Securitization Climax: Putting the Iranian Nuclear Project at the Top of the Israeli Public Agenda (2009–2012)

What happens to a securitized issue over time? In many cases, the issue goes through a process of desecuritization and ceases to be an existential threat. But in some cases, enunciators attempt to further securitize the issue, attracting public attention through dramatic means to bring it to a new climax. The aim of these securitizing actors is to justify taking more intensive exceptional measures than those taken previously in securitizing the same threatening issue. In this paper, I focus on the securitization of the Iranian nuclear project in Israel, which began in the 1990s. Although the issue was successfully securitized at that time, and has been maintained as a securitized issue for years, it reached a new peak during Prime Minister Netanyahu’s second government (2009–2013), particularly in 2012. I suggest that examining this case in developing the concept of securitization climax not only clarifies a number of aspects of politics, threat perception, and insecurity in Israel, but provides a more nuanced view of securitization dynamics.