“It turns out that while I was ordering a break-in at Iran’s nuclear archives, Iran was breaking into Benny Gantz’s cellphone. It is ironic for two reasons: Gantz was chair of a cybersecurity company that went bankrupt. He was supposed to protect his phone. That is his personal failure. If Gantz can’t protect his phone, how will he protect the country?”

This monologue was delivered March 18 by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at an election rally of his Likud Party. He was referring to reports that surfaced March 14 saying Iran had hacked the phone of Israel's former military chief, Lt. Gen. (res.) Benny Gantz, who is the head of the Blue and White Party. Netanyahu appears to enjoy cynically bashing his main rival, harnessing what appears to be a national security lapse for his campaign.

Netanyahu is waging a war for survival ahead of the April 9 elections, and as his associates say, “He takes no prisoners” and “doesn't see anyone,” as the saying goes in Hebrew. These expressions in slang mean that he considers all means legitimate in order to achieve victory. However, this time he went a step too far in his no-holds-barred campaign (even compared with his own, limitless standards). If anyone should be providing answers in this affair, it is Netanyahu. Not because of the leak to Channel 12 News, where political analyst Amit Segal broke the story. Netanyahu and his associates were probably not Segal’s source. And even if he were involved, Netanyahu is too smart to leave any clues.

So why should Netanyahu provide answers? The prime minister is in fact the person officially in charge of the National Cyber Directorate, the body tasked with protecting Israel from attacks. Some six months ago, the cellphone and computer of former Prime Minister Ehud Barak were also hacked. Both Barak and Gantz headed the Israel Defense Forces in the past, but the Shin Bet security agency, which informed them of the breach, confirmed to both of them that nothing on their hacked appliances was a threat to state security.