🇮🇱🇮🇷 Netanyahu didn’t want to strike Iran directly, but the preparations he demanded would have signaled one was coming, and Iran would have fired first.
Israeli correspondent Amichai Stein explains how that miscalculation nearly derailed the country’s own election.
“If you are doing these things, it means a strike is imminent. And that would have caused the Iranians to open fire, and then you would have all hell gone loose, and the election delayed.”
@AmichaiStein1
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Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal)🇮🇱🇮🇷 Netanyahu pushed for strike preparations Iran would have read as an attack coming on the eve of Israel’s election, and the IDF chief blocked it… and he could be gone if Netanyahu wins
Israel has postponed an election exactly once, in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War, and the opposition’s charge is that the prime minister pushed steps he knew could trigger an Iranian first strike and a second postponement.
Amichai Stein, Israeli diplomatic correspondent, says the steps were preparations that would have signaled an imminent strike, and describes the chief of staff’s answer as:
“Guys, all good. We are seeing the Intel.
We are not seeing something which is very urgent to do now before Election Day.”
Amichai says Netanyahu’s defense is readiness in case Iran fires first, the Mossad chief sided with him in the internal debate with “we’re losing time,” and some argue Netanyahu actually gains more from a war after the vote through an emergency government.
You can’t really fire a chief of staff, you just decline to extend his term past June and make him a lame duck.
Israeli elections are usually decided by 20 to 30 thousand votes, and Netanyahu doesn’t have to win, he just doesn’t have to lose, because a deadlock means another vote by spring 2027 with him as interim prime minister while the Iran decision sits on his desk.
@AmichaiStein1
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— https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/2114876823817662740
