Israel's intelligence chief on Russia quits after letter to Netanyahu

JERUSALEM [MENL] -- The chief of what has been termed as Israel's second foreign intelligence service resigned on Sunday hours after publication of his letter which accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of abandoning Russian Jews.

Yaakov Kedmi, head of the Nativ service, a shadowy organization that operates in the former Soviet Union and collects data on Jewish communities there, resigned amid accusations that he joined in effort to defeat Netanyahu in May 17 elections. Netanyahu accepted Kedmi's resignation.

Israeli newspapers on Sunday published Kedmi's letter in which he accused Netanyahu of abandoning Russian immigrants. Sources in the prime minister's office said Kedmi was angry that his tenure in Nativ was ending.

"I very much hope that the resignation does not disrupt the activities of the office in Russia," Absorption Minister Yuli Edelstein told Israel Radio.

Edelstein said Netanyahu had resisted calls for Kedmi's dismissal and the dismantling of Nativ because the government did not want to hurt Israel's efforts to ensure the emigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union.

Russia had protested that Nativ was acting as an intelligence service and Israeli officials urged that the service be dismantled now that they have full diplomatic relations with Moscow.