Netanyahu Iran attack pressure: military clash reported before Israel's election
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu put pressure on the military over a possible Iran attack ahead of Tuesday's election, Channel 12 reported, describing a clash with armed forces chief of staff Lt Gen Eyal Zamir over a directive that could spark an immediate conflagration with Iran.
Netanyahu Iran attack pressure: military clash reported before Israel's election
With Israeli voters heading to the polls on Tuesday, Israel's Channel 12 reported that Benjamin Netanyahu put pressure on the military to take action against Iran while his far-right coalition narrowly trails in the polls.
A directive in writing
According to Channel 12, the prime minister clashed in recent days with armed forces chief of staff Lt Gen Eyal Zamir over a directive to the military that could potentially spark an immediate conflagration with Iran. Zamir is reported to have requested that the directive, the details of which were not specified, be presented to him in writing.
Denials and caveats
The report was met with denials from several directions:
- Netanyahu denied the Channel 12 report.
- The defence ministry later denied any intention to carry out military operations against Iran.
- The IDF issued a statement on Monday that stopped short of denial, insisting its decisions were based exclusively on security, professional, objective and national considerations.
Pressure on Washington
The alleged pressure was not limited to Israel's own armed forces. CNN reported on Monday that Netanyahu had tried in recent weeks to convince Donald Trump to launch a renewed assault on Iran, renewing a war the two started in February. According to the CNN report, which confirmed an earlier Financial Times account, Trump had ruled out any such action until US congressional elections next week.
Trump, for his part, repeated his endorsement of Netanyahu on Sunday, calling him an outstanding warrior prime minister in a social media post. Walla News reported that the repeat endorsement followed relentless pressure from Netanyahu's office, and that an earlier total endorsement on 18 October made no visible difference to the polls.
Alarmist campaign rhetoric
The reported clash sits alongside increasingly alarmist campaign messaging from the prime minister. Netanyahu posted an AI-generated image of a nuclear mushroom cloud destroying Tel Aviv, telling voters to choose him or risk nuclear annihilation. In the same post, he wrote that anyone who cares about their own physical existence, that of their family, and their loved ones should have a trembling hand before voting for the opposition. He told Channel 14 that there is a single fundamental issue here – our existence.
"We won't allow the IDF to be turned into a pawn in Netanyahu's survival campaign."
Gadi Eisenkot, the opposition bloc leader, a retired general and Netanyahu's most likely challenger for prime minister, said this after expressing his confidence in Zamir.
Netanyahu's public claims about Iran have shifted markedly. Back in March he credited Israeli and US strikes with crippling Iran's uranium enrichment and ballistic missile production, and in 2025 he described the campaign against Iran as a historic victory that would stand for generations.
