Ex-Mossad Chief Yatom Did Not Mention Merkava Weakness or Israel's End
The Claim
Danny Yatom is talking about vulnerability of Israeli Merkava Tank and predicting about the end of Israel.
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Emerging story
A recent story that is making the rounds on news websites and social media pages claims that Danny Yatom, the former head of Israeli intelligence services, has published an article in the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth in which he asks: “What is happening? Has the God of Moses and Aaron forsaken us? I don’t understand what is happening. The Merkava tank, the jewel of the Israeli industry which costs $170 million, is being scrapped off the face of the earth with Gazan homemade RPG missiles. I can’t believe it”.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar investigated the claim and it turned out to be fake.
Danny Yatom, the former Mossad chief, did not publish any articles wondering about the efficiency of the Israeli Merkava tank or talking about Israel’s nearing end.
Misbar reviewed the archives of the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, both in Hebrew and in English, but did not find any recent articles under the byline of Danny Yatom. The newspaper also did not report on any of his statements since 2021.
Yatom Criticizes Israeli Intelligence Handling of Al-Aqsa Flood
Misbar has otherwise reviewed Danny Yatom’s press statements about operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the following war, and found an interview he gave to the BBC radio on October 10, in which he criticized the handling of operation Al-Aqsa Flood by the Israeli army and intelligence services.
Yatom told the British radio’s Today program that “everything went wrong in dealing with Hamas’s attack. Not enough forces were deployed due to a failure of intelligence, which came on top of years of policies that had allowed Hamas to galvanize.”
“Nobody had any clue that on 6.30pm on Saturday, 50 years and one day after the total surprise that we were caught under in the Yom Kippur War, we would witness it again,” he added.
The Cost of Merkava
The emerging claim includes the figure $170 million as the cost of building a Merkava tank. This number is exaggerated and sensationalized. Last September, The Israeli Defense ministry unveiled the latest version of the new Barak tank, which is equipped with artificial intelligence, sensors and radar antennas, as well as small cameras.
The ministry told “Defense News” that Barak tanks, just like Merkava tanks, were developed by the Tanks and APC administration, locally known as “Mantak”, adding that its cost was similar to that of a Merkava M4 tank, which is about $3.5 million.
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