Ex-Shin Bet head says PM once asked him to wiretap top defense officials for fear of leaks
Then-IDF chief Gantz recalls Netanyahu’s ‘toxic and suspicious attitude’ in 2011 when reports said Israel was seriously considering strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities
Former Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen on Thursday said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on one occasion asked him to monitor government top defense officials to ensure that they were not leaking information from a particularly sensitive security meeting in 2011, adding weight to previous reports on the affair.
He was apparently referring to a previously known incident in which Netanyahu reportedly asked the Shin Bet to wiretap then-IDF chief Benny Gantz and then-Mossad head Tamir Pardo.
Cohen told the Kan public broadcaster that Netanyahu “was afraid” that a “sensitive issue” discussed in the meeting would be leaked, and that this would “cause damage.”
Therefore, said Cohen, Netanyahu “asked me to use my tools, so that anyone who is party to the secret will be monitored by the Shin Bet.”
“If someone leaks it, we will identify it and deal with it,” Cohen recalled the premier telling him at the time.
Previous coverage of the 2011 incident indicated that Netanyahu had asked the Shin Bet chief to step up oversight over a group of several hundred people privy to details of a top-secret plan for a strike on Iran’s nuclear program that was being seriously considered.
Then-Mossad head Pardo told the “Uvda” investigative news show in 2018 that Netanyahu instructed Gantz to get the military ready to attack Iran within 15 days of being ordered into action.
In his responses to both Cohen’s comments on Thursday and the “Uvda” report in 2018, Netanyahu denied wrongdoing but not the surveillance request itself.
On Thursday, the Prime Minister’s Office accused Cohen of “trying to create another fabricated ‘affair,'” charging that the former Shin Bet head was “deep in a political campaign,” and explained why Netanyahu had asked the former security chief to wiretap officials.
In recent years, Cohen, who served as the head of the Shin Bet in 2011-2016, has spoken out against the Netanyahu coalition and its controversial judicial overhaul program, and he last week denounced Netanyahu’s attacks on the current Shin Bet chief, Ronen Bar. Cohen has not announced a run for political office, despite scattered reports.
“The prime minister sought to protect a vital state secret, accepted the recommendations of the legal system, acted according to the law, and did not violate anyone’s rights,” the PMO statement said.
“Contrary to Cohen’s words, the real threat to Israel’s democracy comes not from elected officials but from elements in enforcement who refuse to accept the voters’ decision and are trying to carry out a coup d’état through unchecked political investigations that would be unacceptable in any democracy,” the PMO hit back, referring to several ongoing investigations into its workings.
In 2018, Netanyahu denied a report that he had specifically asked Cohen to eavesdrop on Gantz and Pardo. The former Shin Bet chief reportedly told the prime minister at the time that while he shared the concerns about a leak, he would not tap the phones of senior Mossad and IDF officials. “The Shin Bet isn’t supposed to use such drastic measures against the leaders of the military and the Mossad,” he was quoted as telling Netanyahu in the “Uvda” report.
Also during Thursday’s interview, the former Shin Ben chief posited that due to his ongoing corruption trial, Netanyahu has overseen “a systematic destruction of the most important national institutions in the country.
“They’re attacking the Supreme Court; they are coming out against the attorney general — Netanyahu has said there is an eighth front [in the war],” he said.
Gantz, who served as IDF chief of staff in 2011-2015, also responded to the Cohen interview, recalling the “toxic and suspicious attitude of the prime minister during the period that [the former Shin Bet chief] spoke about.”
“Even when I came to him with mature operational plans, he was always suspicious, always briefed, always trying to find out if something was being hidden from him,” Gantz said, adding that he was not surprised to hear that the prime minister had “used tools intended for our enemies against the heads of the security services.”
“The State of Israel deserves a prime minister who concentrates on the war on Iran and terrorism — and not on the war on the defense establishment,” he said in the lengthy statement. “A prime minister who understands that government is a means — not an end, in the name of which everything can be trampled on.”
