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Netanyahu Says Mossad Warned of Iranian Efforts to Influence Israel's Election
The Prime Minister tells The Jerusalem Post Iran may try to sway the vote, and warns of a forceful response if it does.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that Israel's intelligence agencies have warned him Iran may try to meddle in the upcoming election. "We have clear warnings from military intelligence and the Mossad that Iran and its proxies are considering ways to influence the elections," he said in the interview, which the Post conducted on October 21. He added a warning of his own: "If they do, it'll be a big mistake for them because we'll respond with force and might they can't even imagine."
The Post reports Netanyahu said Iran and its allies could try to shake public confidence in Israel's security by staging attacks meant to suggest the country's military gains had not really changed the balance of power in the region. He said Israel has finished "90% of the job" against Iran and its proxies, and that the task that remains is keeping the regime from rebuilding. "We went from October 7 to being the most powerful force in the Middle East, clearly, the most powerful country in the Middle East," he said.
Netanyahu called Iran's nuclear ambitions the most serious security threat Israel faces today, according to the Post. "About a year ago, Iran was on the verge of developing several atomic bombs," he said. "If we hadn't acted in Operation Rising Lion and after that with Operation Roaring Lion, they'd have atomic bombs to destroy us." He said Iran had planned to acquire 20,000 ballistic missiles, and that as long as the current regime stands, it will try to rebuild its nuclear and missile programs.
The Prime Minister cast the election as a strategic contest. He named Iran's leaders, Hamas, Hezbollah, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas among those he said want him defeated. "All the enemies of Israel want me to lose," he said. The Post publishes the full interview on Thursday on JPost.com and on Friday in The Jerusalem Post Magazine.