JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Lt Gen Eyal Zamir clashed over a military action that could renew the conflict with Iran, days before Israel's elections, N12 News reported on Sunday evening, in a report syndicated by The Jerusalem Post. Zamir had recently received a directive from the political echelon to carry out an action which security officials told N12 would 'trigger a rapid escalation into a confrontation with Iran'. The action itself was not described in the report.
Source: N12 News via The Jerusalem Post (EuropeSays)
Because of the sensitive nature of the action, Zamir requested an in-depth discussion and formal authorisation - including legal guarantees and the signatures of the political echelon - before moving forward, N12 reported. Sources familiar with the details told N12 that Zamir and other senior IDF officers were concerned the political echelon might be trying to exploit the Iran front ahead of the elections for political gain. Those concerns are the sources' account, attributed to unnamed officials, and have not been independently verified.
Source: N12 News via The Jerusalem Post (EuropeSays)
Netanyahu denied the report late on Sunday night. Speaking on Channel 14's The Patriots, he said 'there is no confrontation' and that 'someone is trying to obscure the fact that Zamir himself had said Iran was attempting to interfere in the elections'. In a separate television appearance he dismissed the report as 'nothing but rubbish', AFP reported. Earlier on Sunday, Netanyahu had warned in a video released by his office that Iran and its proxies could try to disrupt Tuesday's election with attacks, saying: 'Don't test us. You will suffer disproportionate blows.'
Source: AFP via HK Businesswire; Jerusalem Post
What is solid
- N12 reported that Zamir demanded an in-depth discussion and formal signed authorisation before carrying out an unspecified directive that security officials said could rapidly escalate into a confrontation with Iran (N12 via Jerusalem Post)
- Netanyahu publicly denied any confrontation, on Channel 14 and in a television appearance reported by AFP
What is only claimed
- Why Zamir pushed back: unnamed sources told N12 the army feared the Iran front was being exploited for election gain - an allegation Netanyahu's denial rejects
- Opposition leader Yair Lapid's claim, citing the report, that Netanyahu wants an escalation with Iran to postpone the October 27 election - a political accusation, not an established fact
Opposition leader Yair Lapid referenced the report in a post on X, accusing Netanyahu of seeking to put off the vote. 'Tonight it was published that he wants to set off an escalation and a confrontation with Iran, just to postpone the elections,' Lapid wrote. 'This man has lost his grip. We absolutely must send him home.' Israelis vote on Tuesday, October 27, in the first general election since the October 7, 2023 attack, with final polls showing neither Netanyahu's bloc nor the opposition projected to win the 61 seats needed for a Knesset majority.
Source: AFP via HK Businesswire, Oct 25
The reported clash matters beyond the campaign because any new Israeli action against Iran risks reopening the war that began in February - a conflict that has already hit Gulf energy sites, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the safety of the large Indian and Punjabi workforce in the Gulf. Awaaz Punjab is treating the N12 account as a media report based on unnamed sources, alongside the prime minister's on-record denial, and will update this story if either side publishes documents or a formal statement.