Former Mossad, Shin Bet and IDF Chiefs unite in call to end war and bring hostages home

A group of Israel’s most senior former military and intelligence leaders are calling for an end to the war in Gaza and a deal to return all the hostages, with one former Mossad chief warning that the country is “on the precipice of defeat.”

The group, which includes five former heads of the Shin Bet, three former heads of the Mossad and three former IDF Chiefs of Staff, as well as four previous heads of military intelligence, have been described as jointly having “more than a thousand years’ experience in national security and diplomacy” on Israel’s behalf.

In a video published on Sunday, a number of those associated with the call, including former Mossad Chiefs Ami Ayalon and Tamir Pardo, as well as former Shin Bet heads Yoram Cohen and Nadav Argaman, spoke frankly about their view of the current situation.

“We have the duty to stand up and say what we have to say”, said Ayalon, who led Mossad from 1995-2000, having been a former commander in chief of the Israeli navy and prior to that leading Israel’s elite naval commando unit, Shayetet 13.

“The war started as a just war, a defensive war. But once we achieved all its military objectives, once we achieved a brilliant military victory against all our enemies, this war stopped being a just war. This is leading the state of Israel to the loss of its security and its identity.”

Yoram Cohen, who led the Shin Bet between 2011 and 2016, described how in Gaza “we paid the price in casualties, in deaths, way too many. Our achievements there are quite limited. Internationally the damage is severe, and we have not advanced in any way regarding the hostages.

“The IDF, with all its capabilities, cannot make real the fantasy of someone sitting in the cabinet who believes his fantasy can be achieved.”

Cohen, who served in the Shin Bet for almost 35 years, including stints as field coordinator in key regions of the West Bank, also warned that “if anyone imagines that we can reach every terrorist and every pit and every weapon and in parallel bring our hostages home, I think it is impossible.”

In clear criticism of the Israeli government, he said: “The IDF, with all its capabilities, cannot make real the fantasy of someone sitting in the cabinet who believes his fantasy can be achieved.”

Nadav Argaman, who succeeded Cohen as head of the Shin Bet and served in the role until 2021, said: “I don’t know any army that defeated a guerrilla war. We are currently in a static situation in Gaza. An army that is not in motion is an army which gets hit.”

Argaman, who previously served in the army’s special forces Sayeret Matkal division, and led the operation which took out senior Hamas military commander Ahmed Jabari in 2012, went on to say that “the direction the government is currently heading in is an extremist, fundamentalist world view, though it was not elected to be as an extremist, fundamentalist government, and it has taken us all hostage.”

Some of the strongest comments and criticisms came from former Mossad Chief Tamir Pardo, who led the agency from 2011-2016, who said that “No matter how good the army is, a war with no political goal is a guarantee of defeat.

“We are on the precipice of defeat.”

He went on to say that “what the world sees today is of our own creation. We are hiding behind a lie that we wrought. This lie was sold to the Israeli public, and unfortunately the world has long since understood that it does not reflect the real picture.”

The discussion included the belief that “it is now the role of the military chiefs to come and pound on the table, agency heads must now bravely stand up before the Prime Minister and the Cabinet and say their piece in the most genuine way possible about this war and about its futility.”

The video, which was posted across social media late on Monday, ends with the call “Israeli security chiefs throughout the ages demand – end the war.”