Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is performing the greatest high-wire act of his long career—publicly raising the prospect of assassinating Iran’s Supreme Leader, while presenting Israel’s military campaign as a crusade to “reshape” the Middle East itself. At a moment when the region is teetering between escalation and collapse, Netanyahu’s approach is pure strongman theater, but every move is now happening in the full glare of international scrutiny.
Netanyahu is no stranger to saber-rattling, but his rhetoric this week has crossed every previous red line. Asked directly about the possibility of targeting Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Netanyahu flatly refused to rule out assassination, insisting that killing Khamenei “would end, not escalate, the conflict” and would be “justified given Iran’s support for terrorism” as reported by multiple international outlets. In Israeli and Western media alike, these statements have been widely recognized as unprecedented—escalating the psychological warfare between Jerusalem and Tehran to new heights.
Netanyahu’s pitch isn’t just military. In interviews and televised addresses, he has declared that Israel’s campaign is “reshaping the Middle East,” claiming credit for “taking out Iranian leadership, scientists, nuclear sites and missiles” as summarized by. He has repeatedly urged Iranians to “stand against radical tyranny” and likened Israel’s operations to past regime-change efforts in the region. On the world stage, Netanyahu’s tone is even less restrained—he claims Israeli strikes are “well-coordinated” with the US, even as Washington seeks to limit the conflict’s scope.
The numbers behind the rhetoric are as stark as the headlines. Israeli officials cite “three main objectives”: the destruction of Iran’s military capacity, the rollback of its regional proxies, and the elimination of the regime’s “command structure”—language understood in both Jerusalem and Tehran as coded threats against the highest echelons of Iranian power. While Netanyahu’s critics (both in Israel and abroad) warn that his strategy is “reckless” and risking wider war, his supporters are rallying around the flag: Israeli media and coalition allies hail him as the only leader capable of facing down Tehran.
But if Netanyahu’s bravado is real, so too is the peril. The region’s escalation curve is now near vertical. In the last 48 hours alone, Israeli strikes have reportedly taken out multiple senior Iranian figures, drawing condemnation from Europe, calls for de-escalation from the US, and a round of regime solidarity inside Iran that, paradoxically, appears to have helped Netanyahu domestically. The game now is not merely about survival, but narrative supremacy—who frames the chaos, and who is blamed for its outcome. For now, Netanyahu is gambling that open threats and unrestrained force will carry the day, even as old models of deterrence give way to new, riskier doctrines. In this climate, the Israeli prime minister isn’t just waging war; he’s writing the script for the next era of Middle Eastern politics—one where the rules are whatever the strongest man says they are, and tomorrow’s headlines are anyone’s guess.