cost.

Monumental clearing and rebuilding effort

The flash floods have erased campgrounds and torn homes from their foundations.

"It’s going to be a long time before we’re ever able to clean it up, much less rebuild it," Kelly said Saturday after surveying the destruction from a helicopter.

Other massive flooding events have driven residents and business owners to give up, including in areas struck last year by Hurricane Helene.

President Donald Trump said he would likely visit the flood zone on Friday.

AP photographers have captured the scale of the destruction, and one of Texas' largest rescue and recovery efforts.