After his Iran war debacle, Netanyahu turns fire on state institutions

After his Iran war debacle, Netanyahu turns fire on state institutions

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Abed Abou Shhadeh
on
Tue, 07/14/2026 - 19:06

The Iran fiasco has collapsed the Israeli leader's carefully constructed security paradigm - and voters will soon have a chance to respond

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks in Jerusalem on 15 June 2026 (Ronen Zvulun/AFP)

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If there is one thing that has long defined the political career of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it is Iran. 

Retired general Isaac Ben Israel once described Netanyahu’s efforts to persuade the US to exit the nuclear deal as “the worst strategic mistake in Israel’s history” - one that has served only to push Iran closer towards seeking a nuclear weapon as a deterrent.

For decades, Netanyahu has framed Iran as an existential threat to the Jewish people, suggesting that the moment Iran acquires nuclear military capabilities, it will immediately attack Israel. 

The absurdity of these claims, which overlook Iran as a sovereign state of more than 90 million people with its own domestic challenges, cannot be overstated. 

None of the countries that possess nuclear capabilities appear in any rush to use them. In addition, sparking a bloody conflict with a country of Iran’s size and strategic depth was always a bad idea.

Until recently, Netanyahu’s desire to strike Iran was viewed negatively even within the Israeli defence establishment, with former Mossad chief Meir Dagan arguing as early as 2011 that an attack on Iran would only accelerate its path to a nuclear bomb, calling it “the stupidest thing I have ever heard”. 

Thus, it was not just past American presidents who foresaw the consequences that we are witnessing today amid the joint Israeli-US war on Iran.

Equilibrium shifting

Nevertheless, looking at Netanyahu’s consecutive election victories from 2009 to the present day - save for the year and a half of the “Government of Change” - we can identify a significant trend. Netanyahu has reshaped Israel’s military and security leadership, aligning it with his will and leaving virtually no opposition within the defence establishment.

Furthermore, despite Netanyahu’s failure to convince the world that Iran poses an existential threat to the Jewish people, he has achieved unprecedented success domestically, with opinion polls in March showing that more than 80 percent of the Israeli public backed the war. All opposition leaders supported it too.

For Netanyahu, this war was supposed to be the pinnacle of the conflicts Israel has been waging for decades; the ultimate antithesis to the intelligence and military failures of 7 October 2023. 

As the house of cards he built begins to crumble, Netanyahu will stop at nothing to avoid personal collapse - even if it means tearing down the state

The answer to 7 October was meant to be the defeat of Iran. But not only were the war’s objectives left unfulfilled, Tehran’s standing vis-a-vis Washington became significantly stronger, to the point where it is now waging a war of attrition against the US around the shipping lanes of the Strait of Hormuz - a problem that did not exist on 27 February.

The fallout of the war extends further, to the collapse of the entire security paradigm that Netanyahu himself constructed around Iran. 

To make matters worse for the Israeli prime minister, the timing of the war was intended to decide not only the fate of Iran, but also the October elections. The equilibrium between the government and opposition is now shifting in favour of the opposition parties. Netanyahu’s response has been to launch another war, this time against state institutions themselves. 

In the past, Netanyahu led an identity-politics discourse as a mechanism to replace Israeli elites and push more right-wing, ideological figures into key positions. But his behaviour grew so extreme that even his own appointees turned against him. A prime example is former Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who ultimately chose to indict Netanyahu on corruption charges.

Looming clash

Perhaps realising that merely shuffling Israel’s elites was insufficient, Netanyahu pivoted to attacking the state’s institutions - from weakening the role of the attorney general, to targeting the public broadcaster, to waging a relentless war against the judicial system.

Just last week, Israeli ministers spoke openly about defying Supreme Court rulings, effectively threatening a constitutional crisis. Meanwhile, Shin Bet director David Zini, appointed by Netanyahu, was recorded at a private event suggesting that he was selected for the role because of his ability to remain loyal to the elected echelon. 

This statement could prove critical against the backdrop of a looming clash between Israel’s executive and judicial branches.

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Yet despite Netanyahu’s immense influence over the defence establishment, he remains unable to fully deflect the military leadership’s demand to mandate the enlistment of the Haredi community. 

Netanyahu’s military adventures since 7 October have exacerbated Israel’s crisis across all fronts. After nearly three years of fighting, manpower shortages have become dire. But driven by electoral calculations and the fear of losing his Haredi coalition partners, Netanyahu’s government has advanced legislation granting expanded privileges to young Haredi men who evade enlistment to study the Torah.

At the same time, Netanyahu recognises that Likud’s current standing is unlikely to yield favourable election results. He is now forcing through fundamental changes to the party's primary system that would enable him to appoint eight candidates to the Likud slate, in a move that has stoked fears of an internal party rebellion.

Netanyahu now understands that the Iran war failure is not just another botched military campaign; it is a defining event that could end his political career. Anyone who has followed his speeches, particularly over the last two years, cannot ignore the messianic elements woven into his statements. His words reveal a man convinced of his own historical destiny. 

Now, as the house of cards he built begins to crumble, Netanyahu will stop at nothing to avoid personal collapse - even if it means tearing down the state and its institutions just to survive.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

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