Former Shin Bet head accuses IDF of 'media hypocrisy'
'Both sides look like kindergarten children quarrelling and feeling insulted,' Yuval Diskin says, noting rift will hurt cooperation between the two security bodies.
As tensions between the IDF and the Shin Bet continue to rise, former Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin on Friday added his voice into the chorus of back-and-forth criticism within the defense establishment.
"Both sides look like kindergarten children quarrelling and feeling insulted," he wrote in a Facebook post on Friday.
Aiming his scorn at the army, Diskin accused the IDF of "media hypocrisy" which is "expressed by the chief of staff's letter of complaint, which complains, among other things, about the Shin Bet exposing secrets."
The former Shin Bet head said he did not approve of the fact the intelligence agency chose to present its position on Channel 2 television on "issues that are still being investigated."
"Unfortunately, in my experience, there's going to be damage, even grave damage, because the mood between the two organizations and those who lead them affects the level of cooperation and the results on the field greatly," he added.
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On Thursday night, after it appeared the confrontation between the IDF and Shin Bet was finally calming down, Shin Bet head Yoram Cohen launched a personal attack on Chief of Staff Benny Gantz.
"The chief of staff sent the prime minister and defense minister a strongly worded letter that made serious, baseless allegations against the organization. We reject these claims outright," he wrote in a letter to Shin Bet pensions.
"We stand behind all the comments made by our people in the news program. They are accurate, reflecting reality and the true sequence of events. The information given in the program is reliable and backed by evidence," Cohen went on to say.
In the letter, Cohen contended that the dispute was the result of IDF conduct. "The method and messages the IDF chose to employ without hearing or viewing the program caused the harsh confrontation."
In first public comments on the issue, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that "The cooperation between (the Shin Bet and IDF) is a basic element of our national security. This cooperation led to significant results in the battlefield during Operation Protective Edge. It saved many lives. Thus I, as prime minister, am responsible that this cooperation will continue because the security of the citizens of Israel always comes before any disagreement."
In the letter sent by the IDF chief to the prime minister, obtained by Ynet, Gantz accused Shin Bet officials of breaching "every moral and ethical standard."
According to a report by Israel's Channel 2 television, Shin Bet officials claimed that they had raised concerns with the political echelons as far back as January, regarding early signs attesting to Hamas preparations for a conflict with Israel. IDF chief Benny Gantz reacted furiously to the report, writing to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the Shin Bet officials who had made the claims had "breached every moral and ethical standard."
The Shin Bet officials said their reports had continued to pile up, ignored, and that in April Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen presented Jerusalem with warnings of a wide-ranging strategic terror attack that Hamas was planning to execute within the coming few months, by sending its militants through a tunnel from Gaza to into the Israeli border community of Kerem Shalom.
The Hamas plan aimed to result in massive Israeli casualties and the kidnapping of IDF soldiers. Cohen's presentation included the Shin Bet prediction that such a singular event would immediately change the military reality on the ground.
But IDF sources claimed no warning of a potential conflict had been received from the Shin Bet, either in winter or spring of 2014. Defense officials said the clash on the matter erupted between Cohen and Military Intelligence director Aviv Kochavi during a cabinet meeting at the close of Operation Protective Edge in late August.
The Shin Bet, meanwhile, issued a statement Thursday saying: "Information passed on by the Shin Bet, beginning in January 2014, pointed to the start of Hamas preparations and training ahead of a possible conflict with Israel. It is important to note, however, that at no point did Shin Bet officials, including the interviewees in the story, say that the Shin Bet had alerted, in light of this information, to a war against Hamas in July."
