Iran should ‘directly pay the price’ in Tehran if it attacks Israel: ex-Israeli PM

Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett says Israel has fought Iran's proxies, including Hamas, for years, calling the strike on Iran's embassy in Syria justified.

Iran should “directly pay the price” in its capital of Tehran if it follows through with an anticipated retaliatory attack on Israel, former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett says — an action that many fear could spark a wider war in the Middle East.

The world is anxiously waiting to see if Iran follows through on vows to attack Israel in response to an Israeli strike on Iran’s embassy in Syria last week that killed a senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ overseas Quds Force and six other officers.

Such an attack would escalate the existing conflict in the Middle East sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the ensuing Israeli military response in Gaza. The violence in Gaza has sparked attacks from Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen — groups that, like Hamas, are backed by the Iranian regime.

During an interview that will air in full on Sunday on The West Block, Bennett said Israel has long fought Iran through its proxies, including Hamas, which justified the Israeli strike in Syria.

“Iran is like an octopus of terror, whose head is in Tehran but then it sends its tentacles into Lebanon with Hezbollah terror organization, into Gaza with Hamas and the Islamic Jihad,” he told host Mercedes Stephenson.

Asked what he believed Israel should do in response to an attack from Iran, Bennett made clear the capital should be a target.

“If we are attacked — and we’re already being attacked by the proxies — I definitely think that Iran should directly pay the price in Tehran,” he said. “I also think that the free world can and should engage in an ongoing soft campaign to collapse the Iranian regime.”

The United States has vowed to support Israel in the event of an Iranian attack, which could include military assets.