The cancelled operation in Iran and the dramatic dismissals: what is really happening inside the Mossad? | Avi Ashkenazi

This is how the narrative is built for future generations. This is how the collective memory of an entire nation is cleansed. The decision by the head of the Mossad, Roman Gofman, to dismiss two senior Mossad officials — the head of the Intelligence Directorate and the head of the Iran Division — is a kind of earthquake. The general public does not have the knowledge or tools to judge the professional quality of the two. It is likely that the two have many merits.

Still, reaching the top of an intelligence organization and being appointed to a position equivalent to a Major General in the IDF is no small feat. On the other hand, the head of the Mossad has every right to move people, no matter how senior, from their positions if he believes their contribution is limited in relation to the realization of his work plan. The disturbing matter here is not whether the two were removed from their positions for substantive reasons. As you recall, Gofman moved A., the Deputy Head of the Mossad, days after his appointment. Back then, no storm broke out in the Mossad, because the move looked and sounded natural and stood under professional consideration.

However, here it is not, apparently, a natural move of personnel change, but an attempt to create a new narrative. One that again puts the professional echelon alone on the front line. In the Mossad, the storm is particularly dramatic, and disturbing statements are coming out of the secret organization. "Netanyahu has corrupted the Mossad as well. That's how it is when you put in a political appointee whose entire role is to clean up the failure of the Prime Minister and the political echelon in managing the campaign. The operation did not fail because it was not carried out due to a decision by the American President, and without the Prime Minister fighting against the decision," says a source in the Mossad to one of his associates.

"There is madness and tremendous agitation now in the Mossad. A feeling of a cowardly decision intended to serve the boss in the elections. The plan did not fail, the plan was not carried out because it did not receive approval from Trump. The one responsible for receiving the approval is the Prime Minister and the then-Military Secretary, Gofman, who fully supported the plan," says a source in the Mossad to his associate. Another source told his associate: "Receiving approval from the US President to carry out a Mossad operation is only in the hands of the Prime Minister. There is a cowardly act here, a lack of backing for the organization's people who have given their lives for many years for the security of Israel."

One must be fair: the Mossad's plan was a plan whose chances of success were unclear. To carry out a regime change, one must, at the base, present an option of alternative leadership. As we understand it, there was probably no such leadership available at that stage. Secondly, one must remember that the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is much stronger today than Benjamin Netanyahu — both in the USA, in the eyes of the American President Donald Trump, in Europe, and even in the Arab Gulf states. His moves were much smarter than the non-conduct of the Israeli government.

While Prime Minister Netanyahu is a leader who is in a kind of "house arrest," when he cannot fly almost anywhere in the world except the USA — and even that is in doubt after the announcements of the Mayor of New York — and even when he does arrive in the USA, he is received through the back door.

Erdogan thwarted the Mossad operation's move. He declared "DON'T" to Donald Trump, and that was enough to fold everything. Because in the world, and in the USA too, Netanyahu and the Israeli government are no longer counted for much. Especially when the Turks, the Qataris, or Saudi Arabia are standing opposite. The regime in Iran continues to rule, and in fact, it has succeeded in winning the campaigns against the USA and Israel.

In the Mossad, they understand that Gofman's move, who was in the not-so-distant past the Military Secretary of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and was then among the supporters of the Mossad's plan, is currently carrying out the move of fixing the narrative. So yes, the Mossad is going the way of the police, the Shin Bet, and the IDF — from state bodies that are the assets of the people of Israel and the State of Israel, they are becoming, in part, the assets of "King" Netanyahu and the Likud party.

And here is one example related to the shaping of the security narrative of the supreme leader. Soon, three years will have passed since the massacre of October 7, 2023. Will a state commission of inquiry be established? Probably not, as long as the supreme leader is in control. But this is the only war in which the Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, it seems, quietly folds to the will of the supreme leader. Lt. Gen. Zamir does not convene the committees for citations and decorations. In this war, there were countless stories of heroism of fighters, police officers, Shin Bet and Mossad agents, who risked their lives in the face of the enemy.

But what? Convening the committees for citations is necessarily opening the wounds that the government and the supreme leader do not want to be opened. Certainly not on the eve of elections. The thing is that as time passes, things naturally are forgotten. Military frameworks change. For example, there is no battalion commander or brigade commander maneuvering who has remained in his position since October 7. Unfortunately, some of the commanders were injured, some fell in battle. So in some cases, there will be no one to recommend examining the battles in which the fighters are required for decoration. Another move to change the pages of history and hide the greatest failure that the State of Israel has had since its establishment.

Unlike in the song of the Gevatron: "For it is real and not a symbol, and not a flag and not a sign, the past is behind it — it looks to the future." The security establishment and the State of Israel are struggling to look to the future.