‘Nonsense’ or ‘treason’? Netanyahu denies confrontation with IDF chief over Iran strike

Eisenkot said Netanyahu was treating Israel’s security like “a political game” and that the lives of Israelis “aren’t worthless, and the State of Israel is not his private property.”

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected as “nonsense” a Channel 12 report alleging an “unprecedented confrontation” with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir over a directive for military action involving Iran ahead of Tuesday’s election.

Speaking to Channel 14, Netanyahu denied clashing with Zamir and said the report diverted attention from warnings by Israeli security officials that Iran was attempting to interfere with the election.

“Someone here is trying to start a fight, to blur the fact that the chief of staff himself said, and the head of IDF Military Intelligence said, and the head of the Mossad said, that Iran is trying to harm the elections.”

“We are preparing for it,” Netanyahu said.

“There was no fight between us,” he emphasized. “It’s all nonsense.”

Earlier in the interview, Netanyahu told Channel 14, “I instructed the IDF and the Mossad to topple the [Iranian] regime.”

N12 reported earlier Sunday that Zamir had requested an in-depth discussion and signed legal authorization from Israel’s political leadership before implementing a directive that could result in a rapid confrontation with Iran.

Zamir reportedly received the directive in recent days but sought further deliberations, legal documentation and signatures from political leaders before proceeding.

A senior security official told N12 that the proposed operation could lead to a rapid confrontation with Iran at a sensitive time and result in a miscalculation.

Sources familiar with the details said military officials allegedly expressed concerns that the political leadership could seek to capitalize politically on the Iranian issue ahead of the election.

Opposition leaders sharply criticized Netanyahu over the allegations.

Opposition frontrunner Gadi Eisenkot wrote on X that Netanyahu was treating Israel’s security like “a political game” and that the lives of Israel’s citizens and IDF soldiers “aren’t worthless, and the State of Israel is not his private property.”

Eisenkot voiced support for Zamir and said he will not let “the IDF be turned into a tool in Netanyahu’s campaign of survival.”

Yair Lapid, number two in the B’Yachad party, accused Netanyahu of planning a military campaign to delay the election.

“The man has gone off the rails. We must send him home,” Lapid said.

Yisrael Beitenu’s Avigdor Liberman also accused Netanyahu of seeking to delay the election and said such a move was “tantamount to treason toward the state and its security.”