Click to see full-size image. (Israeli Prime Minister Office)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on September 29 that Israel’s enemies may be preparing to attack the country ahead of the October 27 election, issuing the warning from an air force base as his campaign continues to focus heavily on security threats.
“We have indications that, ahead of the elections, our enemies will try to attack us,” Netanyahu said in a video message recorded during a visit to the Tel Nof air base, without identifying the enemies involved or providing details about the alleged indications.
“So from here, from the Air Force base, from the long arm of Israel, I am sending you a message: Don’t mess with us — not now, and not ever. Our long arm will reach you anywhere and at any time,” he added.
Netanyahu has made national security a central theme of his reelection campaign, presenting himself as the leader best positioned to confront Israel’s regional adversaries.
He has returned to a familiar campaign strategy of emphasizing his record on security despite the political damage caused by the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023.
The timing has drawn accusations that Netanyahu is using fear of another attack as a political tool. Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party said that, if Netanyahu’s warning is genuine, he should immediately brief opposition leader Yair Lapid “to ensure that it is indeed a genuine threat and not a political maneuver intended to harm the election.”
The criticism added to the perception among opponents that Netanyahu’s repeated emphasis on external threats amounts to fearmongering as voters prepare to go to the polls.
The latest warning came less than a week after Netanyahu used his September 24 address to the United Nations General Assembly to signal that Israel’s confrontation with Iran is far from over.
Netanyahu defended Israel’s attacks on Iran and said the destruction of the country’s nuclear facilities had been necessary. He also went beyond the immediate military campaign, declaring that Iran’s government would eventually collapse.
“One day, and it may not be far away, the Iranian people will be free. Their murderous regime will be toppled by its lies, by its corruption, by its cruelty,” Netanyahu said in the speech.
The remarks were consistent with statements Netanyahu had made at the start of his election campaign on September 17, when he told Likud supporters that “the mission must be completed” and that Israel must “bring down the Iranian regime and totally destroy Hezbollah and Hamas.”
He later repeated that message at a ceremony honoring Shin Bet personnel, saying, “We will eliminate Hamas, and first and foremost we will defeat the regime in Iran. We will bring it down, it will fall.”
Taken together, Netanyahu’s campaign speeches and latest warning place the unresolved confrontation with Iran and the prospect of new attacks at the center of his security message less than a month before the election. He is clearly using fear from the Islamic Republic as the main drive for his campaign.
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i$rael like the u.$. needs to cut it’”$” losses and neutralize the pedo-in-chief and his management both in d.c. and in tel aviv!… because what these lunatics have started is a fools errand for finishing. ain’t no way u.$rael will ever control the rest of the me now!…