The Almonitor Middle East Newspaper interviewed Efraim Halevy who was chief of the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad.
The paper reports that Halevy is very respected man who served under 3 Israeli Prime Ministers and led the secret negotiations with Jordan’s King Hussein that made way for Israel’s historic 1994 peace treaty with that country.
In the interview, it becomes clear that Halevy thinks Romney is a liar who suffers from Romnesia:
Al-Monitor: Many observers believe there is a nuclear deal to be had. But it's very hard to do, to even talk to them. Do you think it's possible to narrow the huge gulf between the two sides?
Halevy: ... Negotiating with Iran is perceived as a sign of beginning to forsake Israel. That is where I think the basic difference is between Romney and Obama. What Romney is doing is mortally destroying any chance of a resolution without war. Therefore when [he recently] said, he doesn’t think there should be a war with Iran, this does not ring true. It is not consistent with other things he has said. […]
Halevy goes on to say that Romney's stated Foreign policy stance with Iran has dealt a heavy blow against the interests of America and Israel.
Halevy: Obama does think there is still room for negotiations. It’s a very courageous thing to say in this atmosphere.
In the end, this is what I think: Making foreign policy on Iran a serious issue in the US elections — what Romney has done, in itself — is a heavy blow to the ultimate interests of the United States and Israel.
It is not as if, if he wins the election, and gets into the White House, he can back up. The Iranians are listening attentively to what he says. When he says, he would arm the opposition in Iran. They understand.
Halevy says Romney has a Cold War mentality:
Al-Monitor: Are the Iranians paranoid the US policy is regime change, even as I don’t think for the Obama administration it is true?
Halevy: They are certainly convinced the policy [is regime change]. And that is not the only regime the US has problems with in the field of values. The regimes in Beijing, North Korea, Moscow […]
Romney has been very costly on Russia [...] If you want to create situation, where the only way to go about things is to go back to the Cold War, that is what is being done here. It’s very dangerous.
I don’t think the US public wants to go to another world war over values in this way. If it persists, it will be a slide down a very slippery slope.
It’s a question of concept. Where are we going in the 21st century? Are we going to try to propagate policies on the battlefields?
Halevy then infers Romney is full of crap when he said anyone would have called for Bin Laden to be killed.
Al-Monitor: Beyond the heated US campaign rhetoric, what do you make of the wider perception that, even though Obama has actually used force quite a bit, and successfully oversaw the operation that killed Osama bin Laden, that he is perceived, or mis-perceived, as not wanting to use force, and the US is seen therefore as weak.
Halevy: I think nobody who has been involved in ordering the use of force can forget the angst, the days and nights of concern, as to what and how it can be done.
Romney has said, Anybody could have decided to finish bin Laden. Even [Jimmy] Carter. This again was a mistaken concept. President Obama didn’t just decide [one day to kill bin Laden]. The operation to end the life of bin Laden necessitated multiple points of decision by him. I know from operations I have been involved with on a smaller scale.
They are very intricate. You don’t just give the order and wait in your office for commanders to come three months later and say it’s done. No. This kind of operation, which is accident prone, hands on operation, one has to make one decision after the other […] It took courage and cool headedness and leadership. Anyone who says it was an easy thing to decide, doesn’t understand what he’s talking about. [Such comments] show a total lack of understanding of what this kind of operation means.
Once I was in charge of an operation and Netanyahu was Prime Minister. One day, because of the intricacy of what we were doing, I talked to him 10 times on the phone […] Ten times. It was a Friday, a day I will not forget.
This kind of operation, every minute, an issue comes up, that sometimes requires a decision on the political level.
Halevy then implies that Romney is politicizing the 4 American deaths in Libya
Halevy: The Libya story, the way it’s being used, is a sordid manipulation. […]
Well, after reading this, it seems to me that serious thinkers around the Globe think Mitt Romney is a liar and a warmonger who has no idea what he talking about, and would have a Foreign Policy that would be a disaster in part because Romney has a Cold War mentality.