‘Clash’ Between IDF Chief and Netanyahu Over Iran Attack Plans a Day Before Polls: Report

Israel’s Channel 12 has reported a brewing confrontation between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff General Eyal Zamir, one day before Tuesday’s election. Citing anonymous sources, the network said Zamir had resisted carrying out a military action, asking for further deliberations and for signed documentation from Netanyahu on its legal authorisation.

The report did not say what the instructions were. Speculation is that they concerned a fresh attack on Iran.

Channel 12 quoted a military source as saying the matter “relates to an action that could lead to a flare-up with Iran, at a sensitive and dramatic moment, creating this potential miscalculation.”

Other unnamed sources said military leaders were concerned about an effort by the political leadership “to utilize the Iranian issue for political benefit.”

NETANYAHU: ‘NONSENSE’

The Times of Israel quoted Netanyahu, in an interview with Channel 14, dismissing the allegations as “nonsense.” In an earlier TV appearance, he said he had instructed the IDF and the Mossad to work to topple the Iranian regime.

THE ELECTION IS A DEAD HEAT

Pollsters have projected a dead heat between Netanyahu and his closest rival, Gadi Eisenkot. The final projections, published on October 23, showed continued gridlock, with neither the current coalition nor the opposition bloc predicted to be able to form a government.

TRUMP: ‘VOTE FOR BIBI’

On Sunday, US President Donald Trump again endorsed Netanyahu in a Truth Social post, attaching an endorsement he said he had given a week earlier. He said he and Netanyahu had a “great relationship in winning together,” and listed what he called the achievements of their partnership: the Venezuelan attack, Operation Midnight Hammer and Operation Epic Fury.

Iran, he said, now has “No Navy, No Air Force,” its military and economy are “in shambles,” and its inflation is at 301 per cent. He said the naval blockade has cut off its oil and that two levels of its leadership are gone.

“When you go to the Polls, please remember that Bibi has been an outstanding Warrior Prime Minister,” Trump wrote. “Vote for Bibi Netanyahu for Prime Minister, we have to finish the job that we started.”

NETANYAHU’S ‘EXISTENTIAL DANGER’ POST

Also on Sunday, Netanyahu posted an AI-generated image of a nuclear explosion in Tel Aviv on social media, warning two days before the election that voting for anyone but him could expose Israelis to a “second Holocaust.”

The post quoted the right-wing activist Yuval Blumberg: “The State of Israel is in real and tangible existential danger. If the Iranians acquire nuclear weapons, nothing will ever be the same again.”

With inputs from ANI