Israeli ex-official questions attack on Iran

JERUSALEM -- The former head of Israel's Shin Bet security agency has accused the country's political leaders of exaggerating the effectiveness of a possible military attack on Iran, in a striking indication of Israel's turmoil over how to deal with the Iranian nuclear program.

Yuval Diskin said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak -- who have been saber-rattling for months -- have their judgment clouded by "messianic feelings" and should not be trusted to lead policy on Iran.

Diskin, who headed Shin Bet until last year, said a strike might actually accelerate the Iranian program. Shin Bet addresses security in Israel and the Palestinian Territories only and is not involved in international affairs.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Israel, like the West, believes Tehran is developing weapons technology, but there is intense debate over whether international economic sanctions accompanying the current round of negotiations might prevent Iran from developing a bomb, or whether a military strike should be launched.

Diskin's comments deepened the sense that a rift is growing between the hawkish Netanyahu government and the security establishment over the question of a strike.

"I don't have faith in the current leadership of Israel to lead us to an event of this magnitude, of war with Iran," Diskin said at a public meeting Friday, video of which was posted on the Internet the next day and quickly became the lead news item in Israel.

Several members of Netanyahu's coalition issued statements questioning Diskin's motives and suggesting that in effect he had allied himself with Israel's dovish opposition.

The prime minister's office called the former Shin Bet chief's remarks "irresponsible," while Barak's office accused Diskin of "acting in a petty and irresponsible way based on personal frustration" and "damaging the tradition of generations of Shin Bet leaders."