Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has boasted of his endorsement from Donald Trump on the eve of Israel's election, suggesting the two leaders could restart their war against Iran if he wins, after Trump said they should "finish the job".
"US President Donald Trump has come with a friendship that has never existed before between an Israeli prime minister and an American president. And it is doubtful we will ever have such a friendly president again," Netanyahu said in a televised appearance on Sunday.
"He says he is calling on you to vote for me."
In his own social media post on Sunday, Trump, who launched the Iran war jointly with Netanyahu in February, said: "Vote for Bibi Netanyahu for Prime Minister, we have to finish the job that we started!"
Netanyahu said Trump was willing to take action "that would finally, finally, remove the Iranian threat", but only as long as Netanyahu himself remains in power.
"And I have already instructed the Mossad and the IDF (military) to bring down this regime, to bring down this regime because that is the only way to put an end to this threat," Netanyahu said, referring to Israel's main intelligence service and military.
Trump first endorsed Netanyahu on October 18, reiterating his support in a post on Truth Social on Sunday.
Asked by reporters later on Monday whether Netanyahu had requested the second endorsement, Trump said: "I never spoke about it".
"I put out both endorsements. I put out both... I think he's done a very good job as prime minister under very trying conditions."
Netanyahu's leading opponent, centrist former military Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, posted his own comments on social media, praising Trump as "a true friend of Israel".
"I value his efforts and his commitment to Israel’s security, and I am confident that he will work in full co-operation with any leader chosen by the people."
Tuesday's vote, Israel's first since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, is the first chance for voters to deliver a verdict on the worst security failure in generations and the wars on multiple fronts that followed.
With Netanyahu already at the helm of the most right-wing government in Israeli history, politics have shifted even further to the right.
Nearly all Jewish-led parties, including that of the hawkish Eisenkot, now oppose the "two-state solution" that underpinned decades of peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
But many voters say the divisive politics of Israel's longest-serving leader make the country weaker. Polls suggest Netanyahu's Likud Party will lose seats, potentially depriving his coalition of right-wing, far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties of its narrow majority.
Eisenkot and an array of opposition parties ranging from the rump of the centre-left to the right, also have no clear path to unseat him.
Netanyahu shared an AI-generated video on Monday of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, whose father Ali Khamenei was killed on the first night of US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February. Lying in a hospital bed, the younger Khamenei says his own vote would be "definitely not Bibi. Another term like this and I will be meeting my father sooner than expected".
On Sunday Netanyahu posted a computer-generated photo of a mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv, saying Israel was in existential danger from Iran.
