Netanyahu in cabinet meeting: Mossad a 'glorious organization'
“I want to make something clear,” Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, “the Mossad is not a criminal organization."
By HERB KEINONUpdated: JUNE 3, 2018 23:59Benjamin Netanyahu at a weekly cabinet meeting, June 3, 2018(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took his former Mossad head Tamir Pardo to task Sunday for saying in an interview on Thursday that the Mossad was a “criminal organization with a license.”“I want to make something clear,” Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, “the Mossad is not a criminal organization. It is a glorious organization that is doing holy work in the battle against terrorism and against other threats against Israel, and we all salute it.”Pardo made his comments during an interview on the Uvda news show. “The Mossad is a licensed crime organization, that’s the most fun part of it,” he said.During that interview, Pardo also set off a storm by saying Netanyahu instructed the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) to tap his phone and the phone of then Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz in 2011 in connection to the leaking of classified material.Then Shin Bet head Yoram Cohen said on Friday that reports saying Netanyahu gave him instructions to “listen specifically” to Pardo and Gantz’s calls were “incorrect.”
