In a special interview with Israel Hayom ahead of the Jewish new year, Prime Minister Yair Lapid promised that he would not shy away from acting against Iran to prevent it from having a nuclear program, even if that meant defying the Biden administration.
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Asked if "Israeli children are safe from Iran," Lapid said, "From day one, we have been telling the Americans that we will engage behind closed doors in the most heated debate they have ever seen and will make them see intelligence they would have preferred not to see. But we also said that we will not deliver speeches in Congress against them; we will not get into the US political fray, we have already seen how ineffective this is [in 2015, referring to then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's efforts to derail the nuclear deal]. But we also said that we will reserve the right to act without clearing this with them or giving a heads up; we are not going to commit to informing anyone."
Q: Perhaps you woke up too late, now that a nuclear pact is almost a done deal?
"We have been dealing with this over the past year. I flew to Riga to discuss this during the coronavirus pandemic to discuss this far away so that no one could see me talk with Secretary of State Antony Blinken."
Q: Will this stop the bomb?
"We will do whatever it takes to stop the bomb. The Americans are not going to deal with this [the nuclear deal] until the midterms, but we will continue working on this issue nonstop. Even in 2015, despite Israel's incessant efforts to prevent the deal, it was concluded. The world views this issue through a different lens. Does Israel have the ability and option to stop Iran from becoming nuclear? The answer is yes."
Q: Will Israel use this ability in the near term?
"We will do everything to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear state."
Q: The US has been very critical of Israel when it comes to the death of Shireen Abu-Akleh, it tried to meddle in the IDF rules of engagement, it has not given a green light to sell the Iron Dome to Germany and Joe Biden has not picked up your calls. Are relations going through a rough patch?
"This strange story on a phone call that he supposedly refused to accept, where did it come from? Biden was on vacation. His people asked us if this call was urgent, and we answered that we needed to talk over the next 10 days because there is a piece of information that needs to be discussed. I said this was not urgent."
Q: How could it be not urgent if the US was on the verge of concluding a nuclear deal?
"Think about the other side of the coin. Imagine you send a request for a call with the president and when they ask you if it is important you answer, 'Yes', and then he picks up the phone only to discover it is not urgent. How serious will they take you next time around? A person in this office must be able to think long term, and without emotion."
The full interview will appear in Israel Hayom's Features and Analysis Section on Rosh Hashanah Eve.
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