Former ISA (Shin Bet) chief Yoram Cohen has claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked him to disqualify former Minister Naftali Bennett from serving in the Diplomatic-Security Cabinet.
Cohen served as ISA chief between 2011-2016, including during the 2014 Operation Protective Edge.
"During my time as ISA chief, Netanyahu asked me to disqualify Bennett from the Cabinet, after he claimed that as a soldier he was kicked out of the Sayeret Matkal due to issues of trust," Cohen told Galei Zahal. "I told him, 'Are you serious? I'm not going to do something like that.'"
Cohen added, "That a Prime Minister turned to an ISA chief and demanded that he disqualify or use his force to disqualify a political rival, that isn't horrifying? That isn't disturbing? So I told him no. What would have happened if someone else had said yes?"
In December, Cohen, claimed on Kan News: "The Prime Minister was concerned because it was a sensitive subject. He feared it would leak and asked me to use my tools to monitor anyone privy to the secret, and if someone leaked it, we would deal with it." When asked if he was requested to use phone tapping, he replied, "Among other things."
Cohen mentioned this as an example of steps the Prime Minister might take in a social crisis in Israel: "If a group of people wants to protest, he might approach the ISA head and ask him to deploy his tools."
This incident was exposed in 2018 by journalist Ilana Dayan, who claimed that Netanyahu asked Cohen to listen in on the phones of then-Mossad head Tamir Pardo and then-IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz.
According to the publication, that year Israel was closer than ever to striking Iran: Prime Minister Netanyahu instructed the Mossad head and the Chief of Staff to prepare an attack plan within 15 days.
Cohen denied the allegations then, stating contrary to his morning remarks: "I did not receive a specific directive to bug them."