Top intel official said to have twice warned PM of security risks posed by overhaul tensions

A top intelligence official twice warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this year that domestic tensions over his government’s judicial overhaul plans were encouraging Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas to potentially take military action against Israel, according to the Haaretz daily.

The newspaper says Brig. Gen. Amit Saar, the head of the IDF’s Military Intelligence Research Department, first appealed to Netanyahu on March 19, a week before the Knesset was due to approve an overhaul bill and the premier fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for calling to pause the judicial shakeup (he was later reinstated).

The second letter was reportedly sent July 16, a week before the Knesset approved the so-called reasonableness bill, which curtailed the judiciary’s review powers.

“All the players in the [security] system note that Israel is in a serious, unprecedented crisis, which threatens its cohesion and weakens it. For our main enemies — Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas — this weakness is an expression of a linear process ending with Israel’s collapse, and the current situation is an opportunity to accelerate and deepen its troubles,” Saar was quoted as writing in the first letter.

Saar also reportedly warned that the political divisions in Israel were leading the country “to try to refrain from a security escalation, and allowing the risks against it to grow.”