Israel’s national security adviser quit after 14 months on the job.
Ilan Mizrahi, who heads the National Security Council, will step down in November, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office announced Monday.
“Mr. Mizrahi greatly contributed to upgrading the status of the NSC, and was involved in a series of measures designed to improve its abilities and its functioning,” Olmert’s office said in a statement.
Political sources said Mizrahi, a former Mossad deputy director, had tendered his resignation to protest what he saw as the NSC’s insufficient involvement in government planning.
Olmert’s decision-making has been under intense scrutiny since he was censured by the interim report of an Israeli commission of inquiry into last year’s Lebanon war. The Winograd Commission’s final report is expected in the coming weeks.
Mizrahi took over the NSC in June 2006. His predecessors, retired Gen. Giora Eiland and former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy, also left after relatively short tenures.
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