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‘Fake news’ behind criminal probes into PMO, says Netanyahu

The Israeli premier condemned as an "organized witch hunt" the "wild and unstoppable attacks" against his office in connection with leak and misconduct allegations.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a memorial ceremony at the Knesset in Jerusalem for the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, Oct. 28, 2024. Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a memorial ceremony at the Knesset in Jerusalem for the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, Oct. 28, 2024. Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday night slammed the “media’s fake news” as being responsible for the mounting probes into alleged misconduct by officials in his office.

“In recent days, my office has been subjected to wild and unstoppable attacks,” said Netanyahu, according to a statement from his office.

“While the government and Cabinet headed by me are working round-the-clock to repel the enemies who seek our destruction, to defeat our enemies, while I lead the war and fend off international attacks from various fronts, we are now facing an additional front—the media’s fake news,” he stated.

“Over the past days, in an orchestrated and well-timed manner, they are trying to threaten me and my people in the middle of a war that I am leading—and fabricate scandals out of thin air,” the statement continued.

“We know exactly what is going on here: It is an organized witch hunt designed to harm the country’s leadership and weaken us during a war,” Netanyahu charged, stressing that “the Israeli people know the truth.”

The premier emphasized that since the beginning of the war against Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, a “flood of criminal and serious leaks,” as well as “baseless lies and slander” have plagued his government.

“Hezbollah and Iran receive—sometimes even live—transcripts of our discussions regarding the methods of action against them and the debates among us,” he claimed. “Zero investigations were conducted regarding all of these. Zero. And this despite my repeated requests.

“They were not even checked—why? Because the goal is not to protect state security. The goal is to promote an agenda of weakness and concessions during a war,” he said.

Netanyahu’s remarks came in the wake of a Kan News report accusing his chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, of being the suspect in an investigation into alleged attempts to alter records of wartime government meetings.

The report by Israel’s public broadcaster claimed that Braverman had attempted to blackmail an Israel Defense Forces officer with a sensitive video recording obtained from security cameras in the PMO, and that other employees had been allowed to watch the clip.

“The severe claim that I hold some recording of an officer or that I tried to extort someone is false, as is [Kan‘s] Michael Shemesh’s defamatory report,” said Braverman in a PMO statement released on his behalf on Sunday.

Braverman called the report a “lie from start to finish,” threatened legal action if Kan did not remove the article and demanded a public apology and 100,000 shekels ($26,700) in damages for its publication.

Israel’s Channel 13 News reported on Saturday that the Israel Police had interrogated PMO officials in connection with allegations tied to the office.

Though Netanyahu himself has not been accused in any of the probes, he last week denounced the investigations as an “unprecedented campaign against the Prime Minister’s Office in the midst of a war.

“After a year in which there has been a flood of criminal leaks from security cabinet discussions and discussions regarding the hostages and the missing, which have provided our enemies with highly valuable intelligence, the only two investigations that have been opened are directed against the Prime Minister’s Office,” he said.

“As with the previous attempts to inflate accusations against the prime minister and those around him, the present matter will also not yield anything whatsoever, but will certainly lead to difficult questions regarding arbitrary enforcement, which lacks both precedent and foundation,” the statement continued.

On Nov. 5, the Israel Police announced that its Lahav 433 unit, which investigates corruption and organized crime, had launched a probe “related to events from the beginning of the war.” The Magistrates’ Court in Rishon Letzion issued a gag order on the details of the case.

Meanwhile, four Israel Defense Forces servicemembers and a former military spokesman for Netanyahu have been detained as part of a separate investigation into the alleged leaking by the PMO of classified documents concerning the 101 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.

Eli Feldstein, a former spokesman for military affairs in the PMO, is suspected of leaking documents obtained by the IDF that indicate the terrorist organization is not interested in a ceasefire deal and is only using truce talks to increase domestic pressure on the government.

The court extended Feldstein’s detention until Wednesday on Sunday while warning police that it would release the suspect to house arrest if the investigation is not completed by then.

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