Israeli President Tells D.C. CEOs: We Must Remain Steadfast and Finish Undermining Iran

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Yesterday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog addressed a gathering of business leaders at the Yale CEO Caucus in Washington. Although the event’s discussions were off the record, Herzog delivered his virtual remarks on the record. His primary objective was to express regional unity regarding the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, highlighting what he termed a “NATO-like” response from Gulf states to Iran’s extensive retaliatory bombing, and framing the offensive as a necessary condition for prosperity in the Middle East.

Herzog also lauded America’s role as a partner, stating, “the incredible cooperation that we have between our militaries is unprecedented, compared even to some of the alignment of the allies in WWII.” While the president recognized the expense and debate surrounding the military strikes—which resulted in the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei—he emphasized the critical urgency of the circumstances.

“Iran was recharging and reigniting its program, its nuclear program, in clandestine new sites that were extremely sensitive, and we could have missed the opportunity of taking care of them,” he stated. He added, “Iran was rushing a plan of 20,000 ballistic missiles. They had 2,000 at the opening of this operation. Twenty thousand would have made a sea change of their power in the region for generation or so.”

Mirroring U.S. President Donald Trump, Herzog cited Iran’s recent nationwide protests and the regime’s lethal crackdown as additional justification for the attacks. “Two months ago, they butchered 50,000 of their people,” Herzog claimed. (Iran reported the death toll as between 3,117 and “several thousand,” while organizations such as Human Rights Watch note that calculating the toll is difficult due to the government crackdown and the ongoing war.) Herzog added: “We also are hurting the government/military infrastructure substantially to enable the people to rise up. We don’t know if they will.”

When attendees questioned Herzog about the long-term strategy for Iran and the criticism that the attacks were initiated without a plan, he responded, “The grand plan is first and foremost to weaken them substantially, and that is what is being done.” He argued that Iran’s “grand master plan” posed a threat extending beyond the region. “Every American leader, every European leader, was talking to us about Iran. We understood that it’s a cocktail of extreme ideology, jihadist ideology, that does not accommodate moderate Islam, Christianity, Judaism, or anybody else.”

A Plan For Prosperity

However, the core message for the CEOs was that Tehran had been sabotaging a growing spirit of cooperation across the Gulf region and further afield. “The real next big horizon in business is the connectivity between Israel and India through Saudi Arabia and the Gulf,” he remarked, referring to the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), which was unveiled at the G20 Summit in New Delhi in September 2023. Weeks later, on October 7, Hamas terrorists backed by Iran killed over 1,200 civilians in Israel and seized more than 250 hostages, triggering a war in Gaza that has claimed the lives of more than 70,000 people, mostly Palestinians. This conflict has slowed but not stopped progress on the ambitious initiative to integrate energy, transportation, and digital infrastructure across continents.

Before the “watershed moment” of October 7, Herzog noted that approximately 1.5 million Israelis had been working throughout the region, primarily in the UAE and Bahrain—the initial signatories to the Abraham Accords. This agreement, which normalized relations between Israel and Gulf nations, was negotiated during the first Trump Administration in September 2020. Sudan and Morocco subsequently joined the accord, and Saudi Arabia had indicated interest in joining. Currently, those ambitions for a regional bloc of cooperation are paused, a situation Herzog largely attributes to Tehran. “We need to be steadfast, take a deep breath and finish the undermining of Iran.”

The Israeli president acknowledged polling data indicating that a growing number of Americans are losing support for Israel due to the ongoing violence in the Middle East, describing it as a “very big strategic issue” that is not exclusive to Israel. “Every nation is going through social evolution. There are changes, especially changes with the young generation,” said Herzog, who maintains a tense working relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Notably, Herzog has resisted pressure from both Netanyahu and Trump to pardon the Israeli prime minister on bribery and fraud charges to resolve his ongoing corruption trial. “Israel is going through an election in about six months’ time. We’re a democracy. We feel and are confident that we are doing the right thing.”

Nevertheless, he emphasized the necessity of “a bipartisan, open and frank dialogue, explaining to the American people that we in Israel are serving their national security interest.” As he articulated: “If you are the biggest empire in the world, there’s many advantages to it but also certain obligations that you’re meeting by fighting the empire of evil that wants to undermine you.”