Israel not initiating Iran campaign before election, Katz says

Defense Minister Israel Katz on Saturday night denied that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were planning military moves against Iran ahead of the Oct. 27 Knesset election.

“We have not initiated and are not initiating a campaign in Iran before the election,” Katz told Channel 11‘s Ayala Hasson in an interview.

The defense minister said the opposition had “invented” the claim that Israel would strike Iran ahead of the vote.

However, he said Jerusalem has intelligence indicating that enemies want to carry out strikes and terror attacks to influence the election results.

“Therefore the Israel Defense Forces is prepared through prevention, with intelligence and with powerful responses should it happen,” he said.

Katz accused the opposition of acting irresponsibly instead of backing the government and the IDF on security matters.

“The outcome of the elections will determine whether Israel will complete the job in Iran,” he said. “Will it complete the job of toppling this regime? We did 80-90%. We hit them terribly, but it needs to be completed.”