A senior Israeli official accused the U.S. of attempting to remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power in a furious response to an American intelligence report highlighting the political peril his government faces amid the war against Hamas in Gaza.
Multiple Israeli outlets on Tuesday carried the sharp rebuke from the unnamed official after the U.S. intelligence community’s 2024 Annual Threat Assessment said Netanyahu’s “viability as leader” and his right-wing coalition “may be in jeopardy.” “We expect our friends to act to overthrow the terror regime of Hamas and not the elected government in Israel,” the Israeli official said.
Israel’s Channel 12 opened its nightly news broadcast by attributing the blistering comments to “the most senior Israeli political source you can imagine,” according to The Times of Israel.
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“Those who elect the prime minister of Israel are the citizens of Israel and no one else,” the anonymous official said, seemingly interpreting the intelligence report as a deliberate attempt to undermine the Israeli prime minister. “Israel is not a protectorate of the U.S. but an independent and democratic country whose citizens are the ones who elect the government.”
Channel 12 also reported that Netanyahu had been left “fuming” by the report and that he has “decided to embark upon strong, public and dramatic confrontations with the president of the United States,” according to The Times of Israel coverage of the broadcast.
“Distrust of Netanyahu’s ability to rule has deepened and broadened across the public from its already high levels before the war, and we expect large protests demanding his resignation and new elections,” the U.S. threat assessment report concluded. “A different, more moderate government is a possibility.”
The document also said Israel is likely to face armed resistance from Hamas “for years to come” as Israel struggles to neutralize the militants’ underground tunnels, “which allow insurgents to hide, regain strength, and surprise Israeli forces.”
Tensions between Netanyahu and President Joe Biden have been building in recent weeks amid the spiraling humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Biden has publicly expressed opposition to a possible Israeli invasion of Rafah—a city in southern Gaza where more than 1 million Palestinians are sheltering—calling the matter a red line. Netanyahu in response said his military will invade the city anyway and claimed he has a red line of his own—ensuring that events like Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks are never repeated.
The cross-border attacks in southern Israel five months ago left 1,200 people dead, according to Israeli officials, while another 250 people were kidnapped. So far, more than 31,000 people have been killed in Gaza during the military operations Israel launched in response, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
Netanyahu thanked Biden—who is facing growing political pressure for his support of Israel—on Tuesday while speaking via video link at an AIPAC event in Washington, D.C. “I deeply appreciate it, the support we’ve received from President Biden and the administration and I hope it will continue,” he said. “But let me be clear, Israel will win this war no matter what.”
“To win this war, we must destroy the remaining Hamas battalions in Rafah,” Netanyahu added. “If not, Hamas will regroup, rearm, and reconquer Gaza, and then we’re back to square one. And that’s an intolerable threat that we cannot accept.”
