ISRAEL'S top military officers are so disillusioned with the policies of the hardline Prime Minister. Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, that there is a growing possibility of them staging a military coup, one of Israel's leading defence analysts warned yesterday.
In an interview that immediately became the subject of heated debate here, Prof Ze'ev Maoz, head of the Jaffee Centre for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, said that "all the essential, mutual trust between the political echelons and the arm has vanished."
While, a putsch was not necessarily immediately likely, he added, such an option was looking increasingly attractive to Israel's military chiefs.
Although other analysts derided the talk of a coup, none seriously quibbled led with the professor's depiction of a breakdown of trust between the Prime Minister and his military chiefs.
An expert on the ties between Israel's political leaders and the defence establishment, Prof Maoz, who enjoys extremely close links with many senior officers, painted a deeply unsettling picture of Mr Netanyahu's relationship with his key security chiefs.
The Prime Minister and his inner circle, the professor told the Ha'aretz newspaper in an interview, fundamentally mistrust men like Gen Amnon Shahak, the army chief of staff, and Mr Ami Ayalon, the head of the Shin Bet intelligence agency, because they were appointed by the previous Labour government and are perceived as supporting the Oslo accords.
"For the first time in the history of the state," said Prof Maoz, "the army feels that, for political reasons, it is not being given credibility."
Evidence to support Prof Maoz's claims came only last month, when Mr Netanyahu defied the advice of Mr Ayalon, and failed even to consult Gen Shahak in approving the opening of a new exit in the underground tunnel alongside Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Perhaps most worryingly for Israelis, Prof Maoz characterised the Prime Minister as being so uncompromising an ideologue that when given military assessments that do not conform to his world view, he blames the messenger rather than adjusting his vision.
The security forces, for instance, said Prof Maoz, are seriously concerned by the prospect of renewed conflict with the Palestinians, and by Syria's continuing mobilisation on Israel's northern border. (Indeed, the head of military intelligence, Mr Amos Gilad, told a Knesset committee earlier this week that Damascus was laying the groundwork for a possible military strike against Israel.)
Yet, the Prime Minister, according to Prof Maoz, was ignoring those concerns and remained convinced that there was no cause for alarm.
Since the analyses submitted to him by the security heads were not to his taste, he was relying instead "on the people in his office closest to him, who have a limited military background" - men like the extreme critic of the Oslo process. Mr David Bar Illan who serves as his media and policy planning adviser.
For its part, said Prof Maoz, the army was beginning "to question the ability of the politicians to correctly interpret situations, and thus to issue appropriate orders to the military". Under Israel's reformed electoral system, Mr Netanyahu, a directly elected Prime Minister, is less susceptible to coalition pressures than previous prime ministers and so the military chiefs have little room for manoeuvre.
"The army wants to see defence policies implemented that reflect its analyses," said Prof Maoz. Its officers, he went on, would prefer that changes in the government's direction be accomplished democratically, via parliament. If these changes are not, made. I'm not sure they'll immediately resort to a military putsch. But it's becoming increasingly attractive."
Gen Shahak, a self contained and widely respected army chief, was a close friend of the assassinated prime minister, Mr Yitzhak Rabin, and played a major role in negotiating the Oslo accords with the Palestinians. He scoffed at the talk of a coup yesterday, as he scoffed last month at reports that he was considering resignation.