Netanyahu says he’s ‘changed the face of the Middle East’ since October 7

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the significance of the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria and spoke of Israel's progress in the "existential war" forced upon it during a nationally televised press conference on Monday, which ended in a fiery back-and-forth with reporters.

"Yesterday, a new chapter opened, a dramatic chapter, in the history of the Middle East," the prime minister said. "The Assad regime in Syria, a central link in Iran's axis of evil, has collapsed after 54 years."

The billions Iran pumped into Syria to prop up Syrian President Bashar Assad's tyrannical rule has "gone down the drain," he noted.

That regime had spread hostility towards Israel, attacked Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and "served as an outpost of Iranian terrorism and as a conduit for weapons from Iran to Hezbollah," he said.

Netanyahu took credit for the regime's collapse—a "direct result" of the "heavy blows" Israel inflicted on Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.

He also claimed that Israel has worked since October 7, to systematically "dismantle the axis of evil," referring to Iran's reach across the region via its proxies—a "path of terror from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea: from Iran to Iraq, from Iraq to Syria, and from Syria to Lebanon."

"On the ninth of October, two days after the outbreak of the war, I told the heads of the authorities in the south: 'We will change the face of the Middle East,'" Netanyahu said.

"In the Gaza Strip, we destroyed the Iranian arm, destroyed the Hamas battalions, eliminated the top of the organisation, crushed the terrorist infrastructures—those above ground and those below ground. We returned 155 abductees, of which 117 are alive," he said, promising to return "every last" hostage.

"Nasrallah is no longer with us, and neither is the axis what it was. We are breaking it down piece by piece," he said.

While the prime minister acknowledged that the Axis was still not completely gone, he kept his promise to change the face of the Middle East.

"The State of Israel is establishing its position as a centre of power in our region, as it has not been for decades. Those who cooperate with us, benefit greatly. Whoever attacks us, loses big," he said.

The prime minister thanked the "generations of fighters," who gave their lives for the Golan Heights and the generations of Israelis who "clung" to the heights.

"Today, everyone understands the great importance of our being there on the Golan, not at the foot of the Golan. Our control of the Golan Heights guarantees our security, it guarantees our sovereignty," he said.

Netanyahu took the opportunity to thank US President-elect Donald Trump, who in 2019 recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Golan during his first term. 

Netanyahu referred to Israel's decision to establish full control over the demilitarised buffer zone in the Golan Heights to prevent threats from Syria's new Islamist leaders.

"With Defense Minister Israel Katz and with the backing of all Cabinet members, I instructed the IDF to seize the buffer zone between us and Syria and the commanding positions adjacent to it. This also includes the summit of Hermon—what is called the Syrian Hermon," he said.

Following his address, the prime minister clashed with several members of the press he accused of spreading falsehoods regarding his reluctance to testify in his corruption trial and claims that he was responsible for the failure to reach a deal with Hamas to free the hostages.