Ehud Barak at Darkenu event
Ehud Barak at Darkenu eventStudio Leader

Knesset Members are demanding an urgent discussion following former Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak's comments on Wednesday asserting that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu caused serious harm to Israel's security.

MK Omer Bar-Lev (Zionist Union) on Thursday called on Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Avi Dichter (Likud) to convene an emergency meeting of its intelligence subcommittee and to summon Barak to appear before it, according to Haaretz.

Bar-Lev, who serves as the deputy chairman of the Knesset subcommittee on IDF preparedness and ongoing security, wrote to Dichter that Barak spoke of strategic threats to Israel and that a classified and closed-doors discussion on the issue should take place in the committee, and not a public discourse "on stages and with microphones."

Bar-Lev further noted that he expects Dichter to respond to his request and to convene the meeting and summon Barak as soon as possible.

Meretz chairwoman Zehava Galon, also a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, called for Barak to be summoned before the committee to explain his remarks.

"Barak cast serious aspersions on Netanyahu's ability to defend the State of Israel's security interests, and his words cannot be left hanging," Galon said, according to Haaretz, adding that his remarks require in-depth investigation and cannot be hidden from the public nor their representatives.

Barak spoke Wednesday at a conference of the leftist Darkenu organization - the new name for the organization previously known as V15 which worked against Netanyahu and the Likud in the last election.

In his remarks, the former Prime Minister and Defense Minister claimed Netanyahu was responsible for a "series of incidents" that occurred in recent months and that harmed Israel's security.

As an example, Barak brought up what he said was Netanyahu's “mistaken judgment” and his rocky relations with U.S. President Barack Obama. He noted, however, that he could give no further details as to the incident because of its sensitivity.

"There's also a heavy price in another incident in which, again, [there was a] worrying mix of inability to judge deep security interests and the priorities they dictate alongside a lack of internalization of the potential of cooperation with the United States, as well as careless operational behavior," Barak said on Wednesday.

"All these led to a most worrisome exposure of Israel to a central security challenge. Due to the sensitivity of the matter I won't be able to clarify further," he claimed.

Senior officials from the Prime Minister's Bureau told Haaretz that they don’t know which "security incident" Barak was referring to.

"We examined the issue. There's no such thing. Period," his bureau added.