The international press is doing its best to hype critical remarks about Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu uttered by Yuval Diskin, the retired head of the Shin Bet security service, into a sign the government is in trouble. Diskin, a respected figure who retired last year, is the latest veteran spook to express his disdain for Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak and their stance on the nuclear threat from Iran. That there is a debate in the highest intelligence circles about the best strategy for dealing with Iran has never been a secret. But what Diskin’s comments and other attacks on Netanyahu from former Mossad chief Meir Dagan reflect is not so much a revolt of the experts against the politicians but a standard trope of Israeli politics in which those who are frustrated about the fact that their ideas have not won the support of the Israeli public seek to overturn the verdict of democracy by appealing to the press and international opinion. It is no more likely to succeed now than in the past.
Though foreign news outlets treated Diskin’s remarks as a huge story that can be spun as part of a negative trend for Netanyahu, even the left-wing press in Israel is skeptical about that. Haaretz’s Yossi Verter noted that the personal nature of Diskin’s rant against Netanyahu and Barak at what he termed a “gathering of defense establishment pensioners” undermined their credibility. Unlike the foreign press, most Israelis are aware that Dagan’s animus against Netanyahu and Barak stems from the fact that he was fired from his post. That Diskin was passed over to replace Dagan may also explain his hard feelings. Moreover, the utter lack of public support for alternatives to Netanyahu or his policies makes farcical the claim in today’s New York Times that there is an “avalanche” of criticism about his stand on Iran.
It’s important to reiterate that the disagreements in Israel about Iran policy are not about the nature of the threat or even whether anything should be done about it as is often claimed by those seeking to downplay the issue. The question is about the timing of an attack, with Netanyahu’s critics claiming he is wrong to push for one now.
But this is an entirely false issue. It is highly unlikely that Israel would attack Iran while the U.S. is negotiating with it even if Netanyahu rightly suspects the current P5+1 talks are an Iranian ruse. The attacks on Netanyahu are merely a way for disgruntled former employees to vent their spleen at the prime minister’s political success and to try and hurt his standing abroad.
The animus against Netanyahu and his center-right government from the defense establishment and the government bureaucracy as well as most of the country’s traditional media outlets is well-known. Their frustration about his survival in power is compounded by the fact that he appears to be set for a cakewalk in the next elections which, incredibly, some opposition parties are pushing to be advanced from their scheduled date next year. As journalist Amir Mizroch writes, Dagan and Diskin — two men with axes to grind against the prime minister – may be “smelling elections in the air.”
Although the Dagan and Diskin affairs are in a sense unprecedented, because until now Israeli defense and security officials have not misbehaved in this manner, what is going on is just Israeli politics as usual. If these men and those Israeli and foreign journalists who are trying to make this into a major story are frustrated and angry now, just imagine how they’ll feel after Netanyahu is re-elected.
The reason Avoda is pressing for elections is clear – they have only 8 mandates left in the current Knesset, and any outcome will be beneficial for them (they'll receive more state funding to cover their huge debt). Mofaz at the helm of Kadima is afraid that with time, even more former party voters will defect (especially now that Tzipi Livni leaves Knesset). Yair Lapid can't affect the vote but he's pushing for early elections to keep his momentum. MERETZ hopes to gain more votes from Avoda so long as the new leader Yachimovitz stays away from the Palestinian issue.
And yet fanatical leftists who unquestioningly condemn all Israelis as pathological liars will latch on this one thing like it's divine wisdom that came down Sinai. Let's not forget that 'Mossad' or 'Shin Bet' is a leftist code word for Nazi levels of antisemitism. All of a sudden, the Huffinton Post crowd is on board with an Israeli intelligence chief? Wouldn't that wreck their whole "Jews caused 9-11" worldview?
Don't be so sure that even Barak and Bibi have decided it's a "when" not "if" decision over attack after the "when" has turned out to be "not now," "not now," "still not now," for years.
btw, Sarah Palin's be-all-end-all explanation that her opponents are "the establishment" is barely coherent in the context of American domestic politics; to explain away substantial opposition *within Israel* to premature attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities as same old same "establishment" is driving an analogy without headlights on. BIbi is about as establishment as you can get. He ain't the mayor of Wasilla or Petak Tikva. At least throw in the qualifier the nationalist camp sprinkles over these catch-all phrases to add iron "the Ashkenazi establishment". n nOh wait, he's that too. And throwing in the establishment meme pretty much trashes the "personal vendetta" picture of two sorehead losers on a petty vendetta. So spoiled poseurs just magically vault to the head of the Mosad, the Shin-Bet, and the joint armed forces command? Oh wait, that's the establishment!!! And the meme that Obama represents a danger to the national consensus of Israel on vital security interests gets sideswiped too. Turns out Obama represents … the Israeli establishment. Bibi's 35% Knesset plurality in polls doesn't contradict February polls showing solid majority against a unilateral strike–an Israeli response to Iran remains open. n n
This kind of thing is immediately recognizable here in the U.S. when it's a Republican Administration. The only difference is that it is perhaps a little better orchestrated. Step 1: "anonymous sources" within the CIA, Pentagon, et al reveal the "deep misgivings" about the GOP President's current course of action and reveal secret or semi-secret information that proves embarrassing to the President. Step 2: major networks and papers repeat and analyze these leaks as absolute truth. Step 3: former military types– retired generals, usually– are trotted out to criticize the course of action and amplify the leaks. Step 4: Democrat lawmakers call for endless hearings and demand that no action be taken until every, possible crumb of accusation can be pursued ad nauseum. Step 5: cultural icons and academics and others let loose a barrage of personal and unrelated epithets and attacks against the President to show that he is not only wrong but mean, ugly and smelly, too. n nOh so predictable. Yawn.
Right now we are not talking about anonymous sources. We are talking about the former head of the Shin-Bet. The former head of the Mossad. And, chetzi-chetzi, the equivalent of the Commander of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on record and very much unretired (depending on how you parse his statements). The anonymous sources are for the moment criticizing the other three. Israel is not the United States–it's security "establishment" while riven by personal and professional vanities and struggles up the greasy pole is not some huge bureaucratic politicized establishment allied as cultural aide-de-campes to a liberal media, a la General Clarke going on television. And, were this true, in any event, it would still nullify and invalidate the arguments we have been hearing that Obama and the establishment here represent views that are anathema across the board in Israel. n nAn argument that Obama is wrong on Iran because he is part of the liberal establishments running both the United States and Israel becomes a sectarian argument claiming to represent centers of purity on both sides of the Mediterranean–sadly, culturally and religiously, Israel is not much of a "Tea Party" nation. Really.
“The attacks on Netanyahu are merely a way for disgruntled former employees to vent their spleen at the prime minister’s political success and to try and hurt his standing abroad…” And let’s not leave out that these retirees (and Olmert, the future convict) need to please their paymasters in the US liberal jewish establishment that are currently engaged in the exercise of being Obama’s useful idiots in the upcoming election.
The left is doing anything to shut off any discussion on how to handle the major issues of the day which is the "raison d'etre of " democracy"! The left wants to impose its view by making a lot of stupid noise through the mass media. The communists did the same in USSR and do the same in China. The O administration is copying the Chinese without saying it. Allen West is right when he claims loudly that there are communists in the US congress. They are just hiding from the public