Netanyahu Wants Us to Remember Natanz—and Forget Nir Oz
This is a necessary operation. But it’s not a moral reset.
Israel was right to strike Iran’s nuclear program.
The threat was real. The timing was right. And the military execution was, by all accounts, a success.
But this moment cannot—and should not—erase what came before it.
Benjamin Netanyahu wants us to move on. He wants this operation to become the new national story: strength, unity, deterrence. He wants headlines about Natanz to blot out the memory of Nir Oz.
But we owe it to ourselves, and to the victims of October 7 and the hostages still in Gaza, not to play along.
A Justified Strike Doesn’t Clean the Slate
The strategic logic of the strike is sound. Iran remains a nuclear threshold state. Its regional proxies are weakened. Its air defenses exposed. And for the first time in years, the U.S. wasn’t standing in the way. That was a window no responsible Israeli leader could ignore.
But Netanyahu is not just any leader. He presided over the most catastrophic security failure in Israel’s history. Twenty months later, he still hasn’t visited the community most devastated in the south. And he still refuses to say the words: “I take responsibility.”
So yes—credit the pilots, the intelligence services, and the precision. Support the operation. But don’t let Netanyahu hide behind it.
This Is a Pattern
Again and again, Netanyahu seeks redemption through escalation. When he’s cornered—politically, legally, morally—he reaches for a military front.
This strike may have been necessary. But the pattern is familiar: recast the prime minister as protector, rally the right, bury the past.
Only this time, the past isn’t so easy to bury.
Operation Rising Lion Was Necessary, Erasing the Past Is Not
Give Netanyahu credit where it’s due. Operation Rising Lion—the campaign against Iran’s nuclear program—was bold, coordinated, and appears to have delivered meaningful results. It will likely delay Iran’s breakout timeline and it sends a clear message about Israeli reach and resolve.
But don’t forget what came before it. And don’t let one successful operation rewrite an entire record.
This is the same Netanyahu who failed to prevent the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
The same leader who spent months before October 7 stoking division, undermining the judiciary, and empowering extremists.
The same prime minister who still hasn’t stepped foot in the southern communities that bore the brunt of Hamas’s rampage. Who has never said, “I failed.”
He wants Operation Rising Lion to redeem his legacy.
He wants us to remember Natanz and forget Nir Oz.
But while the operation against Iran has already achieved a strategic success, it doesn’t change the fact that there is still no real plan for Gaza. No political strategy. No day after. Just endless war, a deepening humanitarian crisis, and hostages still held in Hamas dungeons.
Selective Praise Is Still Dangerous
What’s more troubling is how quickly some respected voices are rushing to offer Netanyahu what sounds a lot like absolution.
One prominent analyst wrote, “I was wrong. And thank God for that. Well done, Bibi.”
It wasn’t an endorsement of everything Netanyahu has done—but the tone was celebratory, unqualified, and disconnected from the broader context.
That kind of praise might be well-intentioned, but it feeds a dangerous narrative: that one necessary operation can override months—years—of democratic erosion, societal fracture, and catastrophic failure.
It can’t.
And it shouldn’t.
We can support Israel’s defense.
We can applaud the IDF, the intelligence services, and the operational success.
But that doesn’t mean rewriting history.
This was a necessary operation—not a moral reset.
Not for the man who let October 7 happen.
Not for the government that fractured Israeli society.
And not for a nation still waiting to see the hostages return home.