Likud MK slams Barak for tapes discussing Israeli plans to attack Iran
Knesset Defense Committee member says Israel’s security hurt by disclosure of debates on aborted strikes in 2010, 2011 and 2012
Likud MK Yoav Kisch on Saturday lambasted former defense minister Ehud Barak for making recordings in which he details Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s unsuccessful attempts to win approval for a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Kisch, a member of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, questioned Barak’s motives for making the recordings, saying he was uncertain what “political gain” Barak hoped to achieve, Israel’s Maariv newspaper reported.
Channel 2 television on Friday night broadcast the recordings, which relate to a new biography of Barak being written by Danny Dor and Ilan Kfir. The former defense minister, who was also previously prime minister and chief of staff, attempted to prevent the recordings being played, but Israel’s military censors allowed Channel 2 to play them.
In the recordings, Barak said he and Netanyahu on more than one occasion sought to order an Israeli Air Force attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, but were scuppered first by chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi in 2010, who said the IDF was not ready for the operation, and then by fellow cabinet ministers Moshe “Bogey” Ya’alon and Yuval Steinitz, who did not support the idea. He also said a 2012 strike was aborted because it coincided with a joint Israel-US military exercise.
“On Friday we were exposed to cabinet deliberations of a preemptive attack on Iran via the story of Ehud Barak, the defense minister at the time. Publishing the discussions is the responsibility of the IDF censor and of Ehud Barak. The censor was wrong to approve the publication of the book on this issue,” said Kisch, a freshman MK and former Israeli Air Force fighter pilot.
“The reports from the forum [of senior ministers] are the most sensitive in the state and disclosure of information on the issue, which is still a major threat to Israel, harms state security,” Kisch continued. “I do not know what political gain Ehud Barak sought to achieve with these reports, but we would do well to cease the online chatter.”
Kisch is one of the leaders of the “New Likud” movement, which calls for Likud to return to its liberal roots, and the lion’s share of its agenda, as published on its website, deals with social justice issues like the cost of living and ultra-Orthodox military service.
