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Why so many of Israel's security hawks have become doves

In Israel, many top intelligence and security leaders have grown much more moderate during their service, but the prime minister and his cohorts would rather brand them as leftists than analyze why.
Meir Dagan, head of Israel's spy agency Mossad, attends a Foreign Affairs and Defence committee meeting at the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem in this December 18, 2006 file photo. Dagan sees no reason to resign over a scandal-fraught assassination in Dubai, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is unlikely to ask him to, a confidant of the Israeli spymaster said on Thursday. REUTERS/Yonathan Weitzman/Files (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY HEADSHOT) - RTR2AH3X
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When the chairman of the Likud argued June 25 that serving in the Mossad and the Shin Bet turns their chiefs into leftists, it kicked off a political storm. The public commotion sidelined an opportunity to hold a real and significant discussion of why the Israeli security chiefs have concluded that a peace agreement with the Palestinians will best serve Israeli interests. 

Knesset member David Bitan's remarks, which he made in an interview at a cultural event in Beersheba, were a populist counter-response to the harsh criticism former generals Moshe Ya'alon and Ehud Barak directed at the prime minister at the Herzliya conference on June 16.

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