Leaks show Netanyahu has been delaying any possibility of ceasefire
A court in Israel has removed a gag on some information from the leaks from Netanyahu’s office, and Israelis, the opposition, and the families of the captives are angry.
The leaks show that Netanyahu has been delaying any possibility of a ceasefire. These leaks include documents that are supposedly written by Sinwar himself, the former leader of Hamas, in which he instructed his fighters to not release the captives until Hamas gets what it wants.
In Israel, it has been revealed that those documents have been faked and they have been secretly leaked to a German newspaper without the knowledge of top officials in the Israeli government.
The military considers this a huge breach of state secrets because they say these documents originated from them and now, without their knowledge, they see them in the international press.
The military, opposition and families of hostages say Netanyahu should be held responsible for this breach of security. Netanyahu has always claimed that it’s Hamas that has been against the deal. But now Israelis are saying – no, it’s Netanyahu who has been against the deal and he has been orchestrating all of this to delay the ceasefire and keep the captives in Gaza.
Israel captives forum demands probe into secrets leak case
An Israeli group campaigning for the release of captives held in Gaza has called for an investigation into the alleged leak of confidential documents by an ex-aide to the prime minister, which may have undermined efforts to secure the captives’ release.
An Israeli court announced on Sunday that Eliezer Feldstein, a former aide to Benjamin Netanyahu, had been arrested with three others for allegedly leaking documents to foreign media.
The case has prompted the opposition to question whether Netanyahu was involved in the leak – an allegation denied by his office.
“The (captives’) families demand an investigation against all those suspected of sabotage and undermining state security,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement. “Such actions, especially during wartime, endanger the hostages, jeopardise their chances of return and abandon them to the risk of being killed by Hamas terrorists.
“The suspicions suggest that individuals associated with the prime minister acted to carry out one of the greatest frauds in the country’s history,” the forum added.
Netanyahu, a very bad decision-maker and a very good campaigner
Regarding the Israeli prime minister’s reaction to the leaks, Menachem Klein, professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University, has told Al Jazeera that Netanyahu’s strategy “is to distance himself from this affair”.
He has downplayed the leaks as “not a big deal”, explaining away that the assistant who leaked the information wasn’t under his wing or in his inner circle – rather, he was under the chief of staff.
“He’s a very bad decision-maker, a bad prime minister, but he’s a very good political campaigner and political survivor,” Klein said.
“He does many tricks to stay in power and his main means through which he shapes political opinion is the media. He was politically brought up in the US and he’s a Trump-style leader; the media is his main forum to shape public opinion.”
