Election-eve maneuvering: Netanyahu's Iran gambit and Shas's conscription flip-flop

Hours before polls open, a reported push for military action and leaked recordings expose coalition fault lines.

Election-eve maneuvering: Netanyahu's Iran gambit and Shas's conscription flip-flop — Two days before the 2026 Israeli election, Channel 12's diplomatic reporter Yaron Avraham reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing the IDF to carry out an unspecified military action "relating to Iran." IDF Chief Eyal Zamir has been resisting the action and demanding legal authorization.[^1] Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot attacked the move in an interview on 103fm, saying: "There is no information or threat that requires this, except for Netanyahu's desire to tilt the public discourse."[^2] The report, which drew no immediate response from Netanyahu's office, raises a question about the timing of a potential military escalation so close to an election. Meanwhile, internal recordings of Rabbi Moshe Tzedaka, published this evening (Sunday) on Kan News, reveal that Shas changed its stance on Haredi conscription right before the elections.[^3] In the recordings, Rabbi Tzedaka is heard saying: "They backtracked." Senior rabbis of the movement came to his home on Saturday night to persuade him not to publish the letter. This contradicts the party's public line, articulated by MK Yinon Azulai, who said in an interview earlier this month that the party supports drafting those who do not study and proposed economic and criminal sanctions. The tension between the campaign slogan "whoever doesn't study - should be drafted" and the internal backtracking exposes a deep divide within the Haredi leadership on a core issue. Adding to the pre-election turbulence, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave an interview today (Monday) to Boaz Golan on Channel 14, claiming "we are at a 60-60 tie" and identifying the chairman of the 'Amcha Yisrael' party, Ofer Winter, as what will bring down the bloc.[^4] The 'Amcha Yisrael' party itself reported an aggressive cyberattack hours before the polls open, with several candidates and senior campaign officials blocked from using the WhatsApp application, though no official body has verified the claim.[^5] As voters prepare to go to the polls, these last-minute revelations — from a potential military push to a party's internal reversal