‘Like a wounded animal’: Netanyahu will do whatever it takes to stay in power, former PM warns

Tel Aviv: As blazing sunlight streams through the glass windows of Ehud Barak’s office, the former Israeli prime minister paints a dark portrait of what could unfold as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to vote next Tuesday.

“My assessment is: if it’s a fair and free election, Netanyahu will be defeated, probably quite dramatically,” he says in an interview in Tel Aviv. “But it’s not clear that it will be that way.”

Israelis like to brag that their nation is the only functioning democracy in the Middle East, but Barak, who served as prime minister from 1999 to 2001, fears that claim may not hold. “Netanyahu is desperate. For him, this is not just about losing an election,” he says. “He is like a wounded animal in a trap, and he would not hesitate to do whatever it takes to stay in power. It’s a dangerous situation.”

‘We have an ultra-religious, ultranationalist, messianic, racist, Jewish supremacy government that is leading the country toward the abyss.’

Ehud Barak, former Israeli prime minister

Barak concedes he is hardly an impartial commentator on Netanyahu, whose politics and personality he loathes. He calls himself Israel’s Netanyahu “house critic”, describing him as a “toxic narcissist” and “proto-fascist” who cares more about his own political survival than the nation’s future.

Netanyahu, Barak says, has three reasons for desperation. First, he faces corruption and fraud charges that could see him sent to jail if found guilty. Among the allegations: that he received gifts including cigars and champagne from Australian businessman James Packer.

Second, if he is defeated, his opponents will immediately launch a commission of inquiry into the October 7 attacks of 2023 to probe how the worst failure in Israel’s history happened under Netanyahu’s watch.

Third, Netanyahu has been accused of war crimes at the International Criminal Court for the war in Gaza, severely limiting his ability to leave the country.

As a result, Barak says Netanyahu could use an array of tricks to try to stay in power. He could seduce opposition politicians to betray their parties and defect to him. His campaign could use deepfakes to spread fake news, or intimidate voters at polling places to suppress the opposition’s tally. Or Netanyahu could launch a military campaign to delay the elections.

I tell him many will find such theories not just pessimistic but paranoid – even if he is far from alone in venting them.

Soon after our interview, London’s Financial Times reports Netanyahu wanted to launch a blizzard of strikes against Iran earlier this month, but was blocked by US President Donald Trump. In a vague warning last month, Netanyahu said there were “indications that, ahead of the elections, our enemies will try to attack us”. Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, who has access to intelligence briefings, accused Netanyahu of fearmongering.

“The elections will take place on time, and no one has an excuse to disrupt them,” he said.

Now 84, Barak has been one of the most significant figures in Israeli history. Photos of him with former US presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama line his mantelpiece. He rose to the top of the Israeli military after a decorated career involving daring operations to free hostages on a hijacked plane and dressing up as a woman to assassinate key members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. As leader of the then-mighty Labor Party, he resoundingly defeated Netanyahu in 1999 to become Israel’s tenth prime minister. But his hopes of a historic peace deal with the Palestinians cratered at the Camp David summit, helping spark an eruption of terrorism known as the Second Intifada and a thumping defeat by Netanyahu. Israel has not had a left-wing leader since.

“Stuck on his election loss from over two decades ago, Barak has for years obsessively attempted to undermine Israeli democracy by working with the anti-Zionist radical left in failed attempts to overthrow the elected Israeli government,” Netanyahu said in a February social media post attacking Barak for maintaining a longstanding business and personal association with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Barak has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but says he regrets having ever met Epstein.

As well as a fierce political opponent of Netanyahu, Barak served as defence minister in his cabinet for four years, working together to combat Israel’s adversaries, including Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. In that era, Netanyahu led a national unity government composed of the left and right. Those days are long gone. Since 2022, Netanyahu has led the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, including two powerful ministers sanctioned by Australia for inciting violence against Palestinians.

“We have an ultra-religious, ultranationalist, messianic, racist, Jewish supremacy government that is leading the country toward the abyss,” Barak says. “They are leading us to be isolated and boycotted by the rest of the world like apartheid South Africa.”

The United Kingdom, Canada, France and other nations last month announced sweeping sanctions targeting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

‘It will be a disaster’

Another former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, is similarly alarmed by the prospect of Netanyahu remaining in office. “If this government is re-elected it will be a disaster,” Olmert, who led Israel from 2006 to 2009, tells this masthead.

“The crisis we are in today is the most threatening to the wellbeing, to the nature of what Israel was and what Israel is supposed to be.”

Netanyahu, however, still commands a bedrock of support among conservative voters, as becomes clear when you walk through Jerusalem’s packed Mahaneh Yehudah market. “Bibi is a leader. We don’t have any other leader like Bibi,” says Ashar Biton as he sells desserts to passers-by.

“He’s a hell of a campaigner, he’s a huge fighter,” says leading Israeli political commentator Aviv Bushinsky, who served as Netanyahu’s chief of staff and top spokesman. He notes Netanyahu has served for almost 7000 days as prime minister, a feat he could not have achieved if his tenure was as disastrous as his critics claim.

Barak acknowledges Israel has enjoyed “unprecedented tactical achievements” recently, including wiping out top Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, and striking Iranian nuclear facilities. But he says these gains have not delivered any decisive victories. Hamas is still ruling much of Gaza, Hezbollah has not been demilitarised and the Iranian regime has not been toppled.

As for Israel’s relationship with the Palestinians, he understands why most current Israeli politicians shy away from the two-state solution he still favours. Voters still traumatised by the October 7 massacre are not ready to countenance a comprehensive peace deal.

While Barak personally favours Yair Golan, leader of the left-wing Democrats Party, he believes any of the main opposition leaders would be vastly superior to Netanyahu. Gadi Eisenkot, whose party leads the polls, served as Barak’s military secretary before becoming head of the Israel Defence Forces. “Eisenkot is genuine; he is the anti-Bibi,” he says. “He has a spine of stainless steel. No one can tell him what to think or manipulate him.”