JERUSALEM: Six former Israeli spymasters accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday of jeopardising the country’s future as it prepares to celebrate the 70th anniversary of its founding next month.

The surviving ex-Mossad intelligence agency chiefs voiced their opinion of the fourth-term, right-wing leader in a joint interview excerpted on the front page of Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s best-selling newspaper and a regular Netanyahu critic.

Netanyahu had no immediate response, but a senior member of his governing coalition brushed off the censure.

Danny Yatom, who headed the Mossad during Netanyahu’s first stint in office in the late 1990s, called for his ouster, accusing him and his aides of “putting their interests ahead of national interests” as corruption investigations deepen.

Police questioned Netanyahu on Monday over his alleged dealings with the country’s largest telecommunication company.

Yatom also voiced concern about “the inertia in the diplomatic sphere, which is leading us toward a bi-national state (with the Palestinians), which would spell the end of (Israel as) a Jewish and democratic state”.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2018