Security Officials Fear Netanyahu Is Deciding Alone

Security officials and senior IDF sources say Israel is trying to persuade the United States not to accept an Iranian demand that the IDF withdraw from Lebanon within 60 days of the agreement due to be signed this Friday. They are unsure whether the political leadership can achieve that goal.

Their main concern is that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is increasingly isolated in his office and lacks close advisers around him. A senior security source told Maariv that Netanyahu is “almost alone,” and that “the closest person, the last adviser he relied on, left days ago.”

The source referred to military secretary Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman, who has been appointed head of the Mossad. Although he is still around, the official said, Gofman is now focused on what was described as “the mission of his life,” running the intelligence agency. The source praised him as a rigorous and professional officer who effectively served as a kind of deputy chief of staff in the Prime Minister’s Office and was a major sounding board for Netanyahu.

According to the same security officials, the way out of the current crisis requires the political echelon to “change its mindset.” They argue Israel will need to seek a peace agreement with Lebanon, move negotiations from officials to the level of the prime minister and senior ministers, fight for a gas pipeline route from the Gulf states to the Mediterranean through Israel, and advance understandings tied to the Abraham Accords with all Gulf countries.