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Anshel Pfeffer

ByAnshel Pfeffer, Anshel Pfeffer

Analysis

Why ex-Mossad head hit out at Netanyahu

June 10, 2011 13:07
Dagan: “Iran attack is stupid”
1 min read

Meir Dagan could never be described as a lily-liveredliberal.

In eight years at the head of Mossad, he embarked on a series of clandestine operations that, according to senior Israeli officials, "stopped at nothing to disrupt the axis between Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hizbollah". This includes a series of assassinations that Israel will never take responsibility for, but leave little doubt in the Middle East as to their authorship.

So when last month, after eight years of silence, a newly retired Dagan took twice to public podiums to lambast the idea of a military strike against the Iranian nuclear installations, calling it "the most stupid thing I ever heard", it caused an understandable stir.

He directed his words to a Prime Minister who has been consistently bullish on the Iranian issue, but he did not stop there. Last week he urged the country's leaders to seize the initiative by forging a peace deal with "pragmatic Sunni" governments in the region and build on that with an agreement with the Palestinians.