Will Israeli voters in 2026 punish Netanyahu for Oct 7 or reward him for victories over Hamas, Hezbollah & Iran? Fmr Mossad chief Yossi Cohen talks to ALL ISRAEL NEWS, assesses Bibi's political prospects
Cohen calls Oct 7 'inexcusable' and 'unforgivable' – but is he now softening his criticisms of Netanyahu?
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL – Yossi Cohen was once one of Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu's closest advisors and confidantes.
Is he now a political rival to Netanyahu?
Recently, I sat down for a 75-minute interview with the former Mossad chief, a real-life Jewish James Bond.
We discussed a wide range of matters, from Cohen's years as Israel's top spy to his views on the future of Iran, the prospects for normalization with Saudi Arabia, and his thoughts on the future of Gaza.
We also discussed the explosion of antisemitism around the world and how he believes we should strengthen and deepen the strategic alliance between Israel, the Jewish people, and Evangelical Christians.
But I also asked Cohen to assess Netanyahu's political prospects as Israelis head towards the next round of national elections in 2026.
So far, we have aired portions of our conversation on two episodes of THE ROSENBERG REPORT, my weekly, prime time, half-hour news and analysis program on TBN, the most-watched Christian television network in the United States.
COHEN AND NETANYAHU: ONCE THE CLOSEST OF ALLIES
In a moment, I'll get to Cohen's views of Netanyahu's leadership and whether he believes Bibi should be – and will be – re-elected.
But first, it's worth understanding just how closely these two have worked together over the years.
In 2011, Netanyahu appointed Cohen to serve as deputy director of the Mossad, Israel's legendary spy agency.
In 2013, Bibi appointed him to be Israel's 9th national security advisor.
Then, in July 2015, Bibi appointed Cohen to serve as head of the Mossad.
COHEN AND NETANYAHU: A HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL TRACK RECORD WORKING TOGETHER
Together, the two men had one of the most impactful and effective relationships of any prime minister and Mossad director in Israeli history.
Together in 2018, as ALL ISRAEL NEWS has reported in detail, they worked together to steal Iran's top secret nuclear weapons blueprints and archives – Iran's nuclear "crown jewels" – from a highly classified and secure warehouse deep inside Tehran, the Iranian capital.
After smuggling the archive back to Israel and translating it, they released the most damning documents – the "smoking guns" – and they shared them with Western world leaders, including U.S. President Donald J. Trump and Mike Pompeo, then serving as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
These stunning revelations, proving that Iran's leadership had lied about never having plans to build nuclear weapons, convinced Trump to rip up the tragically flawed 2015 nuclear deal that President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden and their team had negotiated with Tehran, a deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Netanyahu and Cohen further persuaded Trump to impose his famous "maximum pressure" campaign of crushing economic sanctions on the Iranian regime.
But that's not all.
Together, Netanyahu and Cohen – according to foreign sources – successfully assassinated Iran's top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, in November 2020, deep inside Iran.
And together they gathered the intelligence and laid the groundwork that led to the stunningly successful Israeli and American military attacks last June that utterly destroyed Iran's nuclear weapons program and severely damaged Iran's ballistic missile program.
The two men were so close that there was a time several years ago when Netanyahu openly speculated about handing the "keys to the kingdom," as it were, to either Cohen or former Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, so that one of them could lead the Likud party and succeed him as prime minister.
AFTER RETIRING FROM THE MOSSAD, COHEN HAS HAD VERY POINTED CRITICISMS OF NETANYAHU
Yet times have changed.
Upon retiring from the Mossad, Cohen has had some very pointed criticisms of his long-time boss and mentor.
Cohen writes in his spellbinding and must-read new book – THE SWORD OF FREEDOM – that it is "inexcusable" and “unforgivable” what Israel’s leadership allowed to happen on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas invaded southern Israel and slaughtered 1,200 Israelis in the worst massacre of Jews on a single day since the Holocaust.
On page 3, Cohen wrote, “I cannot forgive the attitudes and approaches which led to such a disaster….There was complacency where there should have been coordinated contingency planning, coziness where there should have been wariness, indecisiveness where there should have been urgency. Basic protection principles and practices were either forgotten or ignored by those who should have known better.”
On page 4, Cohen wrote, “That poverty of intelligence was the principal reason that, on being nominated as Mossad director in 2016, I asked Prime Minister Netanyahu to be given responsibility for intelligence operations in Gaza,” rather than leaving that responsibility with “the army and Shabak [Shin Bet], Israel’s internal security service.”
But Cohen says his request was denied.
On page 6, he wrote, “Ignorance and inaction [in terms of confronting Hamas’ plans and preparations] were inexcusable.”
On page 21, Cohen wrote, “It does not help that Prime Minister Netanyahu and his ministers are poor at communication. Bibi has never built an empathetic relationship with the Israeli people; he answers questions at set-piece press conferences and leaves without giving the impression that he's speaking to his fellow citizens.”
What’s more, Cohen argues in his book that Netanyahu “has rarely met expectations by sitting down with grieving, grieving relatives in the way that I have.”
COHEN: IT IS TIME FOR NETANYAHU TO STEP ASIDE
In public remarks after his book was published, Cohen went further.
“The defense establishment is responsible for its sector; you should have known, known how to thwart [the attack], and known how to defend the border when it collapsed,” he said last fall. “I was stunned. I think this is something unforgivable.”
There was a time last summer that Cohen publicly considered running for prime minister.
He has since concluded, including in his interview with ALL ISRAEL NEWS, that it is not his time to get directly involved in politics.
But that has not stopped Cohen from stating flat out that it is time for Netanyahu to step aside.
Last September, in a prime-time interview on Israel’s Channel 12, Cohen said in Hebrew that Israel needs “to move away from divisive factionalism and to talk about unity.”
But he argued that Netanyahu “can’t do that – he can’t unify what needs to be unified right now.”
During his many years in office, Netanyahu has done “many things out of a deep faith in Israel’s good,” Cohen acknowledges.
But he adds, “At this time, now, change is required.”
AS THE 2026 ELECTIONS APPROACH, IS COHEN SOFTENING HIS ASSESSMENT OF NETANYAHU?
I asked Cohen to assess how he thinks Netanyahu is doing politically, especially as we head into the 2026 Israeli elections.
After reading his book cover to cover, and tracking Cohen's sharp criticisms of Netanyahu in recent months, I was surprised that he did not repeat them with me on-camera.
Cohen insisted that he is not making a "proper criticism" of the prime minister.
Rather, he says, he is providing a candid "assessment" of Netanyahu's strengths and weaknesses, based on his ability to observe him in close quarters over so many years.
With me, Cohen did not call for Netanyahu to set aside for the good of the country and to bring healing and unity.
Rather, Cohen believes Bibi is likely to emerge from the next "brutal elections" with the largest party and will thus be in the driver's seat to put together yet another governing coalition.
Is Cohen softening his assessment of Bibi?
If so, why?
You be the judge.
Here is a partial transcript of our conversation, first broadcast last Thursday night on THE ROSENBERG REPORT on TBN.
YOSSI COHEN: He [Netanyahu] is not perfect. I think that he conducted a wonderful war from Oct. 7, and onwards. I mean, I think that the challenges that the State of Israel has faced, not only alone, but together with the Mossad, Shabak, IDF, I think that we've done beautifully. And that's under him. The things that I wrote in my book are not a proper criticism, because I do not intend to criticize.
ROSENBERG: It’s an assessment.
YOSSI COHEN: It's an assessment about who he is, I mean, to me, right? And I know who he is to me. And I know who I am, too. I mean, he knows about me, as well. And truly, we'd been professionally working beautifully together. I was very happy to be nominated by him as Deputy Director of the Mossad, and [then] head of the National Security Advisory Council, which is a huge job. And then [appointed] by him again and again and again. So, there is a lot of trust that had run between us. I trusted him. He trusted me. And that's the only thing I need. I mean, I was not looking for a new friend. And he wasn’t looking to have an ally, I mean, to play chess or whatever. And that's the way I saw him. That's the way I saw it. So, there was a very high level of appreciation to what he is and to what he did. Nevertheless, I think that the people of Israel will go again for another round of a very, very brutal elections. And he will run again. I assume I will not. And let's see what happens.
ROSENBERG: The corollary to that is you are somewhat, I would argue, unforgiving about everybody that was in charge of Israeli national security on Oct. 7.
YOSSI COHEN: Absolutely.
ROSENBERG: You just described – and I think rightly, I do – over the last two years, how he's handled the war since has been stellar. I mean, really, almost miraculously successful. But October 7th was the greatest stain on Israel, you know, probably in our modern history. And so that's a tension for voters who say, “Do we punish Netanyahu for his failures, not just alone, but he's the top of the food chain on October 7th, or do we reward him?”
YOSSI COHEN. Let’s wait and see. I mean, I don't read polls every day. But there are polls coming out every day. And according to the last one I saw during last weekend, the beginning of January 2026, you see that he is going to win the elections again. I'm not sure….
ROSENBERG: I see that his party is going to be the biggest, probably. But does he have a coalition winning?
YOSSI COHEN: I mean, okay, [having the biggest party] that's the kickstart for winning the elections. Then, some assume that he will not have enough coalition members to form the government. Let's wait and see.
Joel C. Rosenberg is the editor-in-chief of ALL ISRAEL NEWS and ALL ARAB NEWS and the President and CEO of Near East Media. A New York Times best-selling author, Middle East analyst, and Evangelical leader, he lives in Jerusalem with his wife and sons.
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