Rabin was assassinated in 1995 before he could fulfil his grand strategic design. Benjamin Netanyahu, who took the reins in the wake of Rabin’s assassination, amplified his predecessor’s warning about Iran – but flipped the conclusion. To Netanyahu, who opposed giving even an inch of land for peace or the establishment of a Palestinian state, the Iranian threat served as the ultimate justification. Netanyahu argued that any area evacuated by Israel would turn into an Iranian-backed terrorist base, and therefore Israel must hold its occupied territories in the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights and southern Lebanon as a “defensive wall”.