Thread by @adammaanit

OK, I’ve seen enough of these smug “but Israel has previously cried wolf about Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions” takes (like @jonstewart does here), so let’s debunk this charge: 🧵 /1

In 2012 @netanyahu’s “Red Line” Un speech warned Iran was within a year of enriching uranium to weapons-grade (≥ 90%). This was followed-up by the joint Israeli-US Stuxnet cyberattack that crippled Natanz centrifuges and Iran’s abilities for years. Real threat. Real response. /2

In 2015 @netanyahu warned Congress that Kerry's hyped nuclear “deal” left the regime with intact facilities, critical restrictions that would be lifted after 8-10 years, and, in time, the ability to "breakout" (time it would take to develop nuclear weapons) in just 1 year. /3

He was right about that too. While Kerry and his counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif were patting themselves on the back, Mossad successfully pulled off another of its stunning should-be-a-film ops, exfiltrating over 100,000 documents & blueprints, that proved beyond doubt that Iran was pursuing nukes. /4

This is in addition to what we know from official sources. In July 2019, IAEA inspectors found stockpiles were above limits. Then a few months later its heavy water stock was above the limit. In 2021, Iran limited IAEA access to its facilities. /5

In September 2022, the IAEA concluded that it was “not in a position to provide assurance that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful.”

In 2023, the IAEA found the regime had a uranium stockpile that was 22 times over the JCPOA limit. /6

2020-now: Based on all this intel (and what we now know is the most incredible level of espionage and infiltration Israel ever achieved in Iran), targeted assassinations of key nuclear weapons programme personnel stymied some of their progress. /7

Despite that, in March 2025, an IAEA report found that the Iranian regime had carried out secret nuclear activities with materials not declared to the agency. They even did this at three facilities that were under IAEA investigation under the JCPOA terms. /8

And just five days ago, the IAEA declared that Iran was "in breach of non-proliferation obligations" (eg. they were trying to build bombs). /9

2025: Operation Am K’Lavi ("A People Like A Lion") airstrikes are targeting all of the regime's nuclear sites, key research facilities, eliminated senior personnel involved in its nuclear programme, including intelligence, and set Iran’s nuclear efforts back years. /10

The Iranian regime wants to incinerate Israel, and is obsessed with obtaining the capabilities to do so. After it kills off the "Little Satan" it will go after the "Great Satan" USA. Those in the West who doubt this, are at best naive fools, at worst... enablers. /11

Israel has long warned of the tyrannical Islamic Republic's goal of pursuing nukes to use against it. Each time, Israel was met with indifference, doubt, or mockery from a Western World seemingly incapable of understanding the threat and hell-bent on its own irrelevance. /12

And I'm only singling out Jon here because he built his whole brand on a reverence for nuance, historical fact, and anti-politically-biased punditry and chicanery. So he should really know better. /13

This lazy casting of doubt on Iran's ardent efforts to obtain nukes to incinerate Israel is being spouted by everyone from the Squad to the America Firsters in the Maga movement. In the EU, such views are almost mainstream. /14

Even though Iran and its proxies have repeatedly been caught planning and carrying terror attacks in our borders, and has been supplying Russia with drones to aid its invasion of Ukraine, the West seems incapable of facing up to this threat. We tolerate this at our peril. /ENDS