Jerusalem (CNN) When Israel destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981, then-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin drew an important line in the sand: No enemy could be permitted to develop weapons of mass destruction.

Israel, he declared, would defend itself "with all the means at our disposal."

These words still reverberate in Israel today, and they help explain why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is flying to Washington next week to give a controversial speech before Congress on Iran.

Netanyahu wants to thwart a nuclear deal world powers are hammering out with Tehran, a deal that his government believes will leave Iran with the means to potentially develop a nuclear weapon -- and leave him with the same choice Begin faced more than three decades ago.

"This is the primary Israeli fear," said Ronen Bergman, military and intelligence analyst for the daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. "They are afraid at the end of the day, if negotiations fail, Israel would be left alone to make the call -- whether to contain an Iranian nuclear capability or to make the call on the strike."

In making the trip to Capitol Hill, Netanyahu is willing to risk the ire of the White House, which is chagrined that he is expected to rail against the administration's deal-making and encourage Congress to push for an Iran sanctions package that President Barack Obama has threatened to veto.

Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem on October 27. Hide Caption 1 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu, right, sits with a friend at the entrance to his family home in Jerusalem on July 1, 1967. The Israeli prime minister was born October 21, 1949. Hide Caption 2 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu, right, with a friend in the Judean Desert on May 1, 1968. Hide Caption 3 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu serves in the Sayeret Matkal, an elite commando unit of the Israeli army, in 1971. He spent five years in the unit. Hide Caption 4 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu shakes hands with Israeli President Zalman Shazar during a November 1972 ceremony honoring the Sayeret Matkal soldiers who freed hostages in a hijacking earlier that year. Hide Caption 5 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu and his first wife, Miriam, in June 1980. Hide Caption 6 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu and his daughter, Noa, in June 1980. Hide Caption 7 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu speaks in July 1986 with Sorin Hershko, one of the Israeli soldiers wounded in Operation Entebbe. It was the 10th anniversary of Operation Entebbe, a dramatic rescue of Jewish hostages at Uganda's Entebbe Airport. Netanyahu's brother, Yonatan, was killed leading Operation Entebbe in 1976. Affected by his brother's death, Netanyahu organized two international conferences on ways to combat terrorism, one in 1979 and another in 1984. Hide Caption 8 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures From 1984 to 1988, Netanyahu was Israel's ambassador to the United Nations. Hide Caption 9 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu talks to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir on a stroll in New York's Central Park in November 1987. Hide Caption 10 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu, as Israel's deputy foreign minister, goes through some papers as Government Secretary Elyakim Rubinstein recites morning prayers on a flight from New York to Washington in April 1989. Hide Caption 11 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Shamir speaks with Netanyahu at a Middle East peace conference in Madrid in October 1991. Hide Caption 12 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu celebrates after being elected chairman of the right-wing Likud party on March 21, 1993. Hide Caption 13 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu and former foreign minister David Levy sit in the Knesset during the vote for a new Israeli President on March 24, 1993. Hide Caption 14 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu meets with King Hussein of Jordan, center, and Crown Prince Hassan in December 1994. It was Netanyahu's first visit to Jordan. Hide Caption 15 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu shakes hands with outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres before taking the office himself in June 1996. Hide Caption 16 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu meets with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for the first time on September 4, 1996, at an Israeli army base at the Erez Checkpoint in Gaza. Hide Caption 17 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu meets with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in Washington in February 1997. Hide Caption 18 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu spends the day on the beach with his wife, Sara, and son Avner in Caesarea, Israel, on August 16, 1997. Hide Caption 19 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Actor Kirk Douglas holds the King David Award, presented to him by the Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah during a dinner in Beverly Hills, California, on November 17, 1997. Douglas was honored for his inspirational commitment to Israel and the Jewish people and in recognition of his new book "Climbing the Mountain." Netanyahu is on the left. To the right is Rabbi Nachum Braverman, director of the Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah. Hide Caption 20 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu looks through binoculars during a tour of the West Bank with the Israeli Cabinet on December 28, 1997. Hide Caption 21 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan meet in Annan's office in New York on May 15, 1998. Hide Caption 22 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures From left, Arafat, King Hussein, US President Bill Clinton and Netanyahu sign an interim Middle East peace agreement in October 1998. Hide Caption 23 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu thanks a crowd of supporters in Tel Aviv, Israel, at a Likud party meeting in May 1999. The outgoing Prime Minister announced that he was quitting the Knesset and stepping down as party leader 10 days after being defeated in elections. Hide Caption 24 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu testifies before the US House Government Reform Committee on September 20, 2001. The committee was conducting hearings on terrorism following the September 11 attacks. Hide Caption 25 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu, as Israel's foreign minister, laughs with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the start of a Likud convention in Tel Aviv on November 12, 2002. Hide Caption 26 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, are seen at a polling station in Jerusalem on August 14, 2007. He was re-elected as head of the Likud party. Hide Caption 27 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu shakes hands with Israeli President Shimon Peres in February 2009 after Netanyahu won backing from the Israeli parliament to become Prime Minister again. A close election between Netanyahu and rival Tzipi Livni had left the results unclear until the parliament's decision. Hide Caption 28 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures From left, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Netanyahu, US President Barack Obama, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah II walk to the East Room of the White House to make statements on the Middle East peace process on September 1, 2010. Hide Caption 29 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Obama meets with Netanyahu at the White House in September 2010. Hide Caption 30 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton looks on as Abbas and Netanyahu shake hands in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on September 14, 2010, during a second round of Middle East peace talks. Hide Caption 31 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures British Prime Minister David Cameron welcomes Netanyahu to 10 Downing Street in London on May 4, 2011. Hide Caption 32 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu address a joint session of the US Congress on May 24, 2011. He said that he was prepared to make "painful compromises" for a peace settlement with the Palestinians, but he repeated that Israel will not accept a return to its pre-1967 boundaries. Hide Caption 33 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu uses a diagram of a bomb to describe Iran's nuclear program while delivering an address to the UN General Assembly on September 27, 2012. Netanyahu exhorted the General Assembly to draw "a clear red line" to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Hide Caption 34 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman of the Likud-Beiteinu coalition party greet supporters as they arrive onstage on election night in January 2013. The Likud-Beiteinu won 31 seats in the Knesset. Hide Caption 35 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu speaks at the UN General Assembly on October 1, 2013. He accused Iranian President Hassan Rouhani of seeking to obtain a nuclear weapon and described him as "a wolf in sheep's clothing, a wolf who thinks he can pull the wool over the eyes of the international community." Hide Caption 36 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures In December 2014, Netanyahu called for early elections as he fired two key ministers for opposing government policy. Hide Caption 37 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu is greeted by members of US Congress as he arrives to speak in the House chamber in March 2015. He warned that a proposed agreement between world powers and Iran was "a bad deal" that would not stop Tehran from getting nuclear weapons — but would rather pave its way to getting lots of them and leave the Jewish State in grave peril. Hide Caption 38 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu and his family take a vacation in southern Israel in April 2015. Hide Caption 39 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu and German Chancellor Angela Merkel talk in Berlin in October 2015. Hide Caption 40 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu speaks to the press in Tel Aviv, Israel, in June 2016. A day earlier, two attackers identified as Palestinians opened fire at a popular food and shopping complex near the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, killing four Israelis and sending other patrons scrambling to safety. Hide Caption 41 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu stands next to US President Barack Obama as they attend the funeral of former Israeli President Shimon Peres in September 2016. Hide Caption 42 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu visits Moriah College in Sydney in February 2017. It was the first time an Israeli prime minister had visited Australia. Hide Caption 43 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu speaks to US President Donald Trump in May 2017. Trump visited Israel and the West Bank during his first foreign trip as President. Hide Caption 44 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, pose for a photo at the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, in January 2018. Hide Caption 45 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu, speaking at a security conference in Germany in February 2018, holds up what he claimed is a piece of an Iranian drone that was shot down after it flew over Israeli territory. Hide Caption 46 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu, giving a speech at the Ministry of Defense in April 2018, accused Iran of "brazenly lying" over its nuclear ambitions. He said Israel had uncovered files that prove his allegation and that the Islamic republic is keeping an "atomic archive" at a secret compound. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called Netanyahu's comments "childish" and "laughable." Hide Caption 47 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures From left, Netanyahu sits beside senior White House adviser Jared Kushner; President Trump's daughter, Ivanka; Israeli President Reuven Rivlin; and US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin during the opening of the new US Embassy in Jerusalem in May 2018. Hide Caption 48 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, pose for a photo with Russian President Vladimir Putin after talks in Moscow in February 2019. Hide Caption 49 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures The Netanyahus cast their votes during Israel's parliamentary elections in April 2019. The election was seen as a referendum on Netanyahu's long tenure as prime minister. Hide Caption 50 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu greets supporters in April 2019. Hide Caption 51 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures An election banner on a Jerusalem building shows Netanyahu shaking hands with US President Donald Trump. Trump remains incredibly popular in Israel — far more popular than he is in the United States. Hide Caption 52 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu meets with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in London in September 2019. Hide Caption 53 of 54 Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures Netanyahu and Israeli Blue and White party chief Benny Gantz reach to shake hands during a state memorial ceremony for former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and his wife Leah in Jerusalem on November 10. Exit polls for a repeat general election in September failed to give either of the political rivals a majority in the new parliament. Hide Caption 54 of 54

And Netanyahu is doing so even amidst recriminations -- over how Republican House Speaker John Boehner and the Israeli Embassy handled the invitation -- that have tainted the atmosphere between the prime minister and the White House. Administration officials charge that the invitation violated protocol and has partisan overtones.

While the Israeli leader's speech might only intensify those bad feelings, Netanyahu has said it's worth the cost of stating his case before the American public. Advisers indicate that with a deal looming, he feels that he has less and less time to prevent what he sees as a catastrophic outcome.

Political motives?

Netanyahu critics and many analysts see a political motive.

His speech to Congress comes two weeks before the Israeli election, in which he is facing a tight race. His security credentials and rhetorical skills are two of his strongest assets, and being welcomed by U.S. senators and representatives could play well on television screens in Tel Aviv. The White House has used the proximity of the elections as its reason for denying Netanyahu an Oval Office meeting during the trip.

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But many confidants insist that Netanyahu has a strong ideological conviction on the need to block Iran and treats his roles as protector of Israel and the Jewish people with the utmost seriousness. For him, this is a chance to act before Israel is faced with choosing between an Iranian bomb and bombing Iran.

Inherent in that choice is the fear Israel cannot count on the United States to stop Tehran.

Obama has famously said that he's "got Israel's back" when it comes to Iran. Yet Israeli officials say they have watched over the past several years as the Obama administration has backtracked from its firm stance on Iran's nuclear program to a position that could potentially allow Iran to maintain a significant uranium enrichment program.

"What started with zero (centrifuges), then went to a symbolic enrichment capacity of a few hundred. Now it is well known we are speaking about several thousands," Israeli Minister of Intelligence Yuval Steinitz said in an interview with CNN. "We think that the overall goal of the negotiation should be to get rid of the Iranian nuclear threat and not just hold it or restrain it or freeze it."

Israel maintains that even an Iranian threshold nuclear state, leaving Iran with enough enriched uranium to give it "break-out capacity" to build a nuclear weapon, would position Tehran as a superpower in the region and enable it to threaten Israel with impunity.

That would challenge the so-called qualitative military edge that Israel has built up over decades to fend off its enemies. Israeli military leaders worry they may have to think twice about responding to say, a Hezbollah attack on Israeli troops, out of fear of Iranian reprisal.

'A severe strategic threat'

"This is a severe strategic threat to the variety of options that the national security of Israel stands upon," Bergman said. "They want to have the bomb in order not to use it. They want to position themselves as a regional superpower and this would give them a nuclear umbrella over their heads."

It's a daily threat to their existence that many Israelis believe the United States -- half a world away -- can't possibly understand. And some Israelis aren't as sanguine as Bergman that Iran wouldn't want to use the bomb.

"I have no doubt about the seriousness and the good intentions of the Obama administration," said Steinitz, the intelligence minister. "Maybe we are more concerned because we feel the threat because they are speaking about the elimination of the Jewish state."

Moreover, Israel fears a nuclear Iran would spark an arms race in the Middle East, potentially surrounding them with a group of nuclear-armed enemies in a region in turmoil.

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While the United States has long pledged to safeguard Israel's security, Israeli leaders now fear the easing in relations between the United States and Iran following the election of President Hasan Rouhani has clouded the Obama administration's judgment. And the U.S.-Iran thaw has come at the same time that tensions between Obama and Netanyahu have escalated.

"The sense in Israel, and it goes way beyond Netanyahu, is that the president underestimates Iran's duplicity, underestimates Iran's ruthlessness, the religious imperative behind its ideology," said David Horovitz, editor of the Times of Israel news website.

In addressing Congress next week, aides say that Prime Minister Netanyahu feels compelled to warn the U.S. and the world that, in his view, beneath its friendly new image, Iran is still intent on wiping Israel off the map.

"I think that he feels fated that he is leading the Jewish people when it potentially faces a genocidal threat," Horovitz said. "That is the Netanyahu mindset -- that people are in peril, and he needs to stand firm and say what he wants to say and if necessary take the step that needs to be taken."