{"id":357243,"date":"2026-03-25T12:27:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T12:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/357243\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T12:27:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T12:27:17","slug":"a-victory-for-decades-netanyahus-promise-after-june-strikes-proved-hollow-but-israelis-still-support-iran-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/357243\/","title":{"rendered":"A victory \u2018for decades\u2019? Netanyahu\u2019s promise after June strikes proved hollow, but Israelis still support Iran war"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tel Aviv
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n The opening strikes of the war with Iran shouldn\u2019t have been necessary if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to be taken at his word.\n <\/p>\n

\n After the 12-day war with Iran<\/a> in June, Netanyahu declared unequivocal victory. Israel had \u201cremoved two existential threats,\u201d eliminating Iran\u2019s ballistic missiles and its nuclear program.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis victory,\u201d he told Israelis last summer, \u201cwill stand for decades.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n Those decades ended eight months later. On February 28, the US and Israel launched the first strikes of a war that has now reached its 26th day, more than twice as long as the conflict in June. The US calls it Epic Fury. Israel has dubbed it Roaring Lion.\n <\/p>\n

\n Whatever the name, it is a war with no clear end in sight even if US President Donald Trump hailed \u201cproductive\u201d talks Monday aimed at ending hostilities\n <\/p>\n

\n And yet, Netanyahu has already declared victory again.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe are winning, and Iran is decapitated,\u201d he said at a press conference last Thursday.\n <\/p>\n

\"Israeli<\/p>\n

\n Seventy-two hours later, two Iranian ballistic missiles slammed into cities in southern Israel, registering direct hits that pierced the country\u2019s layered missile defense. One of the missiles hit the city of Dimona<\/a> near Israel\u2019s main nuclear research center.\n <\/p>\n

\n When the joint campaign opened with surprise strikes that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei<\/a> and other top officials, Israel\u2019s leadership was confident and optimistic, boasting about destroying Iran\u2019s military capabilities and disrupting its command and control. By every metric, this war with Iran has surpassed the last one.\n <\/p>\n

\n And yet Iran is still firing, maintaining daily ballistic missile, drone and rocket attacks on Israel and Gulf states. More than 350 Iranian ballistic missiles have been launched at Israel since February 28, sending millions of Israelis into shelters every day.\n <\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s Russian roulette, and living in this country is Russian roulette,\u201d Aviad, who chose not to use his last name, told CNN from Tel Aviv hours after a cluster munition hit several sites in central Israel on Sunday.\n <\/p>\n

\n Fifteen civilians have been killed by Iranian missiles in Israel since the war began, and four more in the occupied West Bank, a tiny fraction of the number killed in Iran and Lebanon. The twin strikes on Saturday night wounded more than 150 Israelis, the largest single-day injury tally. Iranian salvos continued to strike the country on Monday and Tuesday, even after Trump declared that the US is engaging in diplomacy with Iran. One ballistic missile, containing 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of explosives, caused significant damage to properties in Tel Aviv, injuring four people, in another failed interception attempt.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the failure to intercept the missiles was not systemic, pointing to a 92% shoot-down rate.\n <\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

\n The extensive use of Iranian cluster munitions<\/a>, however, has inflicted damage all around the country, raising questions about the long-term sustainability of Israeli aerial defense systems. Although Israel\u2019s Arrow 3 or David\u2019s Sling interceptors can take out a ballistic missile with a single warhead, the cluster warheads break up into scores of bomblets. They are far less deadly \u2013 and far harder to intercept.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIf it fails and we are in a safe room, we are totally safe,\u201d Jennifer Hassan Smith, 52, told CNN. \u201cNothing in this world is perfect, including the air defense system. It is expected there will be occasional casualties or imperfections. The military draws conclusions and learns lessons, and I hope there will be fewer casualties in the future.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n For now, Israeli public support for the war holds. A Channel 12 poll last weekend indicated that 66% of Israelis were satisfied with the war\u2019s achievements \u2013 including 55% of voters who oppose Netanyahu. After two and a half years of continuous conflict, stretching from the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack from Gaza, through Lebanon and now two Iranian campaigns, Israeli society appears to have become inured to a state of permanent war.\n <\/p>\n

\n Whether that adaptation has limits seems to be one of the strategic questions on which Tehran is betting, a former Israeli official told CNN. \u201cThe Iranians are stretching the rubber band and betting it will tear on Israel and the Gulf states\u2019 side before it tears on theirs,\u201d the official told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n Ofer Shelach, a senior research fellow at the Israeli Institute of National Security studies, does not believe Israel\u2019s resilience will break. \u201cThe Iranian strategy of attrition is calculated and cool blooded, however it is not designed to exhaust the Israeli home front, but rather it\u2019s much more focused on Gulf states,\u201d Shelach told CNN. \u201cThe Israeli home front is exhausted and tired, but it is not worn out. It is standing.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n On Sunday, Israel\u2019s Transportation Ministry announced it will cut outgoing flights to one per hour with only 50 passengers on board. After the strikes in Dimona and Arad, Israel once again tightened restrictions around in-class learning in the country\u2019s south, keeping students in virtual class for longer.\n <\/p>\n

\n With support for the war in Iran so high, experts who track Israeli public opinion believe patience with the operation is unlikely to falter anytime soon, even as the global economic effects of the war are felt domestically. But support is not indefinite.\n <\/p>\n

\"Israeli<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe Iranian threat is dramatic enough for the Israelis to continue to suffer for it,\u201d said Shmuel Rosner, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Police Institute who follows public opinion. \u201cThe problem is not the suffering, but only the question of whether Israelis believe that the purpose and goals of the war are achievable \u2013 and that is where we see the beginning of a trend. In the early days, everyone was sure that it would change the Middle East, and over time, doubts naturally arise.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Netanyahu\u2019s critics do not see the Iran war as an isolated event but rather the latest episode in a familiar pattern. Similar victory declarations followed the military campaigns in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, all framed as turning points restoring Israel\u2019s deterrence and regional balance.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis is a prime minister who refuses to pair military action with strategic planning,\u201d a former security official told CNN. \u201cHe refused to discuss any Gaza day-after plan, never consolidated the Lebanon November 2024 ceasefire, and described the 12-day war (in June) as a massive success. Eight months later we are back in the same loop \u2013 it\u2019s clear that it was only a bandage.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Netanyahu\u2019s message remains unchanged. Visiting the site of the Dimona strike on Sunday, he made the same victory promise once again. \u201cThe war will continue until we win.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tel Aviv \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 The opening strikes of the war with Iran shouldn\u2019t have been necessary if Israeli Prime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-357243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}