NOVANEWS
Prime Minister’s Office source says former Shin Bet director Yuval Diskin’s criticism of the prime minister stems from bitterness over being passed over for role of Mossad chief • MK Hanegbi: Diskin avoiding true discussion by rehashing gossip.
Israel Hayom
Senior officials in the Prime Minister’s Office leveled harsh criticism at former Shin Bet director Yuval Diskin Thursday, saying that his recent rebuke of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “motivated by a personal vendetta.”
Speaking at a conference marking a decade of the Geneva Initiative, Diskin said Wednesday that “the ramifications of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are a bigger existential threat to Israel than a nuclear Iran.”
He further criticized Netanyahu for agreeing to what he called a “cynical and nauseating” prisoners release, referring to the release of 104 Palestinian prisoners pledged to the Palestinian Authority as part of the resumption of the peace talks in August.
“Anyone who thinks that the Palestinian threat is greater than the threat Iran — a country that has vowed to eradicate the State of Israel — will pose if it gets a nuclear bomb, is detached from reality and lacking any strategic insight,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.
The prime minister “will continue to pursue ways to remove the biggest threat to Israel’s future existence, which is a nuclear Iran, while simultaneously trying to promote a peace deal with the Palestinians that will ensure Israel’s security interests.”
A senior source in the Prime Minister’s Office told Israel Hayom on Thursday that “Diskin was shortlisted for the role of Mossad chief and he believed Netanyahu was going to name him for the position. He went home that Friday thinking it was a sure thing, and woke up on Sunday to a different reality.”
The source said Diskin got the idea that he would be named Mossad head from then-Mossad chief Meir Dagan, who all but told Diskin it was “a done deal, which wasn’t the case.”
Diskin later wrote on his Facebook page: “I heard the Prime Minister’s Office’s response and I thought that at least this time, they didn’t invoke the late Arik Einstein to dismiss the issue at hand.
“Soon [the PMO] will surely send [Likud MKs] Gila Gamliel, Gilad Erdan and other lackeys to explain why it is necessary [for Netanyahu] to maintain three homes at the taxpayers’ expense, buy 10,000 shekels [$2,800] worth of ice cream and spend NIS 84,000 [$23,800] on water — so that he can concentrate on removing the Iranian threat. Sad. We have all heard it and we still remain silent.”
Former Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee head Likud MK Tzachi Hanegbi commented on Diskin’s words saying, “It is regrettable that Diskin is avoiding a relevant discussion about the nuclear Iranian threat by rehashing gossip.
“The necessity of the cooling-off law [an article included in Israel’s Public Service Law], which allows the public to get a better understanding of certain people before they enter politics, is becoming increasingly evident,” he said.
Finance Minister Yair Lapid expressed his regret that important issues such as the Iranian threat and the peace talks were being “dragged into a personal fight. Demoting such serious subjects is not doing Israel any good.”
Former Mossad chief Danny Yatom said that as long as Diskin was careful not to divulge any information that could compromise national security, he was entitled to speak his mind.
