Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long urged US presidents to strike Iran and is now determined to prolong the current military campaign for as long as possible — potentially even after US President Donald Trump halts US strikes in the country, Eran Etzion, a former Israeli deputy national security adviser, told Al-Monitor in an exclusive interview.

Eran Etzion, a former Israeli deputy national security adviser, is affiliated with the left-leaning opposition party The Democrats, led by Yair Golan, and has been a vocal critic of Netanyahu. He has accused Netanyahu of undermining Israel’s democratic institutions and took part in the 2023 protests against the government’s proposed judicial overhaul plan.

Etzion said Netanyahu took a significant risk by attacking Iran without fully accounting for potential consequences for regional stability, Israel’s relations with Gulf countries and the feasibility of toppling the regime in Tehran. While acknowledging Iran’s nuclear threat, he argues it was not as imminent as characterized by Netanyahu and Trump in order to justify launching the war, and said neither government had conducted sufficiently rigorous strategic analysis.

“Netanyahu launched a war based on an assumption that the regime would be toppled rather quickly, but that did not happen,” he said.