These are the criminal allegations involving Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office

The Prime Minister’s Office building in Jerusalem

Josh Breiner, Bar Peleg and Michael Hauser Tov  report in Haaretz on 10 November 2024:

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office is currently the focus of three investigations concerning its conduct on matters related to the current war that raise suspicions of criminal activity.

The first probe regards the allegation that the PMO tried to amend minutes of official discussions held since the war erupted. The second involves one or more PMO officials who allegedly blackmailed an IDF officer to obtain access to sensitive documents. And the third probe, leading to the arrest of a former Netanyahu spokesperson, concerns the suspicion that the PMO leaked sensitive intelligence that may have seriously harmed national security. Here, we explain each affair in greater detail and how they are all directly or indirectly connected to one another.

What is the manipulation of the minutes affair?

For several months, the police have been investigating a suspicion that PMO officials tried to manipulate the minutes of cabinet discussions held during the war, as well as the transcripts of phone calls held by decision-makers, including Netanyahu, in the war’s first days.

On Sunday, Yediot Ahronot reported that changes were also allegedly made to the minutes of a cabinet discussion about Israel’s preparations for hearings at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. To date, no one has been questioned as a suspect in involvement in manipulating the minutes.

The suspicions arose after Netanyahu’s former military secretary, Avi Gil, contacted Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara over six months ago. According to a report in Yediot Ahronot, Gil did so after PMO officials alerted him that colleagues had tried to tamper with some of the minutes at the end of several classified meetings.

The PMO denied the report, calling it a “total lie, something that never happened.” At the time, people speaking on the prime minister’s behalf also claimed that “anyone familiar with the way things work knows that no such thing is possible.”

A year ago, Haaretz reported that Tzachi Braverman, Netanyahu’s chief of staff, requested from the cabinet secretary classified summaries of diplomatic-security cabinet meetings from the time of the current government as well as previous governments.

Braverman also asked the stenographers in the PMO to provide the bureau with the full minutes of the meetings. Some of the requested material was provided to Netanyahu’s office, but the PMO’s legal adviser, Shlomit Barnea-Farago, halted the transfer of the minutes because it violated government regulations, that state that ministers are not authorized to receive copies of cabinet meeting minutes.
Ministers may review them in the cabinet secretary’s office, but may not photocopy them. Top Justice Ministry officials were informed of the details.

What is the affair involving the reported blackmail of a senior IDF officer?

It was reported last week that IDF Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi was informed a few months ago that the PMO possessed personal material involving a senior officer in the military secretary’s office, who had worked with the PMO until recently.

The suspicion is being investigated that PMO officials blackmailed the officer to obtain and manipulate the minutes from the war’s first days. The PMO called the reports “another witch hunt against the PMO during wartime and the spreading of totally baseless lies.”

Is there a connection between the suspected tampering with minutes and the suspected blackmail?

Yes. There is a suspicion that people in the PMO blackmailed the senior officer who served in the military secretary’s office of the PMO in order to obtain access to the documents they allegedly wished to alter. These documents, including transcripts of conversations between Netanyahu and Gil from the morning of October 7, are kept in the military secretary’s office. The PMO staff were not supposed to be aware of their content at all.

What is the leaked information affair, and how is it related to the other suspicions?

Another suspicion currently being investigated is that sensitive intelligence was leaked from the IDF to the PMO and then provided to foreign media outlets. People within the defense establishment are suspected of having illegally extracted sensitive information from the IDF’s systems and given it to Eli Feldstein, who served as a spokesman in the PMO. This information is thought to have been manipulated and then made its way to the international media in a way that served the narrative of Netanyahu’s office.

Four people were arrested in the affair – Feldstein plus three unnamed people from the IDF Intelligence Branch security information department. While there is no direct connection among the affairs, the possibility is being investigated that a PMO employee is involved in several of them.

The suspicions against staffers from Netanyahu’s office in the three affairs ostensibly point to a pattern of attempted manipulation and use of sensitive information in order to create a narrative that serves the prime minister.

Is Netanyahu himself involved in the affairs?

At this stage, there is no evidence directly tying Netanyahu to the manipulation of the minutes or the blackmail of the officer. The same goes for the leaking of the sensitive security information.

This article is reproduced in its entirety