Israeli officials have denied reports that the Prime Minister has asked the head of the country's internal security service to spy on Mossad's intelligence director and the army chief. The denials were motivated by allegations that will be made in full Thursday, when the latest episode of the investigative news program Uvda (Fact) will be broadcast on the Israeli channel Channel 12.
According to the program, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for security reasons, requested that the personal telephones of senior Israeli security officials, including those of the Mossad and army chiefs, be intercepted.
The investigative news program reported, the 31 May, that the "unprecedented" demand has its roots in a "great secret program" launched by the Israeli government in the 2012. The program required a major transformation of the country's budget, personnel and intelligence resources. Although many individuals from the Israeli intelligence community had been informed about the project, the Israeli prime minister was worried about media leaks. He then kept his Cabinet unaware of the program and would not consult with the Knesset, or with members of the Knesset subcommittee on intelligence and intelligence services (by law he must be fully informed about Israeli intelligence operations).
Uvda also claims that in 2013 Netanyahu convened an extraordinary meeting of senior officials, which included the participation of the attorney general, the head of Shin Bet (the Israeli national security service) and others. It was during that meeting, according to Uvda, when Netanyahu allegedly approached Yora Cohen, the then director of Shin Bet, and asked him to "monitor the secret project partners". Asked what he meant, Netanyahu allegedly said that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Mossad would have had to control their phones for possible leakage of unauthorized news to the media.
Two names were mentioned during that meeting, according to Uvda: Tamir Pardo, head of Mossad, and Benny Gantz, chief of staff of the IDF, both new in their positions.
According to Uvda, at the end, when Cohen presented Netanyahu's request to senior officials of the Ministry of Defense, they "were disconcerted and disagreed".
On Sunday, Cohen took the unusual step of making a denial of Uvda's accusations, referring to "wiretapping by Gantz and Pardo [...], calling them not true and absolutely groundless". He went on to say that Uvda's allegations were "a total distortion of the systemic efforts that are made from time to time to safeguard sensitive information about Israel's security".
Also on Sunday, Prime Minister Netanyahu directly criticized the comments made by Pardo who defined the agency as "a criminal syndicate with a license", comments that the Israeli leader considered harmful to Mossad's reputation.
Netanyahu said that "Mossad is not a criminal organization. It is an exceptional organization that performs a sacred job in the fight against terrorism and other threats to the state of Israel.