JERUSALEM (The Thursday Times) — Democrats leader Yair Golan warned on Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could use a new attack on Iran to cling to power after last week’s inconclusive election, and urged opposition leaders to form an alternative government quickly.
“The likelihood of another round of fighting with Iran is growing,” Golan, a former deputy chief of the army, wrote on X. “We have reached a point of repeated rounds of fighting with Iran, and this shows just how much Netanyahu has failed.” He said Netanyahu lacked public trust, “the moral legitimacy, and even the basic capacity” to lead another war.
Golan addressed his call to fellow opposition leaders Gadi Eisenkot, Avigdor Lieberman, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, saying a new government was “of utmost importance, as Israel’s security and the safety of its citizens are at stake”.
His warning follows reports that Israel and the United States could strike Iran again after Tuesday’s US midterm elections, even as Qatari and Pakistani mediators press Tehran’s conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Netanyahu has called the moment a “historic, one-time opportunity” to remove the Iranian threat.
No bloc won the 61 seats needed for a majority in the 120-member Knesset. Preliminary results gave Netanyahu’s bloc 53 seats, Jewish opposition parties 48 and Arab parties 19, leaving open a government backed by Arab parties, a unity government or another election. Thousands rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday for Arab parties to join an opposition coalition. Netanyahu, 76, stays on as caretaker while he faces a corruption trial on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, and has been wanted by the International Criminal Court since 2024 over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
