Iran is ‘legitimate target’, says Israeli minister in escalation threat
IRAN is now a “legitimate target” for Israeli missile strikes, one of the country’s most senior ministers has told The Telegraph, raising the prospect of an allout war with Tehran.
In a wide-ranging interview, Nir Barkat, Israel’s economy minister, also said Palestinians from the West Bank would never be allowed to work in the country again and will be replaced by imported foreign workers. He also complained that the war in Gaza had not been fought aggressively enough.
Mr Barkat said Israel can afford to keep fighting and open up a new front with Lebanon. The prospect of the war spreading to Lebanon and Iran will alarm Western leaders, especially as Mr Barkat is currently the favourite to succeed Benjamin Netanyahu as leader of the ruling Likud party.
Polls suggest the economy minister would win five more seats than Mr Netanyahu if he replaced him as leader. Mr Barkat, 64, said: “Iran is a legitimate target for Israel. They will not get away with it. The head of the snake is Tehran.
“My recommendation is to adopt the strategy that President Kennedy used in the Cuban missile crisis. What he basically said then was a missile from Cuba will be answered with a missile to Moscow.
“And we should very very clearly make sure the Iranians understand that they will not get away with using proxies against Israel and sleep good at night if we don’t sleep good at night.”
“We believe them when they say they want to destroy Israel... we are not going to allow another Holocaust.”
Israel is edging towards a full-blown war with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, having evacuated the north of the country. Mr Barkat said a second war was affordable while “the threat of Hezbollah must be eliminated”.
A hugely successful high-tech entrepreneur – his fortune has been estimated at half a billion shekels (£100million) – Mr Barkat also previously served as a paratrooper and was Mayor of Jerusalem for a decade.
The economy minister also likened the Palestinian Authority running the West Bank to the Hamas leadership in Gaza. “You know what the difference is? Nothing,” said Mr Barkat.
“Hamas had an opportunity and took it and the Palestinian Authority would use the opportunity if they had it. They teach their children to kill Jews in school and kindergarten.”
Israel has long been reliant on workers coming into the country from Gaza and the West Bank, but Mr Barkat, whose ministry is responsible for the construction industry, said: “We are done with Palestinian employees... We don’t want employees from enemies.”
He said Israel was currently home to 130,000 foreign workers, most of them with five-year work and residency permits, but he was looking to increase that to 300,000 “as soon as possible”.
“If you don’t do what I proposed, it’s as if we didn’t learn the lessons of Oct 7.”
On the conduct of the war in Gaza and in the face of international condemnation of Israel’s tactics, Mr Barkat said: “Israel is being very cautious... We warn citizens to move out before we move in. No other place in the world has such ethical standards. But once we move in we have to make sure our soldiers are secure. The reality is at certain points in time I prefer a much more aggressive approach.”
When Mr Barkat arrived at the funeral of one of the men, he realised he was friends of one of the grieving fathers.
“It is difficult for Israel,” he said, “But we remember what happened to the six million Jews killed by Nazis and we won’t let that happen again… This is a religious war.”
‘Hamas had an opportunity and took it. The Palestinian Authority would use the opportunity if they had it’