Israeli security leaks linked to Netanyahu's office 'could rival crimes of a mafia': report

JERUSALEM

Security breaches in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office could be comparable to mafia crimes, Israeli daily Haaretz said on Monday.

Netanyahu's office is suspected of trying to change the minutes of security cabinet meetings on Israel's brutal war in the Gaza Strip. His associates are also suspected of blackmailing a high-ranking officer in the military secretariat to gain access to the protocols.

The prime minister's office is also suspected that defense personnel extracted sensitive information from the army's computer systems in violation of the law and passed it on to Eli Feldstein, who served as a spokesman in Netanyahu's office.

“The little that has been published so far about the three cases linked to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office raises suspicions that the crimes committed are ones that could rival those of a mafia,” Haaretz said in an editorial.

“What was behind it was not the hunger for money, but for power.”

The Israeli newspaper said the three cases of information leaks were an attempt to “create a narrative that would serve the prime minister.”

Haaretz said the security leaks served to erase Netanyahu's responsibility for the Oct. 7 Hamas attack from the history books, to provide him with material to blame the defense establishment for the attack and to quell public protests against him.

It pointed out that the German newspaper had published an inaccurate report that anti-Netanyahu protests had strengthened the position of murdered Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar due to the manipulated information.

The Israeli newspaper called for investigations into the security leaks to continue to reveal the truth.

“We should not be under the illusion that this will be enough to defeat the pro-Netanyahu deep state that is working tirelessly to pin the blame for October 7 on the army, the Shin Bet intelligence agency and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.” , it said.

“And all of this is happening so that the man who led Israel for years straight to the catastrophe of October 7th – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – can escape the judgments of the criminal justice system, the public and history.”

The security breaches came as Israel continued its brutal offensive in Gaza since a Hamas attack last year that killed more than 43,600 people, mostly women and children, and left the enclave nearly uninhabitable.

Israel faces genocide proceedings at the International Court of Justice for its actions in the blockaded enclave.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio

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