"To a large extent, those who took part in this great campaign and managed it when this terrible crisis broke out, need to take responsibility. The consciences of a few of them have led them to take full responsibility, and those who have not - we expect them to do so," former Mossad head Yossi Cohen, who now heads the activity of Japanese investment company SoftBank in Israel, said in conversation with "Globes" deputy editor Dror Marmor at the Israel Business Conference.
Cohen also commented on the investigative article in "The New York Times" on Sunday in which the head of the unit for combatting terror finance, Ehud Levi, claimed that Cohen was responsible for the unit’s closure, and that profits from Hamas’s business activities in the UAE and Turkey continued to flow to the organization undisturbed.
"The article in ‘The New York Times’ was not accurate, to say the least. They contacted me, but I didn’t want to correct them, since the subject is not ‘The New York Times’’ business. The Mossad operates in accordance with the policy dictated by the government of Israel and the cabinet. The Mossad does not invent the content of the discussion, but it can be a participant in it, and I will not spell out here what we said all along the way. I will only emphasize that the subject of financial warfare was dealt with before my term, during it, and also after it, very intensively."
Cohen also talked about the government’s decisions to continue to allow the transfer of Qatari cash to Hamas. "That tuned out to be misconceived," he said. "Only it should be said that it wasn’t intended to strengthen Hamas. There was a certain mechanism formulated by the ISA (Shin Bet) and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, and it wasn’t just a matter of money but also supplies. Tens and hundreds of trucks crossed daily. Tens of thousands of Gazans came into Israel. There were many different mechanisms designed to create co-existence. All of them blew up in our faces and in the faces of the Gazan population. We were wrong in thinking that this helped, and as soon as I left the Mossad I said that it was a mistake to support or co-opt this organization in this conception."
Is it possible to topple Hamas
"This is a goal that was stated in the first days of the war and before the ground incursion. We have to understand that it isn’t possible to cancel Hamas ideology. It’s there on the agenda, and we can’t tell people ‘Since we are now taking the Gaza Strip apart, you have to renounce your belief.’ On the other hand, eliminating Hamas’s military infrastructure is certainly possible. We need stamina, we need to support the army, and to listen to what our friend the US says, and in cooperation with a European mechanism to end the war when the infrastructure is neutralized and when Hamas is incapable of firing even a single mortar bomb."
What will prevent them from rising up again?
"The day after is not being sufficiently discussed. We have to ask: How do we enable the IDF to end the campaign when Hamas’s infrastructure no longer exists, and on the other hand not be in the shadow of headlines about a humanitarian disaster. The security cabinet needs to discuss the strategic layer. We have many partners in the Middle East who see eye-to-eye with us. With some of them we signed the Abraham Accords, and others are in touch with us behind the scenes. All of them want us to finish off Hamas with all its infrastructure. But it’s possible to form a smarter coalition and not work alone, and to make a distinction between the combat stage, which must continue, and creating a different security reality in the Gaza Strip that doesn’t sink the IDF in the Gazan mire. We all remember the Lebanese mire, and we don’t want to go back to that kind of thing."
Who will rule the Gaza Strip the day after?
"We need to form an inter-Arab coalition with European support that will enable the right forces, including the Palestinian Authority, to return to the Gaza Strip, as we wanted in the past. In fact, there were attempts to return the Palestinian Authority to Gaza after Hamas seized control there in 2007. Abu Mazen apparently wasn’t capable of it. But I think that we have to create mechanisms that produce a horizon at which not everything will be on the IDF’s shoulders. The destruction in the Gaza Strip requires reconstruction amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars, and Israel has neither the ability nor the will to take that on. Israel will not provide supplies for 2.3 million Gazans; we mustn’t get into that corner, but must co-opt Arab countries."
Is a deal for swapping all the security prisoners we hold for the hostages possible?
"I’m not aware of any such concept being on the table. I’m in touch with the hostages’ families, and, like you, I demand that all the hostages should be brought home. It’s not a political matter, but one of substance, right and morally correct, to bring back the hostages quickly. Anyone who has been there will describe a physical and mental survival situation. I have spoken to more than one woman who has come back, and we have to assume that our hostages are undergoing continual hell.
"Our hostages, and this has to be taken into account, describe Sinwar as a calculating person, but if he had really studied game theory he would have been able to estimate what would happen if he succeeded too much. He basically couldn’t plan for how much Israel could change the rules of the game and destroy him and his terrorists with him."
Was the Houthi threat considered in the past?
"There’s no doubt that Israelis are becoming aware of them for the fist time. The Houthi rebellion is driven by the need of Iran’s Shi’ites to fulfil the vision of the ‘Shi’ite crescent’, and also to reach southwards to Yemen. The Houthis are essentially Shi’ites. Yemen has changed, a civil war has arisen there between Sunnis and Shi’ites. Iran transferred arms by ship and via Oman, something we fought against together with the US. All the Houthis’ weaponry originates from Iran - the aircraft, the missiles. But freedom of navigation is an international problem that isn’t just Israel’s concern."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 19, 2023.
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