As Jews were preparing to celebrate Passover, commemorating the Exodus from Egypt when God liberated the nation of Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a video message to the Iranian people — and to the regime that rules over them: the time for Iranians to stand up for their national freedom is at hand.
Purim passed with Israelis in bomb shelters, reliving the story of a national threat turning into a joyous victory, echoing the salvation of the Jewish people from Haman, a Persian official who plotted genocide against them. Unlike Passover, when God actively saved the Israelites, God does not appear in the Purim story. Instead, the Purim story culminates in the Jews rising up against their oppressors. This was the message Netanyahu delivered to the Iranian people.
“The moment of truth is drawing near,” Netanyahu told Iranians. And then, with no diplomatic cushioning: “It depends on you.” Israel, he declared, is “not trying to divide Iran” — it is “trying to free Iran.” He told the Iranian people directly that their liberation will produce “peace between our peoples and a widened circle of peace” — a future, he said, that would reach “levels we have never seen.” These are not the words of a military commander describing a bombing campaign. They are the words of a leader addressing a people he believes are capable of determining their own fate — if they choose to act.
The call to Iran’s people was matched by an equally direct warning to the regime’s enforcers. To members of the IRGC — the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — Netanyahu was unambiguous: “You are also in our sights. Whoever puts his weapon down, no harm will come to him. Whoever doesn’t do that, his blood is on his head.” This was not a call to martyrdom for the ayatollahs’ cause. It was an off-ramp — a direct invitation to the foot soldiers of the regime to step away from the machinery of oppression before it consumes them along with their masters.
Netanyahu made clear that Israel’s campaign is not winding down. “The war against Iran will continue unabated and without compromises,” he said. Israel has “an organized plan with many surprises” for the next phase — a plan designed, in his own words, “to destabilize the regime, to enable change.” And he left no ambiguity about the endgame: “We won’t cease to hit the dictators in Iran… without compromise.”
Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late Shah of Iran and a vocal opponent of the ayatollah regime, has publicly acknowledged the ancient biblical and historical bonds between the Persian and Jewish peoples — a relationship rooted not in enmity but in alliance. Cyrus the Great, King of Persia, is the only non-Jewish figure in the Hebrew Bible addressed as mashiach — anointed one. “Thus said the LORD to Cyrus, His anointed one — whose right hand He has grasped, treading down nations before him.” (Isaiah 45:1). Cyrus ended the Babylonian captivity and permitted the Jews to return to their land and rebuild the Temple. Pahlavi’s acknowledgment of this history is a reminder that the current regime represents a profound rupture from Persia’s actual legacy — a rupture that Netanyahu is openly trying to help reverse.
Netanyahu also leveled a scorching indictment at the institutions that stayed silent while the regime turned on its own people. “When late supreme leader Ali Khamenei was slaughtering tens of thousands of Iranians,” he asked, “where was the UN? Where were many states in the West? And where was the international media that denounces us relentlessly with fake news? They were nowhere; they simply disappeared.” Those same institutions, he noted, had “unfoundedly castigated” Israel when it moved against Hamas terrorists. “Many countries see today exactly who they can count on,” he said. “Israel is a lighthouse of power and hope.”
“Israel is a lighthouse of power and hope,” Netanyahu said — and then, almost in the same breath, reminded Israeli citizens that “we are still in the midst of a hard campaign. We won’t cease to hit the dictators in Iran… without compromise.”
Netanyahu was explicit that Israel is not acting alone. Recounting his December meeting with US President Donald Trump, Netanyahu said Trump told him directly: “Bibi, we have to stop Iran at any cost from attaining a nuclear weapon.” Netanyahu thanked Trump for his “historic leadership” in a “US-Israel pact that is stronger than ever,” and noted that “many nations” are now turning to Israel and requesting cooperation, “because we are strong, because we are right, because we are fighting.”
He also warned Lebanon’s government without ambiguity. “It is your responsibility to enforce the ceasefire agreement,” he said. “It is your responsibility to disarm Hezbollah.” And to the Lebanese people directly: “The time has come for you, too, to take your fate into your hands.”
