https://www.axios.com/2024/05/19/netanyahu-israel-agencies-ban-us-gaza-war

5 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Bibi blocks Israeli intel chiefs' meetings with U.S. officials

• Barak Ravid

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has banned his intelligence and security chiefs from meeting with U.S. officials and lawmakers multiple times since the war in Gaza began, three U.S. and Israeli officials told Axios.

Why it matters: Netanyahu seems to be trying to control what American politicians and diplomats hear from Israel — at a time when his government is deeply divided over his war strategy, and relations with the U.S. are growing more tense, the officials said.

Driving the news: Netanyahu's most recent push to control the messaging about the war came three weeks ago, when he banned directors of the Mossad and Shin Bet intelligence and security agencies from meeting with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the U.S. officials said.

• Rubio, vice chair of the Senate's intelligence committee, requested the meetings during his visit to Israel last month.
• Netanyahu himself met with Rubio. The senator's office declined to comment.

Netanyahu's move wasn't a shot at Rubio, the officials said.

• Instead, the U.S. officials and some Netanyahu critics in Israel saw it as a sign of what appears to be his growing suspicion about Israel's intelligence, military and security establishment, which hold divergent views about how the prime minister is carrying out the war.
• Those agency leaders think Israel needs to craft a clearer strategy for post-war Gaza, and that there should be some role for the Palestinian Authority once Hamas is defeated.
• In the past few days, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and cabinet Minister Benny Gantz have publicly demanded Netanyahu draft a post-war strategy.
• Netanyahu rejects the need for a strategy until Hamas is defeated and opposes the Palestinian Authority having a leadership role in post-Hamas Gaza.

Some of Israel's security leaders believe Netanyahu's decision making about the war is being driven by political considerations, and his dependence on radical right-wing parties who want to topple the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and reoccupy Gaza.

• The leaders of Israel's security agencies have taken responsibility for the failures that led to Hamas's Oct. 7 assault on Israel, which ignited the war.
• Netanyahu has not. The prime minister and supporters have tried to focus blame on the military and intelligence services, rather than broader policy failures of politicians.

Zoom in: For decades, congressional delegations and senior White House and State Department officials who've visited Israel routinely have met with the heads of its military and security services.

• U.S. officials typically have seen those agency chiefs as credible, professional and apolitical, U.S. and Israeli officials said.

• But over the last few months, Netanyahu — who is directly in charge of the Mossad and Shin Bet and must approve their meetings with U.S. politicians and officials — has tried to prevent several of them, the U.S. and Israeli officials said.

An Israeli official said only one congressional delegation that has visited Israel since Oct. 7 had meetings with the directors of Mossad and Shin Bet, a significant decrease from before the war.

• A U.S. official said Netanyahu's office barred several meetings between Shin Bet leaders and State Department officials including Barbara Leaf, the assistant secretary for Near Eastern Affairs.

A few months ago, Netanyahu tried to stop Secretary of State Tony Blinken from meeting with Gen. Herzi Halevi, chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), U.S. and Israeli officials said.

• The compromise was that Halevi joined a meeting between Blinken and members of Israel's war cabinet.

What they're saying: "There have been several cases like that," one of the U.S. officials said. "It was clear to us that Bibi was just trying to keep the U.S. government from getting information that is contrary to his line."

• The official added that Netanyahu's ban is only partially effective, because there are many relationships between officials in both countries who find ways to work around it.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/07/ceasefire-negotiations-gaza-netanyahu-hamas

There’s one thing standing in the way of a ceasefire: Netanyahu’s refusal to compromise

Simon Tisdall

The Israeli PM has rejected the latest deal. Both he and Hamas’s leadership must stop playing politics with people’s lives