Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Sunday that Israel is not pressuring the United States to escalate its military involvement in the conflict with Iran, pushing back on fears that the U.S. is being dragged into another Middle East war.
Speaking on CNN’s Face the Nation, Herzog directly addressed U.S. concerns about the expanding war effort following President Donald Trump’s decision to bomb multiple Iranian nuclear sites in what the Joint Chiefs of Staff called the “largest B-2 operational strike in U.S. history.”
“We are not dragging America into a war,” Herzog said. “We are leaving it to the decision of the President of the United States and his team because it had to do with America’s national security interest. Period.”
Herzog defended Trump’s military response, dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, calling it a “historic decision” that could “clearly shift the direction of the Middle East for a much better future.” While he stopped short of declaring Iran’s nuclear program eliminated, he said it had been “hit very hard” by joint Israeli and U.S. attacks.
“This regime has bred hate to its children … on one thing only: America is the big Satan, Israel is the small Satan,” Herzog said, warning that Tehran’s long-term ambitions threaten not just Israel but “all the free world.”
He clarified that he does not serve as Israel’s executive leader, a role held by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but as head of state, akin to European constitutional models.
Israeli President @Isaac_Herzog says Israel is “not dragging America into a war” with Iran. pic.twitter.com/lyZ2aswajk
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) June 22, 2025
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Despite the military escalation, Herzog signaled that now is “the moment where one thinks about diplomacy,” though he emphasized that any new talks with Iran must be “nuts and bolts and very clear,” citing previous failed negotiations in which “the Iranians kept on lying constantly.”
Herzog added that while regime change in Iran is “not any of the official goals of this war,” it “would be a very blessed side effect.”