Former Mossad head Yossi Cohen announced this evening (Monday) that he will not run for politics in the upcoming elections.
He said these words at the "Shorat Din" conference on the fight against anti-Semitism, which opened today at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York.
In response to the question of whether he intends to run in the elections expected to take place in a year, Cohen replied: "The answer is no. Not now. We'll see what happens later.".
He said, "When I was head of the Mossad, Prime Minister Netanyahu hinted that I was his successor. One day I went to him and asked if he really said that, and he said yes, and explained why. It was in 2018 or 2019 I think, and then my wife said: 'No, never. We're not getting into that.'".
""But I think everything changed dramatically after October 7, and new leadership is needed. So you can't rule out the possibility completely. I'm considering everything, but the decision now is no.".
Cohen's decision was made despite his recent declaration that in order to bring about change in the country, he is the man who needs to be Prime Minister.
Regarding the agreement to end the war, he said: "It's not the ideal agreement, but right now is the time for a ceasefire and it's a price that was worth paying for the release of the hostages. I don't think the US or other parties will prevent Israel from fighting terrorism in the future.".
On Qatar: "Israel should decide whether to sever all ties with Qatar after the return of all the dead hostages. We have no real relations with them, we only used them as intermediaries to transfer funds to Gaza, ostensibly for the benefit of the population, but in reality they ended up in Hamas. This was a mistake, intended for humanitarian aid, but ended up with the money funding terrorism.".
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