Netanyahu claims his office is target of ‘organized witch hunt’

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed on Sunday that his office was the target of an “organized witch hunt”, amid scandals involving leaks of classified documents and accusations of attempted to blackmail a military official.

In a statement, Netanyahu said his office was facing a “frenzied and unrestrained attack” from the media aimed at “damaging the country’s leadership and undermining the country’s leadership.” We are weak in the midst of war.

“Suddenly, in recent days, in a timely and organized manner, they are trying to terrorize me and my people, in the midst of the war that I am leading – and they are creating scandals unexpectedly,” he said, dismissing media coverage of his office as “fake news.”

Mr. Netanyahu’s statement came as a number of scandals related to his office caused a stir in Israeli public opinion. One concerns an investigation being carried out by agencies including the Shin Bet internal security service into alleged leaks of classified documents to foreign media, in which a media adviser to Netanyahu and four soldiers were arrested.

The leaked information included in subsequent media reports exposing Hamas’s plans appeared to support Mr. Netanyahu’s view that the Palestinian militant group, not him, was the main obstacle to the settlement agreement. free the Israeli hostages the group is still holding in Gaza and end the war. .

Another case involved an alleged attempt to extort money from a military official. Earlier on Sunday, the prime minister’s office released a letter from lawyers for Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, threatening legal action against Israel’s public broadcaster after the station accused He was suspected of being involved in this conspiracy.

The letter from Braverman’s lawyers said that “not a single word” of the report was true and that it amounted to “‘fake news’ and egregious slander, along with wild hysteria during war”. Braverman also denied the allegations, describing them as “false” and “defamatory” and “intended to harm me and the Prime Minister’s Office in the midst of war”.

In his statement on Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu claimed that there had also been “floods of leaks” from other parts of the government — such as the security cabinet and the war cabinet — but these had not been law enforcement agencies investigated, even though he repeatedly requested it.

“They didn’t even check. Why? Because the goal is not to protect national security,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “The goal is to push an agenda of weakness and concessions in the middle of a war.”

The scandal involving the leak of classified information came to light earlier this month after a court partially lifted a gag order, with the presiding judge saying the leak could undermine their ability to Israel’s ability to secure the release of hostages still held by Hamas. Gaza.

The leak cites documents claiming that Hamas plans to divide Israeli society through propaganda efforts about the hostages. They also said that the militant group wanted to take the hostages to Egypt through tunnels under the so-called Philadelphia corridor, which separates Gaza from Egypt.

The story emerged in late August and early September when Netanyahu came under heavy pressure from mass street protests to accept an agreement to end the war and free the hostages. However, Netanyahu refused to give up control of the Philadelphia corridor, which many regional diplomats believe is what caused the negotiations to fail.

The Israeli military briefed reporters after stories were published saying the documents, written by a low-ranking Hamas official, were old and did not show military intelligence about Hamas’s strategy.