14 MEIR DAGAN, YUVAL DISKIN
For begging to differ.
Former Mossad director, former Shin Bet chief | Israel
If the Israeli government doesn't end up launching a war against Iran, it won't be because of the persuasive abilities of U.S. President Barack Obama or the political machinations of Israel's opposition parties. More likely, it will be the work of calculating former security officials like onetime intelligence chief Meir Dagan and internal security director Yuval Diskin, who have stepped into the public arena in unprecedented fashion to make a convincing, hard-nosed case that a strike would only make the Iranian threat greater.
These former soldiers are no peaceniks: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once praised Dagan by saying that he went to war not with a knife but with "a rocket-propelled grenade between his teeth." So when the legendarily aggressive former spy chief opposes a strike because it "would lead to a regional war and solve the internal problems of the Islamic Republic," Israelis take note.
Diskin has not only criticized a strike on Iran as unworkable, but has also called into question the capability of Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak to make the right decision. Their judgment is clouded by "messianic feelings," Diskin has warned -- an accusation that Israel often directs at the mullahs. These former spymasters are doing their best to help cooler heads prevail, reminding Israelis that not every problem can be solved by their impressive military.
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