Bethan McKernan
The Guardian / November 7, 2024
Scandal about alleged disclosure of classified military information to two news outlets may yet widen
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is known to be both image-obsessed and anxious to stay in office, which he sees as the best way of avoiding prosecution for longstanding corruption charges, which he denies.
He has been accused, at home and abroad, of stalling on a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza to appease his far-right coalition partners, who could collapse his government. It is also alleged that the prime minister is willing to prolong and expand Israel’s military engagements in the region in order to put off accountability for the intelligence and security failures of 7 October 2023.
An alleged leak from his office of classified military information to two news outlets has so far led to five arrests because it may have harmed the chances of reaching a deal. The material appears to have been edited or manipulated to favour the prime minister’s stance on hostage talks.
How did all of this begin ?
In the summer, Netanyahu added a controversial demand in the hostage and ceasefire talks after a conditional framework had already been reached: that Israeli troops remain on the Gaza-Egypt border. The new ultimatum was met with some surprise by Israel’s security establishment, which did not consider it essential. It was rejected by Hamas, and the talks foundered.
Questions then swirled about two articles, one by the British newspaper the Jewish Chronicle and one by the German tabloid Bild, which were published within a day of each other in early September. The Jewish Chronicle story claimed, based on material discovered by the Israeli army in Gaza, that the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar planned to smuggle himself and Israeli hostages out of the strip through Egypt.
Bild’s report said Hamas documents found by Israeli forces showed the Palestinian militant group planned to drag out the talks as long as possible as a form of psychological warfare. Similar claims were made by an Israeli television channel earlier this year.
Then what happened ?
Worried that the articles’ publication would jeopardise intelligence gathering, the Israeli army launched an investigation into the leak. The Jewish Chronicle retracted its story after the IDF said it appeared to be fabricated, and cut ties with the freelancer who wrote it after concerns emerged about other articles he had contributed. Bild has stood by its reporting, saying that the IDF confirmed the material’s authenticity.
Both reports were met with scepticism in Israel, where it was noted that the points the articles made dovetailed with the prime minister’s own talking points at a time when he was under unprecedented pressure to agree to a deal after the discovery of six dead hostages in a tunnel in Rafah.
The hostages were killed shortly before Israeli troops found them, heightening doubts among the Israeli public that the remaining captives could be freed through rescue missions and military pressure, as Netanyahu insisted. He has also repeatedly argued that protesters advocating for a deal are “falling into Hamas’s trap”.
Why is the scandal coming to a head now ?
The affair has rocked Israel since Friday, after a court announced that five arrests had been made in the past week in a joint investigation by the police, internal security services and the army over a suspected “breach of national security caused by the unlawful provision of classified information”, which “harmed the achievement of Israel’s war aims” – that is, the release of the hostages.
The central suspect was named as Eliezer Feldstein, who the Israeli media said was hired as a spokesperson and media adviser in the prime minister’s office shortly after the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. The other four are soldiers serving in an intelligence unit tasked with preventing leaks, local media has reported, and one has since been released. Many details are still under a gag order.
Israel’s Channel 12 said on Monday that investigators believed that the theft of classified files from IDF databases, subsequently leaked to individuals in the prime minister’s office, was “systemic”, and the news reports in foreign outlets put the lives of soldiers and hostages in Gaza at risk.
What does Netanyahu say ?
The prime minister is not believed to be a suspect in the case and has distanced himself from Feldstein.
He has sought to play down the affair, calling for the gag order to be lifted in the interests of transparency. He has also played a favourite card: accusing the judiciary of bias by pointing out that dozens of other leaks related to ceasefire and hostage release negotiations had appeared in media reports without triggering investigations.
On Saturday Netanyahu denied any involvement in the leak, or wrongdoing on the part of his staff. Feldstein “never participated in security discussions, was not exposed to or received classified information, and did not take part in secret visits”, his office said.
What happens next ?
A partial gag order remains in place, meaning that details are likely to emerge slowly.
The scandal may yet widen. On Tuesday, a court cleared for publication the news that the Israeli police’s anti-corruption unit is conducting a criminal investigation related to events “from the beginning of the war”.
Again, a gag order has prevented the publication of much information, but the case is believed to centre on officials in the prime minister’s office allegedly attempting to alter cabinet meeting notes and transcripts of security briefings. Netanyahu’s office called the report “a complete lie”.
Bethan McKernan is Jerusalem correspondent for The Guardian
