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Senior security figures debate threats at Meir Dagan legacy event
Current and former heads of Israel’s security agencies debated the threats to the country yesterday, at an event in memory of former-Mossad chief Meir Dagan.
IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot and current and former heads of Israel’s Mossad security service, Yossi Cohen and Tamir Pardo gave starkly different interpretations of the threats facing Israel at yesterday’s conference in Netanya.”
Speaking at the conference, current Mossad head Cohen said that Iran remains the major threat to Israel. He said: “As long as the current regime is in control, whether with a nuclear deal or without one, Iran will continue to be the central threat to Israel.”
Cohen added that “Iran wants to have influence and be a key mover in the Middle East… Its tactics have changed due to pressures, but the intent and the trend remain”. Consequently, said Cohen, “we need to be ready and to embrace opportunities” alongside others in the region.
Eizenkot emphasised the threat posed by Hezbollah in his speech. Alluding to Israeli strikes in Syria, which usually target weapons destined for Hezbollah, he said that that the army is tasked to “prevent the strengthening of those who should not be strengthened by [the acquisition of] advanced weaponry”. In Syria, he said Israel’s policy is “non-intervention alongside preserving our interests”.
Pardo, Cohen’s predecessor heading Mossad, took a different approach, saying that the failure to pursue a two-state solution is Israel’s single existential threat.
He said: “Israel has decided not to choose, and is hoping the conflict [with the Palestinians] will one day resolve itself, or that the Arabs will disappear in some kind of cosmic miracle.”
Unless progress is made, said Pardo “eventually, we will become a bi-national state because it will be impossible to untie the knot between the two peoples,” given that “the Jewish and Palestinian populations in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip are nearly equal”.
He concluded that “Israel faces one existential threat, and it’s a ticking time bomb” and that consequently “Israel must act to separate itself.”