Netanyahu Denies Ordering Phone Tap On Mossad, Army Chiefs

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to twitter on Friday to deny allegations that he asked the country’s security chief to listen to the telephone conversation between the head of the spy agency Mossad and the chief of staff of the army a few years ago.

Netanyahu said he never asked to listen to conversations between the chief of staff and the head of the Mossad and called the allegations lies in his tweet Friday.

The clarification came after a report on the popular Israeli TV show Uvda claimed the prime minister asked the security chief to listen to his colleagues' conversations due to lack of trust in defense officials, Haaretz reported.

According to the report, Netanyahu asked Yoram Cohen, former chief of Shin Bet, the Israel Security Agency to make use of the Shin Bet's capabilities in order to monitor a series of senior officials including listening to the conversations of the then Chief of General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, Benjamin "Benny" Gantz and then-Mossad chief Tamir Pardo sometime during the early months of Cohen's tenure.

The program quoted a source who stated Cohen was shocked and rejected the request saying Shin Bet is not supposed to take such steps toward top leaders.

"Wiretapping is the greatest possible [sign of] lack of trust. I never asked to wiretap any of my employees in the Mossad. Never. It never even crossed my mind. In my view, that's outside the rules of the game,” Pardo said. “It's the worst possible thing. If I had known something like that, the right thing for me to have done would have been to stand up and say, this isn't my game.”

“The claim that the prime minister asked the head of the Shin Bet to listen in on the chief of staff and the head of the Mossad is completely unfounded. This is a total distortion of systemic efforts that are made from time to time to maintain information security regarding sensitive matters of paramount importance to Israel's security. The decision of what means to use and against who is in the hands of the authorized officials.” the Prime Minister's Office told Uvda, denying the report.

The head of the opposition party, the Zionist Union, Avi Gabbay said the prime minister does not deserve his position and demanded Netanyahu step down. M.K. Isaac Herzog, the opposition leader, said the allegations are severe and concerns everybody in the country. He also demanded immediate examination by the state controller.

"The combination between too many years in office, too much power and the labeling of everyone who thinks differently as a traitor is devastating," said Tzipi Livni, who heads the Hatnua faction in the party.