Netanyahu slams media-led ‘witch hunt' against his office after latest investigation announced

In a video announcement to various social media platforms, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Israeli media of organizing a “witch hunt” against his office during the middle of a war, weakening the state of Israel. 

He described the media attacks as being “an additional front” in the war. 

“While the government and the cabinet, under my leadership, are working tirelessly to repel our enemies who seek our destruction, working relentlessly to bring about the defeat of our enemies, while I am managing a war and repelling international attacks from different arenas, we are now facing an additional front with increasing intensity – the fake news from the media,” Netanyahu said. 

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has been the focus of several recent investigations regarding improper handling of security documents, editing transcripts of official meetings, and even attempting to blackmail a senior military officer. 

Netanyahu called the allegations “a wild and unbridled attack.” 

Netanyahu released the video to his supporters several hours after accusations came out in Israeli media regarding his chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, who was accused of blackmailing a senior IDF officer engaged in an intimate relationship with a female staffer at the PMO, in an attempt to get the officer to edit the minutes of wartime meetings. 

According to Israeli Kan 11 and Channel 13 news reports, Braverman used both internal office videos and recordings from the female staffer’s phone to blackmail the officer. 

Following the report, Braverman released a statement denying the report. 

“This is a lie from start to finish, whose aim is to harm me and the Prime Minister’s Office in the middle of a war,” Braverman said, using a phrase that Netanyahu would also use several times in his own statement. 

Besides issuing a statement denying the report, Braverman also sent a letter to Kan, to journalist Michael Shemesh, and the network’s director general, Golan Yochpaz, demanding an apology and a retraction of the story, as well as NIS 100,000 (approximately $26,700) in damages. The letter said that Kan did not seek a statement from Braverman before reporting the story and threatened further legal action if the report was not retracted. 

In his video statement on Sunday night, Netanyahu spoke about “a flood of criminal and serious leaks,” which he said had “overwhelmed the State of Israel.” 

Netanyahu called it “a flood of leaks from the security cabinet, from the war cabinet at the time, a continuous tsunami of leaks from the negotiation team.” 

The leaks “provide critical information to Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas – information that endangers the state, endangers our fighters, and also endangers the return of our hostages,” the premier claimed, lamenting that “zero investigations were conducted regarding all of these [leaks], zero.”  

Netanyahu claimed the accusations of scandals against his government are “an organized witch hunt designed to undermine the country’s leadership and weaken us in the middle of a war.” 

However, he stated that he would not be deterred. 

“It won't deter me,” he continued. “I trust my people who are working night and day for the country. I am more determined than ever to make the right decisions for the security of Israel, and I am more determined than ever to lead us to total victory.”  

The prime minister has not been personally implicated in any of the recent investigations, however, political analysts believe he must have had some knowledge of the events.