Nadav Argaman, the ‘Consigliere,’ moves out of the shadows to become Shabak chief
חשיפה: המועמד שהפסיד במירוץ לראשות השב”כ הוא אסף יריב, כיום בשירות המוסד
For the past two years, there has been essentially a two-man race to succeed the current Shin Bet chief, Yoram Cohen. Though Israeli media could not identify the candidates except by their initials, in 2013 I reported them as Roni Alsheikh (nickname, “The Fox”) and Nadav Argaman (nickname, “The Consigliere”). But a strange thing happened on the way to the face-off: Alsheikh dropped out of the running when he took the country’s top job in the national police. That left Argaman as the last man standing.
But to make it a competition, Netanyahu added a new contender, whose name also can’t be published in Israel. According to a confidential Israeli security source he is Assaf Yariv, who was the agency’s regional chief in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Since then he has been “lent” to the Mossad for [unspecified] counter-terrorism missions.
Now, Netanyahu has made it official. Argaman is the Shabak chief-designate (English report).
When Alsheikh had been facing off against Argaman, the beef against the latter had been that he’d never served in the job that is considered by many to be the most critical in both the Shabak: running agents and interrogating suspects. Instead, Argaman had served as chief of operations. He’d helped plan and execute missions, managed and developed technology needed to complete jobs. He’s led the counter-espionage unit attempting to uncover spies in Israel and the Territories. He would’ve also attempted to track foreign diplomats and intelligence agents working out of foreign embassies in Israel. He’d also served as the top Israeli security official for North America, working out of the Israeli UN Mission. His diplomatic cover was as a “counselor,” hence the nickname “Consigliere.” But of course, there is a distinct Mafia echo in the term as well, which is quite apt for the agency.
The agency’s “old hands” scoffed at this background being sufficient to be top man. Yaakov Perry, ex-Shabak chief and agent who ran spies, even wrote a scathing attack on Alsheikh without naming him explicitly.
Nevertheless, Argaman has prevailed. My source told me that among the responsibilities he fulfilled as deputy chief (his most previous role), was directing targeted assassinations. So for example, it is Argaman who is guilty of murdering Ahmed Jabari. I thought that was a reprehensible act for two reasons: first, Jabari had negotiated for the release of Gilad Shalit; and second, there was a ceasefire in effect at the time. I suspect that Argaman may see himself yet in the dock at the Hague. Of course, Jabari had blood on his hands. But from my vantage, the color of the blood on Jabari’s hands is no redder than the blood on Argaman’s.
Of course the Shabak ultimately has a hopeless job. It is responsible for crushing an entire nation, destroying its will to resist Israeli Occupation. It is responsible for preventing Palestinian resistance. It is using violence, murder, and torture to achieve a goal which may only be achieved by political and diplomatic means. That is why, ultimately it must fail. I believe that an intelligent Mossad or Shabak agent knows this in his heart. But he goes through the motions of fulfilling the demands of the political echelon for Palestinian heads to mount on pikes to show the people it is doing something. One helluva job…
Among the oddities in Haaretz’s reporting this story is a bit of self-censorship. The Israeli Hebrew language press freely reports that Argaman did his IDF service in Sayeret Matkal, or Special Forces. But this is how Amos Harel describes it: “He did his military service in an anonymous elite unit…” Well, no he didn’t. And everyone in Israel knows where he served. So what gives? We know all about far more secret postings from Argaman’s career, so why try to hide a post that goes back to the early 1980s?
Berko demands Palestinian MKs be searched on suspicion of smuggling knives into Knesset for terror attack
Bibi: Arab States are “Beasts of Prey”
Finally, I wanted to highlight an extraordinary speech Bibi delivered yesterday at a security barrier separating Israel from Jordan (a country with which Israel has had no security breaches for decades). He argued that Israel must be entirely encircled by fences, not just the current ones separating it from Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Gaza. Bibi envisioned Israel fully cloaked in barbed wire and steel to, as he put it, stop the “beasts of prey” (i.e. the neighboring Arab states) from attacking.
This astonishing turn of phrase has been reported is a few media outlets, but not received the play it should. In the NY Times, Isabel Kershner typically mistranslated the phrase Bibi used (hayot teref) as “predators.” A predator may be any sort of living thing, including a human being. But hayot teref may not be human. They are wild beasts which prey on the weak of the animal kingdom, tearing them limb from limb. Or, to use Yeats’ phrase, “ravening beasts.”
Netanyahu lets loose yet another disgusting Arabophobic statement revealing him to be a brutal racist demagogue and world media yawn as if they’ve seen it all before.
While we’re talking about outrages, let’s give a shout-out to Likud MK, Anat Berko, who declaimed before the Knesset plenum that there cannot be a “Palestine” because there is no letter “P” in Arabic. Not to be outdone, she’s come up with a new outrage: all Knesset members and staff, despite holding legal immunity from such things, must be thoroughly searched on their entrance to the Knesset because some members might “conceal knives” and introduce a wave of terror to Israel’s legislature.
Now, you know which ones she’s targeting, don’t you? Not Bibi or Naftali for sure. But if my name was Ahmad or Haneen, I’d be careful. Oberkommando Berko, holding a PhD in criminology and specializing in the study of Muslim terror, is gunning for you!
H/t Iris Bar.
Silverstein has published Tikun Olam since 2003, It exposes the secrets of the Israeli national security state. He lives in Seattle, but his heart is in the east. He publishes regularly at Middle East Eye, the New Arab, and Jacobin Magazine. His work has also appeared in Al Jazeera English, The Nation, Truthout and other outlets.
If ISIS isn’t a ravenous beast, than what is?
That’s right. All the neighboring states are ISIS. Clever boy.
ISIS=Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Which ISIS is present in Sinai and Syria, both of which border Israel.
And now you need a gate between you and the beasts, as these countries have been taken over by ISIS. Sure.
What about a roof to finish off your nice ‘villa in the jungle’?
“If ISIS isn’t a ravenous beast, than what is?”
The rabid racyst Zion$aur sealing itself into its Jura$$ick Park ?
@ Barbaric: When has ISIS ever attacked Israel? Never.
Richard. A reasonable homeowner doesn’t wait for a burglary or home invasion before installing a home alarm system. Does he?
And the supreme leader of ISIS recently threatened Israel.
https://www.rt.com/news/327165-isis-threats-israel-saudi/
And ISIS has beheaded a Palestinian Arab suspected of spying for Israel.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/isis-video-purportedly-shows-execution-israeli-arab-hostage-muhammed-musallam-n320986
Again. ISIS is already on Israel’s northern and southern borders and fears infiltration from her unprotected border with Jordan.
And a not insignificant number of Palestinian citizens of Israel have left Israel to join ISIS, including one man who para-glided from Israel into Syria in order to join the fight.
So now you want that wall to keep ISIS fighters from leaving Israel?
Please make up your mind. (For a leftie you fall very easily for the racist rhetoric of Netanyahu.)
I’m neither a leftie, or a racist, and neither am I a great fan of Bibi.
And maybe I wouldn’t have used the term ‘predatory’, but consider this;
Israel hasn’t had a civil war like her neighbors in Syria and Lebanon.
Nor is Israel a military-industrial autocracy that just had a bloody revolution like Egypt,
Nor is Israel isn’t a tribal kingdom like Jordan, and neither has she elected an Islamist government like Hamas.
Facts are stubborn things.
@ Barbar:
No, facts aren’t stubborn. They’re just facts. But you don’t have any.
Israel hasn’t had a civil war because it’s managed to rile up 150-million Arab frontline neighbors and can’t afford one without disintegrating. But if there were not such pressure on Israel I have no doubt there very easily could be such a civil war amongst Israelis.
Israel certainly is a military-industrial autocracy ruled by the security apparatus and the Likud rightist power brokers. Egypt btw isn’t an ‘industrial’ anything. It’s just a military junta.
As for being tribal, it certainly is. Just as tribal as Jordan if not moreso. Israel’s “tribe” is a Jewish one. Or more properly a ‘Judean’ one. Israel hasn’t elected an Islamist government of course, but it’s elected a Jewish supremacist government, which is the flip side of Hamas.
Have you looked at your own government lately? I would not boast about your government being better or more enlightened than Hamas.
As to boasting about Israel not having a civil war …..wow, that is chutzpah! Billions of military aid have made you so infinitely more powerful than the people you oppress and disposses that you take this for stability peace and calm?
And in any case, what do your ‘facts’ have to do with your ISIS fence or anything? Your comments are this unorganised most of the time. Well, at least you apparently stopped pretending to be a leftie.
@ Barbar: ISIS is based on Iraq & Syria. It has alliances with a few local insurgencies like the one in the Sinai. Sinai Bedouins, not ISIS, attacked southern Israel. ISIS has never attacked Israel. Not ever, not anywhere. So there is no ISIS threat in the south. ISIS does not threaten Israel from Syria either. It is locked in a battle with al Nusra, an al Qaeda affiliate in Syria. Al Nusra is an Israeli ally. As for Jordan, there is no threat against Israel from Jordan, period. Not from ISIS or anyone else.
A few Israeli Palestinians have either tried to escape to ISIS or expressed support for ISIS. And this is a threat to Israel, how?
So you’re all smoke, no fire. All hat & no cattle. Gornisht fun gornisht. You’re done in this thread.
” Richard. A reasonable homeowner doesn’t wait for a burglary or home invasion before installing a home alarm system. Does he?”
Nonsense. We both know that Nutty wants to allude to Daesh in order to try and slander Palestinian nationalist enemies and otherwise use Daesh as an excuse to justify whatever he wants to do in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.
Daesh isn’t going to do anything to the “Jewish state” outside of uttering rhetoric and threats.
Their main interests remain in holding onto whatever they can in Iraq and Syria, in addition to purging the Sunni community and attempting to persecute all other religious groups.
Nutty knows this, and doesn’t care because he’s a sociopath who sees all non-Jews in the region as “dirty” or “inferior”.
” Again. ISIS is already on Israel’s northern and southern borders and fears infiltration from her unprotected border with Jordan.”
The Jordanians are far more vested in the notion of containing and destroying Daesh then Israel is.
And again, Daesh is increasingly hard-pressed on all fronts.
Nutty’s scaremongering and insinuation serves only one purpose– the attempted justification of harsher methods against the Palestinian nationalist enemies that Israel made for itself.
” And a not insignificant number of Palestinian citizens of Israel have left Israel to join ISIS, including one man who para-glided from Israel into Syria in order to join the fight.”
In the real world, that number isn’t even a drop in the ocean as it were. Bsrely even a handful of Palestinians, and those who actually belong to that group clearly have no intention of returning to either the “Jewish state” or the occupied Palestinian West Bank.
Once again, not remotely a justification for Nutty’s deranged scare tactics.
This is yet another typically disingenuous post of yours because we both know that Nutty isn’t referring to Daesh in the slightest.
He sees Palestinian and Lebanese nationalists that his state attacked first as far more the enemy then Daesh and, per his ideology, sees “the Arabs” as “evil” and “the enemy” in general.
At least be honest about how he and the Likud Party (amongst others) actually is/are.
Nuclear chickenshit ghetto.
What a joke of a country!