Netanyahu tells cabinet Rosh Hashanah toast Iran's regime is faltering

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a Rosh Hashanah toast held during the weekly government meeting to say that Israel is stronger than at any point in its history and that the Iranian government is close to collapse. The remarks were issued in full by the Prime Minister's Office, which published the address as a media statement on the government's official website and dated it to the eve of the Jewish New Year.

In the statement, Netanyahu credited what he called wise and courageous decisions taken by ministers, the conduct of Israeli soldiers and the endurance of the public, and said that work alongside the United States had removed a threat to the country's existence. The Jerusalem Post reported the toast under Netanyahu's line that the end of the Iranian regime is near, characterising the passage as a threat.

What the prime minister said

Netanyahu said Israel and the United States had achieved what he described as tremendous successes, and that atomic bombs and ballistic missiles had been pushed away. He said the Iranian axis had been struck with immense power and that Iran was currently refraining from attacking Israel. He added that Iran could still err, and that if it did it would suffer a blow it could not imagine, telling Israel's enemies not to test the country.

He said Israeli forces were eliminating terrorists around the clock in Lebanon, in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria, the term used by the Israeli government for the West Bank. He then named unfinished tasks. The first, he said, was the toppling of the regime in Iran, which he described as weak, fighting for its life and faltering. He referred to a further mission without specifying it, saying only that it would permanently change the face of the Middle East and the history of the Jewish people.

The address closed with a traditional New Year formula, that the year and its curses should end and a year of blessings begin, followed by New Year greetings to the people of Israel.

What Rosh Hashanah is, and why the cabinet marks it

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, a two day festival that opens the period of repentance leading to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It is a public holiday in Israel, and the weeks before it are marked by a dense round of official toasts, known in Hebrew as a hariama kosit, literally the raising of a glass. Government ministries, the military, the police and state bodies each hold one, and the prime minister traditionally speaks at the cabinet's toast. Because the events are ceremonial rather than legislative, the speeches function as an annual summing up, which is why the content is closely read in Israel.

The political backdrop

Netanyahu leads what the Prime Minister's Office identifies as the 37th Government of Israel. The Jerusalem Post published the report with a photograph captioned as showing Netanyahu leading his Likud party into the October 27 election, with the party seeking to hold on to power amid slipping polls and questions about the prime minister's own future. That places the toast in a pre election period, in which a leader's account of security achievements carries campaign weight as well as governmental weight.

What the reports do not say

Neither the government statement nor the Jerusalem Post report identifies the second mission Netanyahu said Israel was determined to complete. He did not describe it, and neither report offers an interpretation of it.

The statement gives no operational detail: no dates for the strikes he referred to, no figures, and no description of the actions taken with the United States beyond his own characterisation of them. There is no independent confirmation in either report of his assessments that Iran is refraining from attacking Israel or that its government is nearing its end, and no Iranian response is included.

The material also does not record who else spoke at the meeting, whether ministers responded, or whether any decisions were taken at the same session. Both accounts rest on the text released by the Prime Minister's Office, so the substance of the remarks is attributed to a single body: the government itself.