Israeli opposition leader Avigdor Lieberman has accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of potentially launching military action not for strategic necessity but to boost his electoral prospects. Speaking during a visit to the settlement of Be\u2019eri near Gaza, Lieberman, a former defense minister and head of the Yisrael Beytenu party, stated: \u201cNetanyahu might take military action not only to achieve victory, but solely to serve electoral purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dissolution of Knesset on the horizon<\/p>\n
Lieberman\u2019s warning comes as Israel\u2019s ruling coalition submitted a bill Wednesday evening to dissolve the Knesset amid a crisis over Haredi military conscription \u2014 a move widely seen as an attempt to pre-empt a similar opposition initiative. General elections are currently scheduled for October, but early dissolution would trigger a snap vote. Lieberman stressed: \u201cIf a military action is taken, it should be solely for the purpose of making a decision. It is unacceptable to take military action for the purpose of holding elections.\u201d<\/p>\n
Netanyahu\u2019s regional ambitions<\/p>\n
Lieberman did not specify the nature or location of any potential military action. However, Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened \u201cto change the face of the Middle East\u201d and to make Israel a regional \u201csuperpower.\u201d For T\u00fcrkiye, which has consistently opposed any unilateral military adventures in the region that could destabilise neighbours, Lieberman\u2019s warning adds to concerns that domestic Israeli politics could drive further escalation, particularly against Iran or Hezbollah, with unpredictable consequences for regional security.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israeli opposition leader Avigdor Lieberman has accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of potentially launching military action not for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16469],"tags":[244,1065,243,41084,1332,13531],"class_list":{"0":"post-71407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-benjamin-netanyahu","8":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","9":"tag-elections","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-lieberman","12":"tag-military","13":"tag-netanyahu"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116574549708746142","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}