Ya'alon and Netanyahu
Ya'alon and NetanyahuYonatan Sindel/Flash 90

Former Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon confirmed on Thursday that he opposed a deal to purchase four warships and three Dolphin class submarines from Germany, as reported by Channel 10 News earlier this week, but flatly denied by the National Security Council.

Ya’alon also called for a probe of the channel’s claim that the submarine deal was negotiated by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his lawyer, David Shimron, in a way that circumvented the proper channels.

The Channel 10 report said that Shimron also represents Miki Ganor, who is the representative of the German manufacturer of the submarines in Israel and that the deal was carried out – after Ya’alon was replaced as Defense Minister by Avigdor Liberman – despite the objection of both Ya’alon and the IDF.

"Indeed, I vehemently opposed enlarging the submarine fleet of the Navy with three more submarines. At the time, due to operational, organizational and economic reasons, the IDF did not need it, nor does it need it in the coming years - and my position was based also on professional and comprehensive research conducted by the IDF and the Ministry of Defense," Ya'alon wrote on Facebook.

"I do not know what was done and what was signed after I left the Ministry of Defense, but Raviv Drucker’s publications on the subject are very disturbing, and require a comprehensive examination by the relevant parties,” he continued.

“The description of the sequence of events described by the National Security Council is lacking and does not reflect reality as it is," insisted the former Defense Minister.

The National Security Council has stressed in response to the Channel 10 report that the ships were purchased "in a professional and orderly way, with no external influence." It also said that Ya’alon was kept in the loop about the purchase and that he agreed to it.