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The former head of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad has delivered an extraordinary assault on Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s prime minister, saying his policies had left him fearing for the future of the state.

Meir Dagan accused Mr. Netanyahu of being more dangerous than Iran in a speech at a rally in advance of next week’s general election, which has seen the combative prime minister fighting for his political life.

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“Israel is a country surrounded by enemies, but the enemies do not scare me,” he said. “I am scared of our leadership, by the absence of vision and the loss of a path, the loss of determination. By the hesitance and the impasse.

“And above all, I am scared by the crisis of leadership, which is the worst there has ever been until today.”

Mr. Dagan, a veteran of the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War, momentarily stunned a crowd of more than 35,000 people in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square when he broke down in tears during his address.