Ex-security chief blasts leaders over policy on Iran

JERUSALEM — The former head of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency accused the country’s political leaders of exaggerating the effectiveness of a possible military attack on Iran, in a striking indication of Israel’s turmoil over how to deal with the Iranian nuclear program.

Yuval Diskin said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak — who have been saberrattling for months — should not be trusted to lead policy on Iran. Diskin, who headed Shin Bet until last year, said a strike could actually accelerate the Iranian program.

“I don’t have faith in the current leadership of Israel to lead us to an event of this magnitude, of war with Iran,” Diskin said at a public meeting Friday, video of which was posted on the Internet.

“I do not believe in a leadership that makes decisions based on Messianic feelings,” he continued. “They are not messiahs, these two, and they are not the people that I personally trust to lead Israel into such an event.”

Diskin said it was possible that “one of the results of an Israel attack on Iran could be a dramatic acceleration of the Iran program. … They will have legitimacy to do it more quickly and in a shorter time frame.”

Shin Bet addresses security in Israel and the Palestinian Territories only and is not involved in international affairs.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Israel, like the West, believes that Tehran is developing weapons technology, but there is intense debate over whether international economic sanctions accompanying the current round of negotiations might prevent Iran from developing a bomb, or whether at some point a military strike should be launched.

The prime minister’s office called Diskin’s remarks “irresponsible,” while Barak’s office accused Diskin of “acting in a petty and irresponsible way based on personal frustration” and “damaging the tradition of generations of Shin Bet leaders.”

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman also took a swipe at Diskin.

“If you do not trust the prime minister and the defense minister, you should have resigned and not waited for the end of your term,” he said.