"An Iranian nuclear bomb is a threat for the continuation of the Zionist project and we must fight it relentlessly," he said at a ceremony on the occasion of Israel's new Mossad chief David Barnea taking the helm. "If we have to choose between friction with our great friend the U.S. and the elimination of this existential threat, the elimination of the threat will come first," Netanyahu asserted.

The embattled PM's rhetoric is turning increasingly bellicose and some might say desperate at a moment eleven days of fighting just wrapped up in Gaza under a tenuous ceasefire deal, and as Iran is in the midst of the fifth and final round of talks with world powers in Vienna which seek restoration of the JCPOA nuclear deal. Perhaps even more impactful and driving Netanyahu's seeming desperation is that the country is on the cusp of seeing its first government in 12 years formed without Bibi as leader.