WarSclerotic

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited ‎the Negev Nuclear Research Center near Dimona on Wednesday and warned‎ that Israel has the means ‎to destroy its enemies – a veiled ‎reference to Israel’s assumed nuclear arsenal.‎

‎”Those who threaten to wipe us out put themselves in ‎a similar danger, and in any event will not achieve ‎their goal,” Netanyahu said during a ceremony to rename the ‎complex after late Israeli President Shimon Peres.‎

Netanyahu’s remarks came as Israel lobbies world ‎powers to follow the United States’ lead and withdraw from the ‎‎2015 nuclear deal with Iran.‎

Israel says the agreement is insufficient to prevent Iran from eventually manufacturing a nuclear bomb.

Iran, a signatory of the ‎‎1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, denies seeking nuclear weapons and claims its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

However, since its 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran has called ‎for Israel’s destruction. It backs the Lebanese ‎Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah and Palestinian ‎terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and has ‎reinforced Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime ‎during the seven-year Syrian civil war.‎

Earlier this week, Iran pledged to rebuild the ‎Syrian army, something the Netanyahu ‎government sees as further Iranian deployment on Israel’s ‎borders.‎

Israel, which is not a signatory to the NPT, ‎maintains a policy of ambiguity with respect to its own nuclear capabilities. It says this policy ‎keeps hostile neighbors in check while avoiding the ‎kind of public provocations that can spark regional ‎arms races.‎

The Israeli ambiguity has long been tolerated by ‎Washington.‎

Speaking at the renaming ceremony on Wednesday, ‎Netanyahu stressed that the Israel Defense Forces ‎‎”will continue acting with full determination and ‎with full force against Iran’s attempts to deploy ‎forces and advanced weapons systems in Syria.” ‎

Netanyahu said Peres, a former prime minister and Nobel Peace laureate who died in 2016, had ‎set up the reactor in the 1950s as part of a ‎vision of “normalization between key countries in ‎the Arab world and a strong State of Israel.‎”

‎”Shimon aspired toward peace but he knew that true ‎peace can be achieved only if our hands strongly ‎grasp defensive weaponry,” Netanyahu continued.

“In the Middle East, and in ‎many parts of the world, there is a simple truth: ‎There is no room for the weak.‎

‎”The weak crumble, are slaughtered and are erased ‎from history, while the strong, for better or worse, ‎survive. The strong are respected, and alliances are ‎made with the strong, and in the end, peace is made ‎with the strong.‎ ‎ ‎ ‎”This process of normalization is happening before ‎our eyes on a scale that would have been impossible ‎to imagine just a few years ago. This process bears hope ‎within it that, in the end, the cycle of peace will ‎be completed. But it is impossible to deny the fact ‎that there are still many enemies in this region and ‎beyond,” Netanyahu said.

‎”But our enemies know very well what Israel is ‎capable of doing. They are familiar with our policy. ‎Whoever threatens us with destruction puts himself ‎‎in similar danger, and in any case will not achieve ‎‎his goal.‎

‎”I am not spouting slogans. I am describing a ‎persistent, clear and determined policy. This is our ‎policy. It is backed by appropriate deployment, ‎equipment, preparedness and – in the hour of need – ‎appropriate orders.

‎”We are working to prevent Iran from establishing a ‎military presence in Syria. We will ‎not relent in pursuit of this goal just as we did ‎not relent in bringing about the cancellation of the ‎bad nuclear agreement with Iran, a goal which was ‎seen as impossible when I put it on the ‎international agenda for the first time several ‎years ago.‎

‎”In the diplomatic sphere, we will continue to apply ‎pressure on the dangerous, extremist regime in Iran. ‎Just yesterday [Tuesday], we saw the fruit of this ‎pressure in remarks by the Iranian president who ‎said that many among the Iranian people have lost ‎hope in the future and strength of Iran due to the ‎resumption of economic sanctions,” Netanyahu said.