Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to attack Iran for decades, but the U.S. and his own security chiefs deterred him. Now he's basking in the moment.

For all the talk of the threat Iran posed to Israel and the wider region, Netanyahu never pulled the trigger on a major military operation. Instead, he authorized sporadic high-risk, high-reward operations from Israel’s Mossad spy agency, including the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists and the stealing of the country’s nuclear archive.