Israel Security Chief in Secretly Made Tape: We May ‘Miss Saddam’

Posted on Feb 9, 2006

AP

In a speech to teenage Jewish settlers in the West Bank, the head of Shin Bet, Yuval Diskin, warned that Iraq’s troubles could foster regional instability.

Truthdig says: Remember when the neocons boasted that invading Iraq would be good for Israel? The chief of Israel’s domestic security agency, Yuval Diskin, begs to differ. In a secretly recorded speech to teenagers, which aired on Israeli television this week, Diskin said a “strong dictatorship would be preferable to the present ‘chaos’ in Iraq.” So much for making the Middle East more stable. 

In his speech at a West Bank yeshiva, Diskin exploded the widely touted and wildly disingenuous claim that ousting Hussein would make the region safer for Israelis, saying: “I’m not sure we won’t miss Saddam.”

According to the BBC, Diskin asserted that Israel might rue Saddam’s overthrow, saying, “When you dismantle a system in which there is a despot who controls his people by force, you have chaos.”

In the light of the recent Hamas electoral victory, Diskin’s comments about Iraq will not shock most Israelis, who know first hand that the invasion has not led to improved security or relations in the region. It was in fact Diskin’s statements that he disapproved of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and the unequal treatment of Jewish and Arab terrorists that seem to be, at least in Israel, the most controversial aspects of his speech to the West Bank Israeli youths.

The security chief remarked that Jewish and Muslim terrorists received unequal treatment at the hands of Israel’s judicial system. Citing as an example the Jewish terrorist who killed four Israeli Arabs in the West Bank, Diskin said, “A Jew who carries out terror attacks is a cancer in the nation more than an Arab who carries out an attack,” according to Haaretz.

Editor’s note: In response to a reader comment that was rightly critical of our previous headline, “Iraq Invasion Disaster for Israel: Sin Bet Chief Warns in Secretly Recorded Speech,” Truthdig has posted expanded commentary and changed its headline.

BBC: Yuval Diskin said a strong dictatorship would be preferable to the present “chaos” in Iraq, in a speech to teenage Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

He also said the Israeli security services and judiciary treated Arabs and Jewish suspects differently.

A Shin Bet veteran, Mr Diskin took over as Shin Bet’s chief in May. His speech to the students at the Eli settlement as they prepared for military service was secretly recorded and broadcast on Israeli TV. When asked about the growing destabilisation of Iraq, Mr Diskin said Israel might come to rue its decision to support the US-led invasion in 2003.

“When you dismantle a system in which there is a despot who controls his people by force, you have chaos,” he said. “I’m not sure we won’t miss Saddam.” Full story

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