What's Behind Netanyahu's Move to Grant Himself Power to Declare War?

Yossi Verter, Haaretz; see also (1)

Netanyahu finally scored an intelligence 'win' with the Iranian nuclear archive – and he used every trick in the book to make sure foreign news networks tuned in

Image from article, with caption: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech on Iran's nuclear program, in Tel Aviv, April 30, 2018.

--The four battlegrounds Iran uses to threaten Israel and the Middle East
--Netanyahu claims 'Iran lied' about its nuclear program, but Israel has been lying for decades
--Netanyahu is leading us to a Masada-style national suicide

Excerpt:

In the public consciousness, he [Netanyahu]’s identified with one of the Mossad’s major failures: the attempted assassination in 1997 of Hamas senior official Khaled Meshal, in Jordan. That colossal screw-up ended with the arrest of the Israeli agents, with the intended victim saved and with Israel releasing Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin from prison, in return for the two would-be assassins. A victory photo in the context of an intelligence coup (along the lines of the capture of the “Karine A” Palestinian arms ship in 2002) had eluded the prime minister for some time.

The usefulness – diplomatic, political, operational and in terms of public diplomacy [JB emphasis] – of revealing the contents of the intelligence cache that Mossad agents transported from Tehran to Tel Aviv sparked a controversy between politicians and intelligence experts. What is not in dispute is that the cynical behavior of the spinmeister and architect of deception sent the national anxiety level soaring to new heights in the hours that preceded his TV performance. ...