Netanyahu: Elect Me or Iran Will Drop Nukes on Tel Aviv

NOTE: The New Arab just published my latest piece, How an Israeli spyware is threatening global security

As Bibi Netanyahu appears likely to lose the election in two days, his messaging has grown increasingly desperate and unhinged. First, the recent killings of two IDF soldiers by Palestinian militants offered him an opportunity to flex his machismo muscle. He ordered the “largest anti-terror operation since the 1967 War,” which will undoubtedly lead to mass expulsions of the Palestinian inhabitants from the West Bank’s largest city, Hebron.

Second, he warned Israelis that they would soon face international financial sanctions, which would cut the country’s economic ties and access to capital.  In response, he advocated establishing a crypto economy which would supposedly evade such measures.  However, over 100 economist’s and tech entrepreneurs quickly denounced the plan as unfeasible and even reckless.

There is only one known country who has adopted a crypto economy: El Salvador. It is run by a ruthless dictator, who has permitted drug gangs to run rampant, while stuffing tens of thousands in prisons cum concentration camps.  His experiment has had disappointing results.  But it hasn’t stopped him.

Israel, already ostracized and facing settlement sanctions imposed by twelve European states, would become little more than criminal enterprise disguised as a western nation.  It would decline from the first rank to the last–in the company of North Korea, Russia and El Salvador.  Its vaunted technology sector, highly dependent on exports, would be cut off from markets, unable to engage in financial transactions.

One could argue that this is a good thing, in that it will lay bare what Israel has become (or always was): a mafia state engaged in genocide, theft, lies, spying, and ethnic cleansing. Whether or not its a good thing, it is clearly the path that Netanyahu has chosen; and it will lead inexorably to this outcome.

The Israeli leader has now planted in the Israeli mind that draconian sanctions are, if not imminent, then assured sometime in the not too distant future.  Israelis have for far too long been able to avoid this specter; secure in the feeling that they live in a cocoon of affluence and relative safety.  Financial sanction will crack open this illusion. In effect, Netanyahu is saying (whether intentional or not): it is coming. We must prepare for the worst.

In a counter-intuitive sense, this is a good thing. The sooner Israelis recognize the danger in which their decisions have placed them, the sooner they and the world can extricate themselves from it.  It may not be soon enough. But developments march inexorably toward this outcome.

תקראו את הדברים החשובים של יובל בלומברג:

מדינת ישראל נמצאת בסכנה קיומית אמיתית ומוחשית. אם האיראנים ישיגו גרעין, שום דבר כבר לא ישנה יותר. הכל כל כך טפל אל מול הסכנה הקיומית של איראן והציר השיעי.

הסערות המבוימות והמומצאות חדשות לבקרים נועדו להסיט את תשומת הלב מהדבר האחד שהוא החשוב ביותר: סיום העבודה באיראן.

זה נוגע בקיום הפיזי של כל אדם ואדם כאן.

יש לנו עוד שנתיים של טראמפ לסיים את העבודה באיראן, ואין לדעת מה יהיה לאחר מכן, אם זו תהיה קמאלה האריס, או תואם מאמדני כלשהו.

זה חלון הזמן שנותר לנו כדי להשלים את העבודה הנדרשת כדי להבטיח את הקיום הפיזי שלנו לשנים הבאות. כל משאבי המדינה הנדרשים, צריכים להיות מושקעים במשימה הזו.

קטאר, חרדים, אוריך, גיוס, התראות.
הכל מסך עשן ענקי כדי להסתיר את הנושא היחיד שניצב מעל כולם בפער.
אם יפלו במרכז הארץ שתי פצצות אטום, את מי יעניינו כל סערות הסרק האלה?

הדורות הבאים לא יסלחו לנו אם נפספס את חלון ההזדמנויות ההיסטורי שמאפשר לנו לנסות ולהשלים את המשימה הקריטית ביותר שעומדת בפני הדור שלנו.

זה לא יקרה עם ראש ממשלה שמוחזק בצווארו על ידי האחים המוסלמים וסייעני הטרור.

זה לא יקרה עם ראש ממשלה שלא מסוגל להרים את הטלפון ולנהל שיחה אינטימית רציפה עם טראמפ.

זה לא יקרה עם ראש ממשלה שלא מסוגל לעמוד בלחץ של ראיון טלויזיה.

השינאה לנתניהו, ככל שהיא עולם ומלואו עבור מחנה שלם, לא תעזור מול הגרעין האיראני.

כל אחד שדואג לקיום הפיזי שלו, של משפחתו, ושל אהוביו, ידו צריכה לרעוד לפני שהוא בוחר במישהו שלא יהיה מסוגל להשלים את המשימה, ובכך לדון את עצמו ואת משפחתו לסכנה של שואה שניה, בגלל השינאה הפוליטית שלו או בגלל סערת דמה מטופשת וחסרת חשיבות.

— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) October 25, 2026

Translation: The State of Israel is in real and tangible existential danger. If the Iranians get a nuclear weapon, nothing will matter anymore. Everything was so insignificant is the face of the existential danger of Iran and the Shiite axis. Every new staged and invented [political] storm diverts attention from the one thing that matters most: finishing the work [regime change] in Iran. It touches on the physical existence of each and every person here. We have two more years of Trump to finish work in Iran, and we don’t know what will happen next, whether it will be Kamala Harris, or a Mamdani-twin.

…Future generations will not forgive us if we miss the historic window of opportunity that allows us to try and complete the most critical task facing our generation. This will not happen with a prime minister who is captive to the Muslim Brotherhood and the terror collaborators [Palestinian MKs]. That won’t happen with a prime minister who can’t pick up the phone and have an intimate conversation with Trump. That won’t happen with a prime minister who can’t withstand the pressure of a TV interview.

Hatred for Netanyahu, insofar as it is whole world or an entire camp [the Opposition], will not help against the Iranian nuclear program. The hand of anyone who cares about the physical existence of himself, his family, and his loved ones, should tremble before choosing someone who will not be able to complete the task, and thus condemn himself and his family to the danger of a second Holocaust…

Third, waving the red flag of Iran in front of Israeli faces never ceases to provoke the requisite emotions of fear and paranoia.  He has repeatedly called for regime change in Iran (as he tweets above).  This is precisely what he sought in the last February attack.  He believed that if he “cut off the head of the snake” by eliminating the Iranian leadership and marching the Kurds to Tehran, and trusting the people to rise up, that he would topple his enemies. But he achieved only the first goal. All the rest eluded him and he now has an even more radical and entrenched enemy.

Yesterday, Netanyahu tweeted an AI image of Tel Aviv enveloped in an Iranian mushroom cloud.  His borderline psychotic tweet warns that his country faces an existential threat of nuclear annihilation unless it re-elects him leader (“if two nuclear bombs fell in central Israel who would care?”).  It’s borderline blackmail: vote for me or you and everyone else dies.  He couldn’t put it in starker and more mendacious terms.

Of course, Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon (contrary to Netanyahu’s recent explicit claim that it does).  Nor has it ever threatened to use one against Israel or anyone else.  He, of course, has done precisely that on multiple occasions.

His sky-is-falling rhetoric ignores that the Israeli leader himself is the cause of the conflict with Iran. His constant attacks on its soil, including the joint US-Israel assault last February, are the cause of the hostility.  Without this this spark there would be no conflagration. Conveniently, he has lit it and continues to enjoy the benefit resulting four-alarm fire.

Each of these recent ploys bespeak desperation.  The recognition, painful as that may be, that his reign may be coming to an end.  The heady drug of power and impunity are losing their impact.  Living without them, laying himself bare and facing culpability, must be almost unbearable. It cannot happen a moment too soon. Hopefully, October 27th will bear good tidings.

A final note: I am under no illusions that an Opposition government will follow a different path.  It will have the same basic goals and define Israeli interests similarly.  The only difference is this government will not be under the spell of the genocidal messianists.  The former may prove itself more amenable to pressure from foreign nations. It may temper policies.  It may be willing to withdraw from Syria and Lebanon. Maybe even reduce its occupation of Gaza.  But hoping that it will bring fundamental change?  That it will recognize a Palestinian state? That it will turn away from military force as an instrument of pursuing its interests?  That it will embrace diplomacy to achieve these ends? Alas, no.