Following former National Security Adviser Uzi Arads public accusations over the weekend, in which he said the Prime Ministers Office lied to the state comptroller and failed to uphold the law, the PMO is fighting back. Arad resigned his position as National Security Adviser in February 2011 after he was accused of leaking classified information. In an interview with Channel 2 news on Saturday, Arad said, We have to look into the possibility that I was framed. But the Prime Ministers Office tells a different story. Arad wants to defend his honor, but he is forgetting the facts, a senior source in the PMOffice said. The source said Arad had been questioned by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), and had been found guilty of leaking secrets to a journalist. Following this, he lost his high-level security clearance for a period of five years. According to the senior source, during his two-year tenure as National Security Adviser, Arad acted as if he wanted to run the entire security apparatus. The 2008 National Security Council Law does afford the national security adviser greater authority, but that position is directly subordinate to the prime minister. Arad acted as though as though Netanyahu had to answer to him, the source said. The source described Arad as having troubled working relationships with a number of people that his role required he maintain good relations with. Various branches of the security establishment even stopped working with him, and some security brass refused to send representatives to meetings he held because they did not trust him to keep the proceedings secret. He also had problematic personal relations with his underlings at the National Security Council, generating a lot of employee turnover. According to the source, Arad felt frustrated, complaining that everyone from the prime minister to various members of the security establishment were failing to uphold the law requiring them to coordinate their actions and share information with him. He decided to go to the state comptroller and request an investigation into why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was failing to uphold the National Security Council law. The source said that Arad met with people in the State Comptrollers Office and even wrote them a report behind Netanyahus back. The state comptroller decided to launch an investigation and began gathering material from the National Security Councils offices. The PMO insists that contrary to what Arad told Yedioth Ahronoth over the weekend, the prime minister never issued a directive instructing staff members not to cooperate with the comptroller. According to the source, Arads responses to the state comptrollers questions often crossed the line, going from professional to personal attacks. On one occasion he reportedly asked the state comptroller to use harsher language and write, The prime minister acted against implementing that National Security Council Law and tried to subvert implementation of the law, without any evidence to back up this claim. This was some kind of personal battle, the source said. Most of the material is classified and we assume Arad took this into consideration. His interpretation of the National Security Council Law was quite comprehensive. In his view, the prime minister must not utter a word about foreign affairs and security outside Arads presence. Thus for instance, if the prime minister left a Cabinet meeting, then suddenly remembered something and wanted to chat with the defense minister in an ad hoc way, from Arads point of view, that went against regulations and broke the law. He had to be in every forum on every topic in every place where there was discussion of foreign affairs and security. The PMO confirmed on Saturday that Netanyahu had met with Arad six times in the last two months. Arad is said to have wanted to return to the PMO as a political consultant on a highly sensitive security matter. On Saturday, Arad claimed that the meetings had been initiated by Netanyahu. Netanyahu was asked about the affair during a press conference on Friday in Ottawa with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. One must not judge a man by things he says when he is upset, Netanyahu replied, quoting the Talmud. That applies in this case as well. Arad responded on Channel 2s Meet the Press television show, by saying: One must not judge the prime minister for words spoken in anger either. The real test of any government is security, the economy and diplomacy, Netanyahu said at the press conference. In terms of security, Israel is strong. In terms of the economy, Israel is thriving. In the diplomatic arena, weve invested great efforts in persuading world leaders that Irans nuclear armament is a threat to world peace and security. In interviews on Channel 2 and in Yedioth Ahronoth, Arad said that he did not leak classified information from the PMO and that he wanted to clear his name. There is a possibility I was framed, he said on Channel 2, and hinted that members of the security establishment were responsible, possibly the PMO Military Secretary, Maj. Gen. Yohanan Locker, who allegedly feared for his own job security. Speaking of former Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) head Yuval Diskin, Arad said, He has a score to settle with me. He suspects I thwarted his appointee for head of the Mossad. The truth is I had no part in [Netanyahus] decision not to appoint him, but he wants revenge. In response to the remarks from the PMO, Arad issued a statement through his spokeswoman Tami Shenkman. Its very shameful that these things were said by spokespeople for the Prime Ministers Office, he said. Their low level and lack of understanding of the matters at hand has reached an all-time low, which the PMO should be ashamed of. On the clause of the National Security Council Law that gives the prime minister the authority to determine the balance of power between the National Security Council and others in positions of authority, Arad said, This is legal nitpicking. They need to go speak with senior jurist and realize that their interpretation is probably mistaken.
