Barak accuses Netanyahu of security breach in breaking Israel ambiguity on Syria

Former prime minister Ehud Barak attacked the current premier, Benjamin Netanyahu, for breaking with Israel’s ambiguity over its strikes against Iranian targets in Syria.

Barak’s comments on Monday came a day after Netanyahu’s abrupt announcement that Israel had struck hundreds of Iranian and Hezbollah targets in Syria in recent years, including a weapons facility over the weekend.

Israel has generally refrained from commenting about its covert activities for fear of triggering a reaction and being drawn into the deadly fighting in neighboring Syria’s civil war.

Barak, a former army chief who in the past served as Netanyahu’s defense minister, told Army Radio that “exposing it was completely unnecessary” and increased the chances of an “uncontrolled deterioration.”

By not claiming responsibility for attacks Israel gives the Syrians room to refrain from a retaliation, Barak explained, while “the damage to the Iranians is being done.”

He speculated that Netanyahu’s decision to go public with the airstrikes was motivated by the upcoming April election, saying it “seems to be more a matter of elections and personal promotion than state security interests.”

Commenting on his own effort to unseat Netanyahu in the elections, Barak, who is currently not running for the Knesset — but has hinted he is interested — said he is working to persuade center-left parties to form a joint slate.

Several members of the security cabinet were reportedly frustrated with Netanyahu’s public announcement that Israel was responsible for the airstrike in Syria on Friday.

Anonymous officials told the Kan public broadcaster that Netanyahu’s decision to break with traditional Israeli policy of not publicly discussing such strikes was “dangerous” and could unnecessarily provoke both Russia and Syria.

The official news agency SANA reported that Syrian air defense batteries opened fire on “hostile Israel missiles” on Friday and intercepted “most” of them, a common claim of the Syrian military, which many defense analysts believe to be false or overstated.

A Syrian military source said at the time that a “ministry of transport warehouse at Damascus International Airport” was targeted in the air raid. Another official told SANA that traffic at the airport had not been disrupted.

Israel in recent years has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria against targets linked to Iran, which alongside its proxies and Russia is fighting on behalf of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Israel has accused Iran of seeking to establish a military presence in Syria that could threaten Israeli security and attempting to transfer advanced weaponry to the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.