Desperate Netanyahu goes nuclear in bid to stay in power. Next step could be war with Iran
The Israeli prime minister posted an AI-generated image of a nuclear bomb being dropped on Tel Aviv. The resumption of war with Iran looks increasingly likely.
In Australia, following the attack on Helen Haines, politicians are talking about the need to turn down the temperature in the political debate. Here, Netanyahu is ratcheting up the thermostat in a polarised country already at boiling point. It takes a lot to shock Israelis, who play politics hard, but his nuclear bomb post did. “His campaign’s fear tactics have reached an intolerable extreme,” wrote The Times of Israel political commentator Tal Schneider.
Netanyahu’s social media post reeks of desperation. A leader confident of being re-elected would not need to flick the switch to hysteria and try to frighten people. Most of the final election polls show Netanyahu’s bloc of parties hovering around 50 seats, far short of the 61 required to form a government. The opposition bloc believes it has enjoyed a burst of last-minute momentum, topped off by reports of left-leaning Israelis flying in en masse to vote against Netanyahu.
Yet only a fool would count out Netanyahu, the great survivor and grand magician of Israeli politics. He was first elected in 1996, when artificial intelligence was the stuff of science fiction. He has been in power for almost 7000 days. You don’t achieve that without smarts.
Politicians like Netanyahu deploy scare tactics for a reason: fear can be a more powerful motivator than hope. Israelis agree Iran is their top adversary and agreement on the need to defang it transcends political divides. Here, the conflict of Iran is not seen through the prism of high petrol prices but national survival.
