Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used his son’s wedding to disguise preparations for war with Iran.
Leading up to Israel’s first attack on Iran on June 13, Netanyahu publicly announced he would be taking time off to attend his 30-year-old son’s wedding on June 16. Netanyahu’s son Avner, Avner’s fiancée Amit Yardeni, and Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, were unaware that the prime minister planned on canceling the wedding from the beginning, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Netanyahu’s misdirection—dubbed the secret operation “Red Wedding” after an infamous scene from HBO’s Game of Thrones—was meant to give the impression that Israel was in talks with the United States to find a diplomatic resolution to the conflict. In a parallel secret operation, a missile strike killed Iranian nuclear scientists in their homes.
“Each of us bears a personal cost,“ Netanyahu said at a press conference on June 19, the Guardian reported.
“My family has not been exempt,” he added, claiming that his son and future daughter-in-law bore a “personal cost” by having to postpone their wedding.
Netanyahu’s comments drew a firestorm of mockery from Israeli citizens.
“I know many families who were not forced to postpone a wedding, but who will now never celebrate the weddings that were once meant to take place,” said Gilad Kariv, a member of The Democrats party in the Israeli legislature.
Netanyahu is “first and foremost concerned with himself,” said Amir Tibon, a journalist for Haaretz.
This was the second time Netanyahu’s war caused his son’s wedding to be derailed after threats of missile strikes postponed the original November wedding date.
The U.S. conducted additional bombings of Iran’s known nuclear sites before Trump brokered a tenuous ceasefire between Iran and Israel on June 23.
It is unclear how much of Iran’s nuclear equipment remains or how long the ceasefire will last.
