Former Mossad director Yossi Cohen has decided not to enter politics at this time, the Jerusalem Post has independently confirmed.
Channel 12 first reported the news, which came after speculation that has gone on and off since Cohen retired as Mossad chief in mid-2021.
Cohen has been either the most well-known or among the most well-known Mossad chiefs in history due to his role in the agency's heist of Iran's nuclear archives in 2018 and in the Abraham Accords in 2020, both of which were unusually made public.
Until Cohen's term, Mossad tended to carry out its intelligence and spying activities more in the shadows.
But Cohen and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided there were strategic benefits to publicizing the heist of Iran's nuclear archives and the Abraham Accords themselves were an unusually public stage for the Mossad.
After October 7, Cohen also had a hand briefly in hostage negotiations with Qatar and held many high profile meetings with hostage families and a large volume of media interviews.
No political return for Cohen
However, despite months of speculation, there is currently no election in sight, and Cohen is a man of action more than he is a man who enjoys waiting. Cohen is extending his contract as director of Israel operations at SoftBank, which primarily invests in companies operating in the technology, energy, and financial sectors, and which has close ties to the Saudis.
Previously, polls had shown that if Cohen joined a party with Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman or Naftali Bennett, that he and some combination of those other leaders could become a powerhouse in the next Knesset.