Strategic advisor Ronen Tzur, who advised Benny Gantz in the recent election campaigns, is convinced of the identity of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's successor.
Speaking in an interview with the Yediot Aharonot newspaper, Tzur was asked what will happen in the Likud after the Netanyahu era, and replied, "The next Likud leader will be the head of the Mossad, Yossi Cohen."
Asked why Cohen and not Gideon Sa’ar or Yuli Edelstein, he replied, "In order reach a leadership position in Israel, you need two qualities: charm and cruelty. Without the combination of both, you cannot be elected.”
"And Yossi Cohen - I don't know if he is doing it, because I don't know him - but he's built in such a way that his abilities to be charming are spoken of extensively, and in his abilities to be cruel, he overpowers all other candidates. And when he concludes his service - and if he doesn't have things that will get in his way, he'll be a very serious candidate," Tzur predicted.
Tzur also commented on the attacks by the Prime Minister and his son Yair on the law enforcement system, the media and the Attorney General. Tzur claimed that Netanyahu's son distributes "poison charges" on Twitter, and "he is the flag bearer of the hatred and slander in Israeli society."
He further claimed that these attacks are planned from start to finish. “There's the commander, Bibi. He decides everything. If he does not want something to be posted, it isn’t posted. There are those who tweet on his behalf or write on his behalf what he, because of his statesmanlike job, avoids saying, and that it is his son. And beneath him, his son is like the commander, the hate commander, and beneath him is a host of hired advisers and a line of elected officials whose job is to echo those messages like human ventilators. If we decide you are a traitor, we will repeat it until everyone says you are a traitor."
"I look at this Yair Netanyahu. A guy who is almost 30. You tell yourself, his grandfather was a kind of academic pride, his uncle a hero of Israel, his father - whether you like him or not – is a lion, and he lives at my expense. The food he has in the fridge is paid from my taxes, the fuel he travels with is paid from my taxes, [same with] the people who protect him. It's okay to provide the Prime Minister’s children with security, but when the animal-like behavior is added to it, it amazes me that none of the people who make up this glorious movement called the Likud says, ‘Enough is enough.’"