Middle East

The Spies Who Hate Him: Six Former Mossad Chiefs Blast Israeli PM Netanyahu

18/09/2018

27.03.2018

During a joint interview with Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, half a dozen former Mossad intelligence agency chiefs voiced their dissatisfaction with Benjamin Netanyahu and his policies.

Six former top Israeli spies criticized the country’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, claiming that his leadership puts Israel’s future in jeopardy.

Danny Yatom, who was in charge of Mossad during the late 1990s, commented on the ongoing corruption investigations targeting the Israeli leader, claiming that Netanyahu and his cohorts put “their interests ahead of national interests.”

He also berated Netanyahu for his apparent reluctance to pursue the so called ‘two-state solution’ in the conflict with the Palestinians, as according to Yatom, “the inertia in the diplomatic sphere” which leads the country toward a bi-national state with the Palestinians threatens Israel’s status “as a Jewish and democratic state.”

Yatom’s concerns were echoed by Zvi Zamir, Mossad director from 1968 to 1974, who insisted that “the country is sick,” and that Netanyahu is directly responsible for the current state of affairs.

“We are in a critical medical state. It could be that the country had symptoms when Netanyahu took over, but he has brought it to the grave condition of a malignant disease,” Zamir declared.

According to Reuters, Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to these allegations, though Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett refuted these claims, adding that Israel “is in an excellent condition.”

Earlier Israeli police questioned Netanyahu over the so-called Case 4000 – an investigation related to suspicions that while working as communications minister in 2014-2017, in addition to his prime ministerial post, Netanyahu was helping the Bezeq group, controlled by Shaul Elovitch, in exchange for a beneficial image of Netanyahu and his policies in the media.

The police are also investigating allegations of Netanyahu attempting to obtain favorable coverage from the popular newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth in return for creating problems for its rival, the Israel Hayom paper, as well as the prime minister’s alleged involvement in a multimillion-dollar submarine deal with German shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp.