Israeli ex- intelligence chief slams PM’S Iran stance
JERUSALEM — The former head of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency has 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 saber- rattling for months — have their judgment clouded by “messianic feelings” and should not be trusted to lead policy on Iran. Diskin, who headed Shin Bet until last year, said a strike might actually accelerate the Iranian program.
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.
Diskin’s comments deepened the sense that a rift is growing between the hawkish Netanyahu government and the security establishment over the question of a strike — and Netanyahu allies quickly rushed to his defense.
In Israel, security figures carry clout well into retirement. Although they frequently pursue political careers, Diskin had been seen as relatively apolitical, perhaps lending his words even greater weight.
“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 the next day and quickly became the lead news item in Israel.
“I do not believe in a leadership that makes deci- sions based on Messianic feelings,” he continued. “I have seen them up close. 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 timeframe.”
Several members of Netanyahu’s coalition issued statements questioning Diskin’s motives and suggesting that in effect he had allied himself with Israel’s dovish opposition.
“If you do not trust the prime minister and not the defense minister, you should have resigned and not waited for the end of your term,” said Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
Spokesmen for Netanyahu and Barak both refused comment on the issue.
Further complicating the picture is the widely held suspicion that Israel’s threats may actually amount to a bluff of historic proportion which has if anything been effective in compelling the world to boycott Iranian oil and isolate its central bank. From that perspective, criticism such as Diskin’s, based on a literal approach, could be construed as simplistic and self- defeating.
Israeli security officials have taken issue with the political leadership on several issues: whether sanctions will make a strike unnecessary, whether a strike will be militarily effective, and whether Israel should strike unilaterally if it cannot gain American approval.
Diskin’s speech — in which he also attacked the government for not actively pursuing peace with the Palestinians — came days after the country’s current top military commander, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, also seemed to disagree with the country’s leadership on the likelihood that Iran will pursue a nuclear weapon.