Israel in no rush to wrap up Iran war, ambassador says
'The objective is not to contain the war. The objective is to win the war,' Ambassador Yechiel Leiter said to host Martha Raddatz on ABC's 'This Week.'
Leiter's televised remarks came roughly the same time that President Donald Trump posted a plea on Truth Social for Israel and Iran to make peace: 'Iran and Israel should make a deal, and will make a deal, just like I got India and Pakistan to make, in that case by using TRADE with the United States to bring reason, cohesion, and sanity into the talks with two excellent leaders who were able to quickly make a decision and STOP!'
Trump added: 'We will have PEACE, soon, between Israel and Iran! Many calls and meetings now taking place.'
Israel has been warning for years about Iran's attempts to develop nuclear weapons and potentially use them to strike Israel, which it regards as a rogue state that has no right to exist. Among those killed in its initial strikes last week were nuclear scientists and some of Iran's top nuclear commanders, and Leiter made it clear that its goal is 'to neutralize and terminate the Iranian intention of destroying Israel through nuclear weapons and through ballistic missiles.'
Speaking of Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, Leiter said Israel saw this war as a fight for survival: 'Look, 80 years ago we had a little man with a mustache running around Europe that nobody believed him when he said he was going to destroy the Jewish people. We lost 6 million. Now we've got a crazed new Hitler running around the Middle East saying he's going to destroy us. We have to take him at face value. That's his intention. He says it every day. He's got a concrete plan to destroy us.'
Leiter also said no one including the supreme leader, was off the possible target list in its continued strikes on Iran.
'I think it's fair to say that nobody who's threatening the destruction of Israel should be off the target list. But we're not going to discuss specific individuals,' Leiter told Raddatz.
But Leiter acknowledged that Iran's counter strikes are causing damage in Israel, saying his nation's defense systems can't block all missiles.
'There's about 10 to 15 percent of these ballistic missiles that get through,' he said. 'We sustained significant attacks last night. We have over 10 fatalities and hundreds wounded.'
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), speaking on NBC's 'Meet the Press,' defended Israel's actions.
'I support what Israel's doing to defend itself,' he said. 'Israel clearly made the calculus at a moment when Iran has been weakened by the incapacity of its militia of Hezbollah and its other actors, the state-sponsored terrorism that it engaged in once it's been weakened. I think they found this the opportune moment to go after a nuclear program that was coming closer and closer to fruition. So I support those actions.'
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