The head of the Mossad, David Barnea, dropped a media bomb last weekend of great security significance when he briefed several Israeli journalists that the expected nuclear deal with Iran is considered a “strategic disaster” for Israel.
The briefing was carried out according to messages approved by Prime Minister Yair Lapid, if in retrospect they were distorted by the Israeli media, it is not the fault of the head of the Mossad.
His words are true and accurate, he put the bitter truth on the table without trying to make it sweeter so that the Israeli public and the world would know that this agreement will make it easier for Iran to obtain nuclear weapons and not make it harder for it.
The signing of the agreement, according to David Barnea, is a matter of days to a few weeks, but it will happen with one hundred percent certainty.
His words should be taken seriously, he is a senior official in the security system and the security of Israel is in front of his eyes regardless of the political considerations of the election system.
The citizens of Israel needed to hear these things from Prime Minister Lapid and Defense Minister Gantz, but they are politicians facing upcoming elections, if they say these things the question will immediately arise as to where they were and what did they do to prevent this security catastrophe,
Did they fall asleep on guard and did their strategy, if indeed there was one, fail miserably?
David Barnea clarified that the nuclear agreement that the powers intend to sign is worse than the one of 2015, in 2018, according to Barnea, it has already been understood that everything is a complete lie and despite this, in 2022 the Americans are going to sign the agreement even though the Iranians have no explanation for the open files at the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The head of the Mossad emphasized that the agreement does not obligate the state of Israel and pointed out that the Mossad continues to work all the time to prevent Iran from possessing nuclear weapons. “Our commitment continues to be independent of the agreement. Israel is not a party to the agreement”, said Barnea.
David Barnea’s words were published with an interpretation that his words contradict the words of Prime Minister Yair Lapid that Israel does not want a crisis with President Biden, Lapid got furious and unjustly reprimanded the head of the Mossad and made sure that the reprimand was published in prime time on the Israeli television channels on Friday, David Barnea does not deserve this public humiliation, it was possible to handle the misunderstanding quietly, David Barnea is not a politician, he is a public official who must tell the truth to the public and not be a cover up for any spin by a prime minister, this is his professional and moral responsibility, we have already seen what happened in 1973 when senior officials in Israeli intelligence aligned themselves with the conception of Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan and led Israel to the disaster of the Yom Kippur War.
The Israeli Mossad will probably bear the main burden of neutralizing Iran’s nuclear capability to produce the bomb, the IDF is not yet operationally prepared to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, Israel has not prepared properly, the Foreign Ministry is failing to explain the dangers facing Israel and the Sunnis Arab countries if the agreement will be signed..
Israel is very late in launching a diplomatic campaign against the nuclear agreement, David Barnea is the one who will now hold the flag and lead the battle against the agreement through the Mossad’s secret means, we will see what happens after the elections in November, depending on who will form the next Israeli government.
Prime Minister Yair Lapid fears a crisis with the Americans and his head is buried in the sand, President Biden refused to accept a phone call from him, the administration does not want Israel to interfere with it signing the agreement with Iran.
Now there are talks for a phone call between the two and possibly a meeting in New York next month during the UN General Assembly discussions.
The Intelligence division of the IDF has a different position from the Mossad and apparently aligns itself with the political echelon and the American administration that the new nuclear agreement is the least bad and that Israel’s strategic situation could have been much worse.
Anyone who knows the Middle East and Iran’s activities knows that the head of the Mossad is the one who is right, the Mossad knows Iran much better than the military intelligence and its assessments are much more accurate.
Former Prime Minister Netanyahu and his Defense Ministers Avigdor Lieberman and Naftali Bennett did not prepare the IDF in time for the scenario of an attack on the nuclear facilities in Iran, each of them has their own explanations and arguments for what happened, but the bottom line is that the IDF is still not ready for an attack.
There is nothing to expect from President Biden, he is strong in words but weak in actions, Israel is not committed to the nuclear agreement but only to the security of its citizens, it will enter a very difficult period from an economic and security point of view and it will be a very big challenge to prepare the IDF for an attack on the nuclear facilities in Iran, meanwhile the Mossad is supposed to be creative and delay the Iranian race to the nuclear bomb in a series of covert operations.
The diplomatic failure
Israel has failed miserably in all its diplomatic efforts to convince the powers, not only the Biden administration, that returning to the nuclear agreement is dangerous for the entire world.
The European countries have almost no interest in the Middle East. They want peace and quiet and gas and oil for the coming winter in view of the global energy crisis due to the Russian military invasion of Ukraine.
They also want the renewal of their commercial ties with Iran and the strengthening of the European economy.
Washington itself behaves in a nasty and rude manner towards Israel according to its own interests and ignores Israel’s cries against the nuclear agreement.
Israel woke up too late, immediately after President Biden’s visit to Israel, when it was already clear where he was heading, Israel should have started an extensive diplomatic campaign against the nuclear agreement.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry is in a very difficult situation. Foreign Minister Lapid restrains it from criticizing the Biden administration.
A senior political official says that Israel is now fighting the final battle and that the writing was on the wall for the past year but the political echelon preferred to ignore it and danced to the tune of president Biden.
The Bennett-Lapid-Ganz government has acted in the last year mainly against the activities of the Revolutionary Guards in the Middle East, very little against the Iranian nuclear project, the Prime Ministers of Israel did not want to upset President Biden, now the question is whether it was worth it.
We are only at the beginning of the new horror movie and its end is not clear.
Yoni Ben Menachem
Senior Middle East Analyst
