Security Cabinet Meets Amid Reports of Iranian Threat

Israel’s high-level security cabinet met on Sunday against a background of vague but ominous warnings of a threat from Iran.

Even the ministers themselves were not briefed in advance of the specific concern as they convened at the Prime Minister’s Office in Yerushalayim, according to Channel 12 news.

There have been rumblings of a development on the Iranian front in recent days.

Both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin referred to unspecified security issues during last week’s efforts to form a unity government.

At the Knesset inaugural last Thursday, PM Netanyahu told the MKs that “No one faces as many challenges as we face, no other country. And democracies that don’t grasp that you need to unite in a time of danger suffer a heavy price,” he said.

“This isn’t spin, it’s not a whim, this is not ‘Netanyahu trying to scare us,’” he said. “Anyone who knows the situation knows that Iran is getting stronger and is attacking around the world, saying clearly, ‘Israel will disappear.’ They believe it, they are working toward it, we need to take them seriously.”

The Blue and White party’s Gabi Ashkenazi, the new interim head of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and a former IDF chief, last Thursday mentioned “many challenges in the security realm, some known to all and some that are only discussed behind closed doors.”

On Motzoei Shabbos, Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman also alluded to a “national emergency, economic challenges and security threats from south, north and further away” in his latest push for a unity government.

Blue and White MK Ofer Shelah said he was not scared.

“There is no greater cynic than Netanyahu in using matter of security for political ends. Don’t believe his fear-mongering. Everything is political with him.”