As Israel approaches its October 27 national election, opposition leaders are using Iran to challenge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from a harder-line position rather than by opposing further military action.
Al Jazeera reported that Gadi Eisenkot, described as the frontrunner, argues that the conflict remains unfinished and that Iran’s nuclear programme must be destroyed or dismantled. Former prime minister Yair Lapid has called for escalation against Iranian energy infrastructure as a means of seeking political change in Tehran, according to the report.
Naftali Bennett, also a former prime minister, has gone further in his regional rhetoric, describing Qatar as an enemy and Turkiye as the new Iran, while advocating an alliance of what he calls moderate regional forces against Iran, Qatar, Turkiye and other Islamist forces. The report says opposition figures generally do not rule out renewed confrontation with Iran, but contend that Netanyahu has mishandled the security challenge.
Their immediate concern is timing. Opposition leaders have accused Netanyahu of using security warnings before the vote for political purposes after he said Israel’s enemies could attack ahead of the election. Netanyahu said last week that he did not plan to attack Iran before the vote, Al Jazeera reported.
The political argument has a domestic backdrop. An Israel Democracy Institute survey, conducted from April 26 to April 30, found that 64% of Jewish Israelis and 48.5% of Arab Israelis believed ending the Iran war under the conditions then prevailing was incompatible with Israel’s security interests. The institute surveyed 601 Jewish and 150 Arab adult respondents and reported a maximum sampling error of ±3.58%.
The April poll does not establish current voter intentions, but it documents security sentiment that predates the current election campaign.