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תיעוד בלעדי | רה”מ @netanyahu התגאה במפגש פוליטי סגור של הליכוד כי הוא זה שהצליח להוביל לביטול הסכם הגרעין: “שכנענו את נשיא ארה”ב” #חדשותהערב @shemeshmicha pic.twitter.com/WsWyFdJ8OV — כאן חדשות (@kann_news) July 17, 2018

Israel’s Kan TV news ran a video recorded two weeks ago (the top video is the entire news segment in Hebrew; the second video–thanks to Ronnie Barkan for his work on this, is just Netanyahu’s comments captioned in English) at a gathering of Likud Party activists which Bibi Netanyahu addressed. It’s not clear whether the PM knew he was being videotaped or not. Probably not, otherwise he would never have said what he did. Or possibly, unencumbered by his new-found bromance with Donald Trump, he’s emboldened to say things he would never have thought of saying publicly.

At any rate, he bragged to the Party faithful that it was he, single-handedly who persuaded Trump to abandon the Iran nuclear deal. That reminds me of the shiva call he paid years ago to a settler family at which he boasted to them that America was a pushover; and that he would pull the wool of our eyes and get us to support, or at least permit Israel to do whatever it wanted in the settlements. Turns out he was right!

But the piece de la resistance (and a passage almost totally ignored by Israeli media) was the part when an audience member interjected in the middle of his speech. Here it’s recounted by the Times of Israel:

The prime minister then begins to speak about the Iranian regime — “not the Iranian people, I have nothing against them” — before he is interrupted by an unidentified person off-screen who says, “It will disappear, God willing.” “You said it. From your mouth to the Holy One Blessed be His Name,” Netanyahu says in response as the clip ends.

Everyone knows that Netanyahu supports regime change. In fact, numerous former defense and intelligence chiefs have recounted that on at least two occasions Israel was pulled back from the very brink of attacking Iran. But to my knowledge, Netanyahu has never publicly advocated the destruction of the regime. This would be the first time.

This doesn’t change very much. It serves the same function as the recent passage of the Nation State-Death to Democracy Law. It ratifies in a naked, public way what everyone knew in their hearts. No one can say from now on–Israel has never said of Iran what it claims Iran has said of Israel. It lays bare the viciousness of the Israeli regime and its thirst for Iranian blood.

And Bibi and the neocons ought to be careful what they wish for. As I’ve written in the past, when Israel assassinated Abbas Musawi, it got Nassan Nasrallah. When it assassinated Sheikh Yassine, it got Khaled Meshal. The likely replacement for the current regime will be a military junta. But not a laughable incompetent, corrupt junta like Egypt. But rather, the IRG under the command of Qassam Soleimani or someone of that ilk, Iran will not dissolve into a puddle permitting Israel to install a western-friendly puppet regime. Instead, it will likely be a steely, determined military regime far more strident and aggressive than the current one, in which there are at least a few restraints on hardliners.