Likud MK Amit Halevi identified Iran and Turkey as the primary orchestrators of a strategic effort to sow internal division and achieve "regime change" in Jerusalem in an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
Halevi, a member of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, issued a stark warning regarding what he describes as sophisticated foreign intervention in Israel's domestic process.
While Israel’s use of paper ballots makes direct mechanical tampering with elections nearly impossible, Halevi emphasized that foreign actors can still influence the outcome.
"You can influence," Halevi said. "And as long as it is an Israeli citizen, that is excellent and desirable. But when it involves a foreign country with foreign interests and a hostile state is behind the influence, it becomes fundamentally invalid."
Halevi detailed what he described as the methods used by hostile actors, arguing that they exploit the digital sphere and financial leverage to manipulate the Israeli electorate. According to him, these states deploy budgets and capabilities far beyond the reach of any individual in order to identify and exploit "weak links" and "influential links" within Israeli society.
"Intervention can be, of course, in the digital age, through various digital means on social networks," he explained. "This is funding that leads to various actions by different people in different sectors and different regions... to eventually reach a result desired by the hostile state."
He further alleged that such influence operations often operate behind legitimate-looking organizations.
"I think it is right to mention mainly two countries whose open, undisguised aspirations to set the agenda in the Middle East and beyond are known to all," Halevi said. "I mean Iran and Turkey. The two have a part in this context of attempts to influence the elections in Israel. Both are bitter enemies, and both have detailed plans for the destruction of the State of Israel."
According to Halevi, the strategic objective of Tehran and Ankara is to project themselves as the region’s "kingmakers"-states capable of shaping the internal politics of neighboring countries.
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