Ex-intel chief: IDF and Shin Bet are squabbling like ‘preschool children’

Former Shin Bet director Yuval Diskin accused current head Yoram Cohen and IDF chief Benny Gantz of behaving “like squabbling preschool children” in a spat that erupted this week surrounding the two organizations’ preparedness — or lack thereof — for the summer’s Gaza war.

“Sadly, from my experience, this will cause damage, severe [damage] even, since the atmosphere between the organizations and their leaders greatly affects the quality of cooperation and the results on the ground,” Diskin wrote on his Facebook page.

Diskin found fault with both officials’ conduct, saying that the Shin Bet should not have gone public with its version of events — which are still being analyzed and reviewed — and that the response of the Israel Defense Forces had been been patronizing and “hypocritical.”

With their public feud refusing to dissipate, Cohen on Thursday lashed out at the IDF chief of staff after the latter accused his agency of breaking ethical norms and presenting false information to the public.

In a letter sent to the agency’s retirees, Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen defended the security agency and said the allegations made by the IDF were “harsh, callous and unprecedented.”

The spat, which has rocked Israel’s defense establishment, was launched earlier this week, when a Channel 2 investigative report aired statements by a senior Shin Bet agent who said the organization had received information in January of Hamas preparations for a massive conflict or campaign against Israel in the summer. This alert, he insisted, had been conveyed to Israeli leaders.

The report seemed to suggest that the organization had very precise information on Hamas plans to initiate a large-scale conflict, which was relayed to defense officials but was not given proper attention.

This led Gantz to pen a scathing letter of complaint to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he denied any such warning had ever been given; accused the Shin Bet of presenting information “in a skewed manner”; and blamed its management for displaying “a deep lack of collegiality” to the army.

But Cohen said he rejected all accusations of impropriety in the Shin Bet’s conduct, calling Gantz’s letter baseless.

“We stand behind all of the comments made by our people in the program,” he wrote. “They are accurate and reflect the reality and the true sequence of events.

“The information presented in the article is reliable and backed by proof,” the Shin Bet chief noted.

He stressed that “not one word of criticism was uttered [in the program] against the IDF or the political echelon” and blamed the army for initiating the conflict through its harsh criticism of his organization.

Cohen said he agreed to participate in the Channel 2 piece only after he was assured that the story would not seek to create confrontation with the IDF, and that he cooperated with the station in order to portray the Shin Bet as “a professional and relevant organization that had made a sizable contribution to the war effort.”

He added that the Shin Bet now sought to clear the air and settle its differences with the military, “so that we may operate in full cooperation for the sake of national security.”

In Gantz’s letter, the army chief accused Shin Bet officials of crossing red lines.

“Information was presented in the program in a skewed manner, which created the false impression that the Shin Bet was the only organization charged with intelligence-gathering in the Gaza Strip that did its work properly, while the others… froze,” Gantz wrote. “I declare categorically that the Shin Bet did not provide an alert and did not warn of Hamas’s intention to launch a war in July.”

Gantz further called for a full investigation into the organization’s media conduct in light of the incident.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu convened a meeting in his Jerusalem office with Gantz, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and Shin Bet head Yoram Cohen, and “ordered an immediate halt to publicly dealing with issues that should be resolved between the security services,” a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said.

“We all have a national responsibility for the security of the State of Israel and we must continue to fully cooperate for the security of Israel’s citizens,” the prime minister added.