Judging by reports in the Israeli media, the Iran war has already erupted. The heavy battles indicate both sides intend to fight to the bitter end. The war is not a military confrontation between Israel and Iran, but rather a bloody clash in Israel between former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the current government led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.

The opening salvo was fired in a seminal July 14 opinion piece plastered on the front page of the Netanyahu family bulletin — the daily Israel Hayom newspaper — headlined, “Iran is racing toward a bomb and the Bennett-Lapid government is silent.” The writer — opposition leader Netanyahu —went at Bennett guns blazing, accusing his successor of enabling Iran’s nuclear breakout and claiming that contrary to his own policy, Lapid and Bennett had made the US administration a “zero surprise” pledge, while he himself had consistently refused to bow to such American demands.

In addition to the article, Netanyahu leveled similar accusations against Bennett at the Knesset July 12. Bennett, taking the podium to respond, said, “Since my predecessor often touts the Iran issue irresponsibly, I will not elaborate in order to avoid damaging state security. I will just say that there has never been anyone in Israel’s history who spoke so much and did so little about Iran.”

Netanyahu, having sustained a direct hit to his claim to fame and trademark as a fearless anti-Iran warrior, insisted on taking the podium to answer Bennett. Although Knesset rules do not permit a response to a response, the speaker allowed him to return to the podium, where the former prime minister claimed that the “Iranians know the truth” about the immense efforts, public and clandestine, Israel had made to delay, damage and torpedo their nuclear program during his 12 years in office.