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Israeli Spy Chief Condemns Netanyahu for Iran Hype, Messianism

Juan Cole 04/28/2012

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Former head of Israeli domestic intelligence (Shin Bet), Yuval Diskin, said Friday that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are misleading the public about Iran:

“”They are misleading the public on the Iran issue. They tell the public that if Israel acts, Iran won’t have a nuclear bomb. This is misleading. Actually, many experts say that an Israeli attack would accelerate the Iranian nuclear race…”

He said he had no confidence in Netanyahu and Barak:

“I don’t believe in either the prime minister or the defense minister. I don’t believe in a leadership that makes decisions based on messianic feelings…”

He added,

“Believe me, I have observed them from up close… They are not people who I, on a personal level, trust to lead Israel to an event on that scale and carry it off. These are not people who I would want to have holding the wheel in such an event…”

Diskin was frank about Israel’s problem with racism:

“Over the past 10-15 years Israel has become more and more racist. All of the studies point to this. This is racism toward Arabs and toward foreigners, and we are also become a more belligerent society.”

He also expressed anxiety about the Israeli settler movement in the West Bank and its supporters inside Israel:

“Today there are extremist Jews, not just in the territories but also inside the Green Line, dozens of them who, in a situation in which settlements are evacuated… would be willing to take up arms against their Jewish brothers.”

Diskin joins Meir Dagan, former intelligence chief, in blowing the whistle on the erratic unreason of Netanyahu and Barak.

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About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

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Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires



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The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam


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