On the same day that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government narrowly avoided the dissolution of parliament amid a dispute over a proposal to mandate military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews, the state launched an unprecedented military strike on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
The series of attacks, which targeted senior Iranian military officials and nuclear scientists, marked the opening of a full-scale war that Netanyahu has dubbed “Operation Rising Lion”, referencing a biblical verse in which the prophet Balaam likens Israel to a lion that will not rest until victory is secured.
The religious terminology is no coincidence. It continues a long tradition of Israel’s political elite employing messianic language to frame war as a sacred mission. In this way, Netanyahu does more than justify violence; he cloaks it in divine purpose.
But this escalation comes at a time when Israel is already teetering under internal and external pressures.
The Israeli army is facing personnel shortages, as public resentment mounts over the unequal burden of war between secular and ultra-Orthodox citizens, while hostage negotiations with Hamas remain stagnant. With the war against Iran now underway, any serious efforts to end the atrocities in Gaza or recover Israeli captives appear to have been abandoned.
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Despite Israel’s worsening international isolation, including arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, the state opted to go all in. Netanyahu struck at Iran’s nuclear project, confident that the global media would frame it as a lone act of Israeli defiance.
In truth, the US was fully aware of the operation and chose not to stop it. Washington appears to view Israel’s military escalation as a strategic lever in its own negotiations with Tehran. While Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly called for de-escalation, American arms and intelligence continue to flow into Israeli hands.
President Donald Trump’s message on social media made the US position clear: if Iran refuses to compromise, it will face more strikes.
‘Existential threat’
For Israel, the objectives go beyond nuclear containment. The true aim is to destabilise the Islamic Republic, despite Israeli leaders knowing full well that Israel can at best delay, not halt, Iran’s nuclear progress.
This framing echoes former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who labelled Iran an “existential threat” back in the 1990s. Rabin understood that under the ayatollahs, Iran posed not just a military danger, but a long-term challenge to its regional hegemony – especially given Israel’s lack of deterrence against a nuclear-armed opponent and its direct interference in Iranian politics, including support for the shah’s regime.
The opening salvo of this war has targeted key figures in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and military leadership, in addition to top nuclear scientists. Netanyahu is not naive; he knows retaliation is inevitable. But Hezbollah has signalled that it will not initiate attacks, and Israel’s strikes on Iran’s strategic defences last October were seen in Tel Aviv as creating a historic opportunity to break the Iranian front.
The Israeli economy is stagnating, the cost of living is rising and societal fractures are deepening as Netanyahu pushes a doctrine of endless war
Domestically, Netanyahu also understands that war breeds unity. Indeed, by Friday morning, nearly all Jewish opposition leaders – his most vocal critics – had aligned themselves behind the government.
Still, the Israeli military has issued stern warnings: the consequences of this war could be unprecedented. Even in the absence of a major Iranian response, the war arrives after nearly two gruelling years of a multi-front conflict that has pulled tens of thousands of reservists from civilian life for extended periods.
The Israeli economy is stagnating, the cost of living is rising and societal fractures are deepening as Netanyahu pushes a doctrine of endless war. Israel’s reputation has already devolved into that of a regional pariah, and the decision to strike nuclear sites threatens not only Iran but the entire region with potential radioactive fallout.
Such attacks establish a dangerous global precedent for legitimising assaults on nuclear infrastructure, regardless of the consequences.
Political legacy
For Netanyahu, this moment is a political legacy test. Having long crafted his persona as the guardian of the Jewish people against “existential threats”, he has spent the last decade obsessively warning against Iran’s nuclear ambitions, portraying himself as “Mr Security”.
From publicly rebuking former President Barack Obama in a 2015 address to the US Congress to aligning with the Trump administration to kill the nuclear deal, Netanyahu has built his career on this confrontation. But today, he knows that attempting a similar manoeuvre in Washington – such as interfering with renewed negotiations – could enrage Trump, who, unlike Obama, does not tolerate Israeli meddling in American politics.
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This war marks a sharp break from Israel’s historic approach to regional threats. In past decades, Israel has preferred to avoid direct military engagements, instead lobbying the US to do the fighting (as in Iraq).
But with diplomacy exhausted and strategic power shifting from Israel to the Gulf states – as evidenced by Trump’s recent Middle East tour that entirely skipped over Israel – Netanyahu understands that the US no longer sees Israel as the centrepiece of its regional strategy. Washington is preoccupied with China and trade wars, not new wars in the Middle East.
A convergence of factors drove Netanyahu to roll the dice. But unlike previous campaigns, this is a gamble with no clear exit strategy. The price of attacking nuclear facilities, the spike in global oil prices and the uncertainty around the scale of Iran’s retaliation have left Israelis in a fog of national anxiety.
It is too early to assess the full consequences. If the attack succeeds in achieving its goals without triggering massive blowback, Netanyahu will likely solidify not just his electoral standing, but his legacy as the “defender of the Jewish nation”.
In the region, with Trump expressing enthusiasm for Israel’s boldness, we are clearly entering an era of brute power politics. Legality and precedent are cast aside. But should the war fail, or cost Israel dearly, it may spell the opposite outcome: political collapse, diplomatic isolation and another chapter in a long history of Middle Eastern miscalculations.
All options remain on the table.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
