New Delhi, Aug. 25 -- why Israeli taxpayers were being billed roughly $55,000 a month to extend Shin Bet security protection to his adult sons and wife well past the October election.

He answered it by revealing something the Israeli security establishment had kept classified for months. Iran, Netanyahu said, had tried to kill one of his sons.

"Iran targeted one of my sons," Netanyahu told the channel. "Iran tried to kill, to murder one of my sons."

He offered no further operational details: no name, no location, no timeline. The Israeli military censor had suppressed reporting on the matter, according to Israeli media, and control on information held even as Netanyahu broke the silence himself. Channel 12 later reported that the alleg...