Israel’s prime minister explains his new approach to Iran

“We are implementing the Octopus Doctrine,” says Naftali Bennett, Israel’s prime minister. “We no longer play with the tentacles, with Iran’s proxies: we’ve created a new equation by going for the head.” Talking to The Economist after nearly a year in office, he explains how Israel and its covert services are raising the stakes in the shadowy war they have waged with Iran for nearly four decades.

In the past Israel aimed its attacks on Iran almost exclusively at its nuclear programme and scientists connected with it. When Israel hit other Iranian targets, such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (irgc) and its expeditionary Quds Force, it tended to do so in third countries, such as Syria. Now it is attacking the irgc inside Iran as well. In February it struck a factory making drones for the Guards in western Iran. In May it assassinated one of their commanders in Tehran, Iran’s capital.