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Likud controlled by a bunch of belligerent
Ex tremists
FP 22. März 2014

Haaretz Mar. 22, 2014

Ex-Shin Bet chief lambasts Netanyahu's Likud as 'shallow'
By Haaretz

Yuval Diskin slams major political parties on the right and in the center in a piece for Yedioth Ahronoth, sets out his vision for saving Israel from itself.

Excerpts:
"The sane center is abandoning the state to a shallow party of the superficial right (Likud) that is being controlled by a bunch of belligerent extremists," Diskin wrote.

The former Shin Bet chief also called for "a state whose maintenance will not require the ongoing occupation of another people" and "a state that does not allow organized crime to go wild on her streets."

Meanwhile, Habayit Hayehudi, led by Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, is "a nationalist-religious party in whose eyes the unity of the land is more important than the unity of the people."

Diskin said that the ideology of Yisrael Beitenu, led by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, "is set according to the needs of one individual, the confidant of shady oligarchs, who eluded the short arm of the law by the skin of his teeth and since then has become (allegedly) the moderate peacemaker among the right-wing in the current government."

Along with this, Diskin called for the separation of religion and state, for struggle against racism, for protection of the weak and investment in education and security. The final article urges that Israel must be "accepted and respected by the family of nations for being moral, ethical, enlightened and developed."

Full article:
Former chief of Israel's Shin Bet Security Services, Yuval Diskin, slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, and the right-wing and center in Israel in general, in a column on Friday for the Yedioth Ahronoth daily, in which he also presented a vision for saving Israel from itself.

"The sane center is abandoning the state to a shallow party of the superficial right (Likud) that is being controlled by a bunch of belligerent extremists," Diskin wrote.

On Finance Minister Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid party, Diskin said the party championed the idea of sharing the burden of army service and "emptied it of meaning."

Meanwhile, Habayit Hayehudi, led by Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, is "a nationalist-religious party in whose eyes the unity of the land is more important than the unity of the people."

Diskin said that the ideology of Yisrael Beitenu, led by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, "is set according to the needs of one individual, the confidant of shady oligarchs, who eluded the short arm of the law by the skin of his teeth and since then has become (allegedly) the moderate peacemaker among the right-wing in the current government."

He was referring to Lieberman being acquitted on charges of graft in November last year.

In the piece, Diskin presents his "Social-Political-Economic-Security Vision," some 11 articles long. It is based on "what I hear from many people in the political center, and also from the non-extreme left and right-wing," he wrote.

One of the demands of the "vision" is a "democratic, Jewish and sane state that will not be navigated by rigid ideologies from the right or the left."

The former Shin Bet chief also called for "a state whose maintenance will not require the ongoing occupation of another people" and "a state that does not allow organized crime to go wild on her streets."

Along with this, Diskin called for the separation of religion and state, for struggle against racism, for protection of the weak and investment in education and security. The final article urges that Israel must be "accepted and respected by the family of nations for being moral, ethical, enlightened and developed."

Diskin also referred in the piece to Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto, who is suspected in Israel of having bribed a senior police officer, saying that the Pinto affair characterizes the culture of "opportunism" that has spread in Israeli society, along with the culture of "yes and now."

Many elected officials "flock to hear the pathetic advice of people that usually boast the title of 'Rabbi' and who sell their deceptions by building an image as people with vision," he wrote.

Diskin described a senior minister in the former government who would come to him when he was still head of the Shin Bet "with reports from a mysterious rabbi whose name he didn't want to reveal" who could predict terrorist attacks. Once, this former minister he even asked Diskin to act immediately following one of his predictions, "just in case a big attack is not prevented, and then the responsibility will fall on me. "
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