Former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo dropped a bombshell in a May 31 interview on Israeli Channel 12's program "Uvda." Pardo implied that during Israel's preparations for a very important top-secret operation, an order was given to covertly wiretap then-Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz as well as Pardo himself. The report claimed that the directive was issued by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The whole affair is telling of the credibility crisis that has prevailed between Netanyahu and his heads of the various security branches over the years.

Immediately after the interview was broadcast, Pardo found himself facing the same ordeal awaiting every security figure who dares to challenge Netanyahu. The pattern is always the same: First the interview is slandered, then the allegations are denied and finally the whistleblower receives Netanyahu’s infamous "personal attention." Netanyahu seized on something innocuous that Pardo said in jest in the course of the interview. Describing the activities of the Mossad, Pardo called it a “crime syndicate with a license.” Mossad heads have been using this term for generations, and it arguably applies to all espionage organizations throughout the world that do not necessarily follow the law in their widespread surveillance activities with the consent of their governments. Netanyahu used the mention of a “crime syndicate” to attack Pardo, declaring, “Mossad is not a crime syndicate,” as if that were what Pardo really meant.

Suspicion and hostility have reigned between Netanyahu and Israeli generals as far back as his first term of office (1996-1999), but now he has stooped to a new low. When special operations are planned, such as blowing up the Syrian nuclear reactor in Deir ez-Zor in 2007, it is acceptable to subject high-ranking persons and even elected officials to polygraph tests to deter leaks. But wiretapping the telephones of intelligence heads had never been done before. There is evidently no limit to Netanyahu’s paranoia, no red lines when it comes to the basic trust that is supposed to exist between the prime minister and the people entrusted with Israel’s security.

Netanyahu himself denied Pardo’s allegations. Under heavy pressure, former Shin Bet head Yoram Cohen said that Netanyahu had not asked him “specifically” to bug the Mossad head or the chief of staff. According to Al-Monitor's sources, this statement is true. The directive included more than 100 “parties to the secret” in the highest ranks of Israel’s security apparatus, including the Mossad head and the chief of staff. The Shin Bet refused to wiretap these high-ranking officials, so the task was imposed on the Ministry of Defense's Malmab. But since the Shin Bet did not provide Malmab with the means to do so, the wiretapping was never carried out.