Yair Lapid
Photo: EPA
Lapid attacks PM for 'mistake' in televised presentation on Iran's atomic archive
Addressing the Knesset, Yesh Atid leader warns Netanyahu’s presentation on giant trove attesting to Iran’s nuclear weapons program will make future intelligence operations harder, reflects wider problem with PM’s judgement; ‘Something has happened to him’; hitting back, Likud mocks Lapid’s lack of security-related military service.
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid scolded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday for what he described as his “mistake of the highest order” in his decision to expose on Monday
a massive Israeli intelligence operation that concluded in the discovery of thousands of documents attesting to Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
According to Lapid, Netanyahu’s decision to go public with the intelligence operation cast doubt on his judgement pertaining to matters of national security.
“Like every Israeli citizen, I felt tremendous pride with the Mossad’s discoveries on the Iranian issue, but I disagree with the prime minister’s judgement on the televised presentation of this intelligence exposure,” Lapid said during a speech at the Knesset Plenum.
Netanyahu revealed what he said was “conclusive proof” of a secret project underway in Iran for the development of a nuclear weapon—evidence that he said proved that Tehran had lied “big time” to the international community.
Yair Lapid (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)
According to Lapid, Netanyahu’s decision to go public with the intelligence operation cast doubt on his judgement pertaining to matters of national security.
“I ask myself sometimes if we still know how to conduct proper and necessary security discussions, or if soon we will be divided into a sect of Bibi supporters and Bibi opponents, between those who think he can never do anything right and those who think he can never make mistakes,” he continued, referring to the prime minister by his moniker.
“I don’t want to get into the question here of whether Netanyahu was playing politics at the expense of security. What is concerning is that this is not the first mistake or his only mistake recently,” Lapid continued.
“Netanyahu, today, makes mistakes that he didn’t make in the past. The latest mistake should be carefully and seriously discussed in order to figure out how we can minimize the damage in the next stages.”
Lapid argued that the public exposure of an intelligence operation of such magnitude delivered a gift to Israel’s enemies by informing them of the Mossad’s capabilities, thereby allowing Iran, in this case, to take measures to prevent the success of similar operations in the future.
“When the enemy knows what your capabilities are, it plugs leaks and that is what has happened in Iran over the last 48 hours,” he claimed. “There is a wide scale intelligence operation whose aim is to block security leaks and security infiltration of the kinds the prime minister revealed on international television. That will make work more difficult for intelligence in the future.”
PM Netanyahu during presentation (Photo: AP)
Past Mossad directors such as the late Meir Dagan and Tamir Pardo, Lapid insisted, would never have agreed to exposing such an operation on television.
“I know that the current head of the Mossad agreed to it, but within the intelligence community there is also shock at the decision to publicize on television the intelligence infiltration of this kind,” he said, adding that such intelligence should have been used only once if proof emerged of Iran’s violation of the nuclear agreement.
“The critical point in time in which we will need these intelligence capabilities is neither now nor ahead of the decision of the May 12, but rather the day on which Iran begins to violate the nuclear agreement. Then, we will want to have all of our capabilities,” Lapid added.
The second faux pas made by Netanyahu, Lapid charged, was in his political and diplomatic considerations in exposing the operation.
“There is no one in the world that didn’t know Iran is lying. Had the entire world not known that Iran was lying, they would not have made a nuclear agreement. To say this is an exposure? In order to say that Iran is lying you expose sensitive information?” he demanded.
Lapid also expressed his concerns that US President Donald Trump would decide on the May 12 deadline to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear agreement of 2015 that was reached between Iran and global powers, which granted Tehran relief from economic sanctions in return for curbs to its nuclear program.
(Photo: AP)
“Netanyahu’s presentation pushes the Americans toward a situation that we don’t want. Even the prime minister knows that the unilateral nullification of the agreement will cause the Russians to have more business in Tehran. They will tell them that the Americans unilaterally withdrew from the agreement. The prime minister and the head of the Mossad should have gone to the White House, to Washington and presented them with the material in a closed forum,” Lapid declared.
Insisting that that he still wanted to see the imposition of new sanctions on Iran and that he agrees that the deal needs changing, Lapid repeated Netanyahu’s mistake reflected a wider problem in the prime minister’s judgement.
“I have said for a while, and my concern is growing, something has happened to him. In the current situation, we will pay a heavy intelligence price for this mistake,” he concluded.
Responding to the scathing speech, the Likud party issued a statement attacking Lapid. “Contrary to his delusional statements, the decision was taken together with all the relevant security officials. Even on a matter of extreme importance for Israel’s security, Lapid prefers to tweet and to babble for political purposes,” a statement read, before ridiculing the Yesh Atid leader for his military service.
“When the extent of your military experience ends in the service of the ‘Mahaneh’ newspaper, that’s what comes out. It’s better for someone who doesn’t help, to be less distractive.”
