Netanyahu Wants A Way Out, But Look Who’s Standing In His Way

Right, so Benjamin Netanyahu’s former defence minister Avigdor Lieberman is demanding a treason investigation, accusing Bibi of trying to drag Israel into war to escape an electoral defeat, and the man reportedly challenging Netanyahu’s instructions is his own army chief, Eyal Zamir. Israel votes tomorrow. Netanyahu’s bloc is short of a majority in the final polls we’re looking at, and he’s spent the closing stretch of this campaign telling voters how much they need him, Iran is getting a nuclear weapon in about 10 minutes time and selling himself as Mr Security, despite starting more war and endangering more of his own people than anyone else, and yet still, he’s not all that far behind all things considered, which says plenty of the people of Israel. He’s got Trump’s endorsement as well. They’ve still got a job to finish, apparently. Then came the AI-generated nuclear explosion over Tel Aviv, because when you’re asking people to judge your record, an imaginary mushroom cloud is certainly one way of changing the subject. But alongside that public campaign, Channel 12 reports a dispute behind closed doors over an Iran-linked operation that could rapidly escalate into a confrontation. We don’t know exactly what was proposed. The reported response from Zamir, though, was to demand discussion, legal clarification and signed political authorisation. Security officials reportedly saw no immediate need to act before the election though. So why the urgency?