Jerusalem – The newly retired head of Israel’s fabled Mossad spy agency has turned his sights toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, repeatedly criticizing the Israeli leader’s approach to Iran and the Palestinians.
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After earning a reputation as a fearless operator against Israel’s enemies, now Meir Dagan is showing public concern over how Israel’s government deals with them.
Dagan’s statements, rare for a man known for discretion and secrecy during a three-decade career in the intelligence service, have startled many Israelis.
In a speech at Tel Aviv University on Wednesday, Dagan issued a stern warning against attacking Iran, saying a strike would risk unleashing a region-wide war and only encourage Tehran to push forward with a nuclear program that is widely believed to be aimed at developing weapons. Iran denies that.
“The war won’t be against Iran, but will be a regional war,” he said, according to a transcript obtained by The Associated Press. “I recommend that the prime minister not decide to attack.”
Dagan also lamented the dire state of peace efforts with the Palestinians, which have been frozen for months.
“There needs to be an Israeli peace initiative,” he said. “If we don’t offer things and don’t take the initiative, we might be put in a corner. Given the choice between put in a corner or taking the initiative, initiative is better.”
He suggested that Israel accept a nine-year-old peace initiative proposed by Saudi Arabia, offering peace with the Arab world in return for a full withdrawal from all territories captured by Israel in the 1967 war.
With the comments, Dagan took a swipe at two cornerstones of Netanyahu’s foreign policy.
Israel considers Iran its most dangerous threat, citing Tehran’s nuclear program, its ballistic missile development, repeated references by the Iranian leader to Israel’s destruction and Iran’s support for the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
Netanyahu has said that international sanctions should be the preferred way to halt the Iranian nuclear program, but he has repeatedly said that the military option should not be ruled out.
“The more Iran believes that all options are on the table, the less the chance of confrontation,” Netanyahu said in a high-profile address to the U.S. Congress last week.
In the same address, Netanyahu laid out his vision for peace with the Palestinians. He presented no new ideas for breaking the deadlock and instead repeated a series of red lines on borders and security demands he has set for any future deal. Netanyahu rejects a withdrawal to Israel’s 1967 lines.
Dagan’s criticism has been noteworthy because he has a reputation as a hard-liner toward Israel’s Arab and Muslim adversaries. Foreign press reports have attributed a number of bold operations to the Mossad during Dagan’s eight-year term.
Among them were the assassination of a Hezbollah mastermind in Syria in 2008, the assassination of a senior Hamas operative in Dubai in 2010, a mysterious Israeli airstrike in Syria in 2007 that destroyed what was believed to be a nuclear reactor and the release of a computer worm that crippled Iranian nuclear facilities. Israel has never confirmed its involvement in any of these operations.
“He is one of the most right-wing militant people ever born here, somebody who ate Arabs for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” wrote Ben Caspit, the chief columnist for the Maariv daily. “When this man says that the leadership has no vision and is irresponsible, we should stop sleeping soundly at night.”
Caspit claimed two other recently retired security chiefs expressed similar reservations in private. He offered no proof.
Since leaving office early this year, Dagan has become increasingly outspoken in his criticism of the government, implying that leaders are pushing the country toward war.
Just days after his retirement, an Israeli newspaper quoted him as saying Israel “should not hurry” to attack Iran. Last month, he was quoted as saying a military strike on Iran would be “stupid.”
In Wednesday’s speech, Dagan said he knew it is inappropriate for public officials to express their opinions. He is currently head of Israel’s Ports Authority.
“But I will express my opinion anyway,” Dagan said in Wednesday’s speech. “I am not prepared for it to be on my conscience that there will be a repeat of what happened in 1973.”
He did not elaborate, but Israel suffered heavy losses in the 1973 Mideast war after leaders ignored warnings from intelligence chiefs and were caught off guard by invading Syrian and Egyptian armies.
Netanyahu’s office refused to comment.
The speech dominated Israeli newspapers, radio broadcasts and newscasts on Thursday. While some commentators said Dagan was delivering an important wake-up call to the establishment, many officials said he had crossed a line.
“It damages state security. There is no need to give the other side directions of thought, activity or readiness,” said Cabinet minister Yossi Peled, a former general who once commanded Israel’s northern front. “I am sure he is very worried and is acting out of good intentions, but I still think there are things that shouldn’t be declared in public.”
He’s saying what every sensible, non-idiotic person thinks. I know the rabid armchair generals that populate this site are going to flip out but these are the uncomfortable truths. If you foolish right-wing tools don’t like it, tough.
Comes to prove that being a good intelligence head does not make a great visionary or statesman. He is entitled to his opinion, but it is no better then another hundred Meir’s in Israel.
He is probably right on Iran, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure this out that attacking Iran might mean an eternal quagmire Israel cannot afford. No one can predict its repercussions where so many things can go wrong.
On the 1967 borders he is flat out wrong. Besides eating Arabs for breakfast, he probably doesn’t feel a Jewish connection to Yehuda, Shomron & Yerusalayim. He probably lives in Tel Aviv and thinks that Paris on the Mediterranean is what Eretz Yisroel is all about.
I agree that Israel needs to put forth an initiative that Israel is ready to make painful concessions, but make it clear only for a Palestinian state that doesn’t want Israel’s destruction. Until they don’t prove to us that they have changed and really want to live in peace with us, we shall build everywhere in Israel; that’s the only language they understand, besides it being the right thing to do in a land that is ours; and was always ours.
A return to the 1967 borders is rewarding terrorism and endangering Jews.
I know of many non-idiotic people who for some strange reason believe that an Israel 9 miles wide is not defensible in the year 2011.
Know what happens if Israel can no longer defend a conventional war, because it’s been forced into indefensible borders?
Hint: Glow-in-the-dark Arab capitols.
Very interesting. Sounds like someone wants to run for public office. The Lubavitcer Rebbe always said that for matters of security you must go to ACTIVE army generals not politicians etc… As the Rebbe also quoted on a regular basis I’ll paraphrase in English “The eyes of Hashem are on the land of Israel from the beginning to the end of the year”!
I hope he just said it so when Israel does strike, there should be the element of surprise…but we all know that’s not the reason
I am sure this is only to surprise iran
Israel would never have come into existence under natural law, nor would she or her people be around now. If you look at things naturally, then none of Israel should be kept because the Arabs who DO believe in a Gd want to kill us as they say straight out. SO Dagan will make the same stupid mistake every other prime minister who has given away land INCLUDING GAZA made! We are people NOT GD, and we are not allowed to give away land. How many times must we get hurt?!
To those who insist that Israel has to be more than nine miles wide: how come no Israeli government has ever proposed annexing Tulkarm and Qalqiyah, and why are they on the other side of the Separation Fence?
Dagan was Israel’s version of Tenent.